Reviews tagging 'Death'

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo

16 reviews

darby15's review against another edition

emotional funny 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Gore, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Colonisation

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Genocide, Gun violence, Incest, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Police brutality, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, and War

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Vomit, and Mass/school shootings

tagrace's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark reflective sad

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

3.5

Definitely an interesting read. I liked the lyrical descriptions and the really distributive voice of the writing. And at its best, the book grappled with complex ideas about home, immigration and living in a place best known for its problems. It was refreshing to see a more nuanced but not sanitized depiction of Zimbabwe. That being said, I also struggled sometimes with the book because it's not really plot driven and there's not really a definitive or clear character arc, so it lacked some traditional hooks for me as a reader. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Sexual assault, Violence, and Abortion

luananki's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

i fell in love with darling the minute i met her. i loved reading her thoughts on everything that was happening around her and how she took it in. 
good read, as long as you keep the trigger warnings in mind, i’m glad i picked it up

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, and Sexual content

Moderate: Addiction, Body shaming, Eating disorder, and Abortion

Minor: Child death and Fatphobia

literaryliaisons's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Excrement, Dementia, Grief, Pregnancy, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Abortion, and Alcohol

Minor: Mass/school shootings

mmatti300's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

I read this book for school, so it's a little difficult for me to fully rate this book as I think I may have enjoyed certain pieces of it more if I wasn't coming at it from a purely analytical standpoint. At first, the lack of quotation marks bothered me as it seemed to make the story a little bit more confusing than it needed to be, but I actually think this was a really interesting choice by Bulawayo to make the text read more like an oration than a novel. I do think it was an extremely thought provoking and enriching text and am excited to discuss it with my class as I think they will provide some interesting perspectives. However, I felt like Bulawayo almost did too much for how short the novel was. This book is only 292 pages, with relatively big font, and yet she tackles:

coat hanger abortions, AIDS, ineffectiveness of NGOs, Starvation, class conflict post decolonization, anorexia in America, overeating in America (in a way that I found almost extremely fat phobic/ said in a way that was unnecessarily derogative), difficulty of immigration, depression, joining the army, family asking for money, porn addictions from a young age, teen angst, the list goes on

This was probably not actually spoilers, but just in case. I think that these were important things to tackle, especially in the context of immigration and Zimababwean culture, but it also felt way too rushed for me and like I didn't get a second to process what she was saying before another thing came at me. Perhaps this was on purpose, but it really took me out of the story and made me really hate the main character, Darling, who we want to connect with and love at least in the beginning. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Eating disorder, Genocide, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Abortion, and Death of parent

Minor: Fatphobia

cclardo's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Body shaming, and Fatphobia

Minor: Child death, Death, Mental illness, and Suicide