Reviews with content warning for Misogyny - Honor

Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Honor by Thrity Umrigar

59 reviews

thefluffyowl's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Couldn’t put this one down, breathtaking and powerful…read with tissues

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jaelynna's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I’m almost speechless after this book. Thrity Umrigar beautifully captured the story of Meena and those who fought to help and bring her justice. To restore honor to her life. This is 100% in my top 5 books of all time — the emotions it brought are hard to shake.

I naively believed this book to take on the “privileged savior” approached and was gut wrenched at the reality of this story - Meena was doomed from the start all because she loved.

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sushmita_reads's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Despite its dark subject matter (gender violence), I found it very difficult to put down. I found the characters flawed but well-written and engaging, the plot moved at a reasonable pace. The whole story felt deeply human. And being part of the Indian diaspora, I related to parts of the main character. The feeling of being responsible for India's struggles, relief and gratitude for being brought up in the Global North and grief at what culture I've lost.

Like others, I was a bit confused by Smita's choice to stay in India. Considering how much trauma she'd suffered and seen. But I think a) she decided to extend her stay by 3 months not forever and b) it wasn't just Mohan but also the promise she made to Meena. I know it's fiction but would've been nice to see at least a convo or two about Abru's future. Consistency and routine is so important, the child's life felt like a plot point rather than an important consideration. The trauma of uprooting her or abandoning her after forming a bond etc.

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criticalgayze's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

3.0

This was the first book from my 30 before 30 list, a project I curated by getting 30 book recommendations from friends to read before my 30th birthday coming up this December.

I will start with the lessons I learned from this book that I hope to carry into my 30s:

Standing up for yourself and your needs is always the right decision
It is never inconvenient to build and maintain community

Now, for my actual review:

If the book had been just the first 2/3s of the final text, I would maybe have given it somewhere between 3.5 and 4 stars. Like many Reese picks, it was a little on the nose with its themes and values, but it was intense and emotionally affecting in the way it seemed to want to be. I did feel like it was still largely westernized in its lens, but I thought that was fine, especially as the author has similar cultural connections from my understanding.

The book started to lose me when Smita suddenly realized, seemingly out of nowhere, that she was starting to love India again, despite having had no positive experiences other than her budding relationship with Mohan. When a book struggles that bad with setting up where it wants to go, I know it is going to lose me. But even then, I didn't think I'd fall off as bad as I did.

This book lost me completely after Meena's death.

The book does a little grappling with the traumatic fallout of this event, but it then makes a pretty abrupt tonal shift into romance in a way that almost felt offensive. Besides the presence of Abru, the book departs from the social justice story that had been the spine of its first 2/3s in a way that felt like Meena's trauma was just a way to bring Mohan and Smita together.

I also found it interesting that Smita never resolves the truth of her work with her father, who is dropped fairly quickly after the "revelation" at the start of Book Two.

This, combined with Daisy Jones and Crawdads, confirms for me that I am probably not the reader for Reese's literary fiction picks. We'll just have to agree to disagree there.

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aayaannaa's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-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

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smoxen's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective medium-paced

3.0

This book is undeniably well written. It’s important and a stark reminder of the horrors that still happen in the world because of intolerance, hate, and a misguided sense of pride/honor. But it was hard to read. At least one part made my cry and I had to put it away for several days about 75% of the way through it because I needed a break from it, both of which are out of the norm for me. The ending was hopeful, but it fell a little flat to me. Was that hope earned? Maybe. I’m not sure why this novel affected me so strongly but it did.

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