Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head by Warsan Shire

7 reviews

crystalisreading's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad

5.0

Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head is beautifully raw and unflinching poetry. Absolutely haunting, and so gorgeous, especially as an audio book read by the author. War. Displacement. Violence. Life as a refugee. Loss after loss, and the resulting pain and addiction and trauma and abuse, the fracturing of family and relationships. The lyrical beauty of the poetry does not diminish its emotional potency.  There were scenes the author described that I couldn't get out of my head, and I had to read something else before I could fall asleep that night. Highly recommended, just take care to check the content warnings, because wow, there's a lot. 

Thank you to Random House and  #NetGalley for a chance to read an advance digital copy of the gorgeous #BlesstheDaughterRaisedbyaVoiceinHerHead 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and War

elyssajoh's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, and War

melhara's review against another edition

dark sad slow-paced

3.5

This was a very well-rounded collection of melancholic poems that deals with themes of immigration, abuse, racism, and numerous other dark and sad themes.

As with most poetry collections, there were some poems that stood out to me more than others, including Assimilation; Drowning in Dawson's Creek; My Father, The Astronaut; and, Bless This House.

Here's a passage from Assimilation:

The refugee's heart often grows
an outer layer. An assimilation.
It cocoons the organ. Those unable to grow the extra skin
die within the first six months in a host country.

As much as I like listening to poetry via audiobook or reading it via ebook, I did have some difficulty navigating between the glossary at the end of the book and the poems (as there are many Somali words included in the poems).

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Physical abuse, and Racism

faduma's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Colonisation, War, and Classism

venetiana's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Eating disorder, Hate crime, Racism, Rape, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Abortion, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, and Deportation

sharonus's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Physical abuse, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Grief, and War

Minor: Suicide, Abortion, and Suicide attempt

readingwithk's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional fast-paced

5.0

A super powerful collection about war, being a refugee, abuse, and family.

My favorite poems were: “Home”; “Backwards”; “Bless this house”

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Genocide, Physical abuse, and War