Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

10 reviews

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Racism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Hate crime, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Domestic abuse, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Violence, Xenophobia, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Grief, Infidelity, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Rape, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Transphobia

Moderate: Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Ableism, Alcohol, Sexual violence, Torture, Incest, Alcoholism, Gaslighting, Islamophobia, Addiction, Body shaming, Colonisation, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Vomit, War, and Xenophobia

Minor: Antisemitism, Miscarriage, Animal death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Cancer, Confinement, Dementia, and Forced institutionalization

Incest warning is just in case, for an affair between in-laws.

bootrat's review against another edition

challenging reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Racism, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Slavery, Child death, Transphobia, Suicide, Miscarriage, Grief, and Misogyny

poenaestante's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Shoutout to the critic that shaded this play Misty by Arinze Kene by asking, "are tales of Black trauma catnip for paying audiences...riddled with white guilt?". I was looking for just the right words to explain why I hated Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo. There are other reasons, but this really captures the main one so beautifully. The book was also too long with too many characters.  I just simply stopped  caring.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual violence, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Miscarriage, Suicide, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Death, Classism, Rape, Violence, Sexual content, Racism, Homophobia, Confinement, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Sexism, Misogyny, Mental illness, Lesbophobia, Infidelity, Grief, Drug use, and Domestic abuse

camoo3032's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This is a collection of short stories about black women in England. The author covers a lot of topics including feminism, racism, homophobia, transphobia and domestic abuse. The book's format is a clever way of exploring these topics and I really enjoyed how it explored the change in society's acceptance of each of these issues over time. I also enjoyed how the grammatic style of the book allowed for more poetic moments.

There are a lot of characters so the book can feel like a bit of whirlwind, particularly in the first chapter, and some of the topics covered could've been discussed in more depth. Regardless, I still found this book very eye opening

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Rape, and Racism

Moderate: Abandonment, Physical abuse, and Sexual content

Minor: Homophobia, Classism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Murder, Transphobia, Vomit, Child death, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Cancer, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Slavery, Suicide, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, and Xenophobia

theheartisanarrow's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.5

wound up enjoying this one more once i switched to the audiobook bc the lack of punctuation and capitalisation (which i know was a choice and i kinda get it, but still) made it so hard for me to read.

it reads a bit like non-fiction in a good way, as these intertwined slice-of-life type short stories felt heart-wrenchingly authentic, like peering into the real lives and (often harsh) realities of so many people

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Child abuse, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Child death and Transphobia

Minor: Suicide and Self harm

s3lin's review against another edition

emotional reflective

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Lesbophobia, Racism, Rape, Toxic relationship, and Transphobia

Moderate: Child death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Islamophobia and Suicide

culown's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Abortion, Addiction, Alcohol, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Deadnaming, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Medical content, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Transphobia and Xenophobia

renjamin's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I read this book almost entirely in one day and I found the stories to be incredibly captivating. Evaristo has a way of drawing you into a book with so many characters that I was worried it would all feel lost and quite muddled but I couldn't have been more wrong.  My main critique of the book and the thing holding me back from giving this a five-star review is the way that it treats its trans characters. For a book called Girl, Woman, Other, I would've expected a much more nuanced perspective on trans issues. I felt like Morgans character development was rushed and I didn't appreciate the consistent use of the wrong pronouns for them even at points from their own perspective. I also really didn't like that so many of the queer women expressed terf like views that were barely challenged by the people around them even when they disagreed.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Deadnaming, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Grief, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Transphobia

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, and Miscarriage

Minor: Antisemitism, Eating disorder, Islamophobia, Mass/school shootings, and Police brutality

mfiegel's review

emotional funny hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Racism, Domestic abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Transphobia

Minor: Suicide

snowhitereads's review

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 

It took me a while but I finally finished Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo. 

Let me tell you… It was a ride.

It is one of the rare books that lives up to the hype.

I can definitely see why it earned the booker prize for 2019.

This book is made of layers upon layers and stories woven into other stories that in the end create a full picture.

The characters really do seem real and are incredibly well developed.

It spans numerous generations and socioeconomic backgrounds and it is truly diverse, not just in terms of ethnicity, gender identity or sexual orientation but also in terms of points of view.

It brings to the table problematic and controversial topics and opinions but it doesn’t shy away from demonstrating how discriminatory and extremist they can be . It discusses privilege and the many forms it can take and the hardships of immigrants.

One thing I really appreciated, although very hard to read about, was the portrayal of

Spoiler

an abusive wlw relationship

. It is an issue rarely talked about, but it’s a reality for many people so it’s important to bring awareness to that.

On a completely different note, I did not expect so much wlw content in this book. I don't even remember anyone mentioning it, it was a pleasant surprise for me, but I probably would have read it much sooner if i knew haha.

Cw: domestic violence, rape, racism, suicide, drug use, deadnaming, miscarriage, infedelity, toxic relationship, homophobia, transphobia, racial slurs 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Infidelity

Minor: Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Rape, Suicide, and Transphobia