Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

Content Warning: Everything by Akwaeke Emezi

17 reviews

imrereads's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective

4.5

Emezi is, as always, fiercly talented. Their pen is sharp, their imagery precise. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gore, Rape, and Self harm

nenaveenstra's review against another edition

3.0

I love Akwaeke Emezi's novel writing but this poetry collection wasn't exactly my thing. The poems heavily lean on Christian imagery and violence, and the content kind of overpowered the craft. That made these poems get repetitive, too, and it got hard to stay focused. Also, I did not love the long strings of text without punctuation.

But there were some poems I really liked, especially in the beginning of this collection, like "Folding for a cruel man", "Excommunication", and "Self-portrait as a cannibal". 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence, Violence, and Suicide attempt

Religious trauma

mxpringle's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Homophobia, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Transphobia

leadpal's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Rape, Self harm, Suicide, and Violence

serenspace's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Blood, and Grief

serendipitysbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

4.25

 Content Warning:Everything is a collection of poetry, much of which explores details of their life covered in their memoir and also their first novel. Seeing similar events and themes explored in different genres is intriguing. Emezi is an author whose books seem to always be in conversation with each other - each work part of a greater whole. Some poems impacted me more than others but the ones that hit, hit hard. One of the things that struck me about this collection was speculative type poems involving Biblical figures poems like What if Jesus was my Big Brother and What if Magdalene Seduced Me. While I won’t pretend I understood every poem I was captured by their raw power and emotion. Trauma and violence are definitely present - the title does not lie - but so too is resilience. I know many of us on Bookstagram gravitate to fiction far more than poetry. If you want to give contemporary poetry a try and have read some of Emezi’s previous work, particularly Freshwater and/or Dear Senthuran then I recommend giving this a go. Familiarity with those works will really help ease your way with a less familiar genre. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Mental illness, Self harm, and Sexual violence

catandherbooks's review

emotional reflective fast-paced

3.25

Poetry is still not my thing but I loved The Death of Vivek Oji and You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty so I wanted to read more of Emezi's body of work. Underlined more passages than I expected, didn't always understand or felt able to connect the writing (it's not them, it's me) but it felt raw and tender and oftentimes stunning. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Self harm

thatenbyisisreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

This book, especially the poem, "I was born in a great length of river", helped remind me that despite all of my trauma, I will never know what it's like to drown. Akwaeke Emezi is truly such an inspiring and powerful author, I highly recommend everyone to read their work! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship

starrysteph's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

4.25

beautiful. chilling.

CW: rape, self harm, suicide, child abuse, emotional & physical abuse, homophobia, transphobia, death, blood, violence, cannibalism, medical trauma

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Suicide, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, and Medical trauma

honeyvoiced's review

fast-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Medical content

Minor: Biphobia