Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo

4 reviews

marywahlmeierbracciano's review against another edition

challenging medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.75

This is quite a provocative book.  It is narrated by Darling, who, throughout most of the book, is a tween living in a Zimbabwe slum in the 2000s, having been displaced from her modest home by paramilitary violence.  She and her friends process their reality through play and antics, which include the game “Find bin Laden,” a reenactment of a community member’s murder, and a near-attempt at a coat hanger abortion.  When Darling moves in with her aunt in America, she discovers that many cultural differences cannot be translated and yearns for her beloved homeland, to which she cannot return, lest she be trapped.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Religious bigotry, Animal cruelty, Fatphobia, Racism, Animal death, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Medical trauma, Incest, Grief, Xenophobia, Murder, Infidelity, Colonisation, Abortion, Rape, Police brutality, Violence, Pregnancy, Pedophilia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Misogyny, and Alcoholism

Minor: Transphobia, Abandonment, Suicide, Child death, Bullying, and Death of parent

ollie_again's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Violence, Racism, Death, Death of parent, Religious bigotry, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Child abuse, Vomit, Rape, Police brutality, Animal cruelty, and Pregnancy

Minor: Pedophilia, Suicide attempt, and Eating disorder

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

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

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Vomit, and 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:

Spoiler

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

Minor: Fatphobia