Reviews

Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir by Akwaeke Emezi

augur01's review

Just wasn't feeling it.

moorea's review against another edition

This was so poignant, painful, powerful, incredible. It doesn’t feel quite right to rate so I won’t. Wow just wow

readergrace's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful fast-paced

5.0

lmf0906's review

emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

3.5

thecatconstellation's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

4.25

danijlalu's review against another edition

5.0

noting my favorite chapters: Masks/Dear Maki, Worldbending/Dear Kathleen, Gore/Dear Senthuran, Nonexistent/Dear Ann, Pain/Dear Daniel, Undefeated/Dear Kanninchen

nikki_silk's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

5.0

sendlasagna's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced

4.0

This may not be useful as a book review. It’s notes for my reference.

1. parts of Nowhere ("nomad" and not nearly that)
2. parts of Fire ("I thought everyone")
3. parts of Mutilation (that doctors can't believe you don't want breasts) 
4. nothing from Execution (on writing). That surprises me. 
5. Deathspace. Good writing of complication (29). You know when you connect not only on events and tenor, but also on word choice? Yeahhh
6. nothing from Masks, which is hilarious 
7. enjoyed the images in Propogation 
8. parts of Canon, for the sense of marvel at "worlds eating worlds, all made by words."
9. not sure if I can ever enjoy Deity  
10. Training ⭐ made me call my mom
11. gentle yes to Worldbending ("too certain for the crowd"). What kind if confidence do they like from us?
12. yes to Maps. Toni Morrison: "I stood at the border, stood at the edge, and claimed it as central. Claimed it as central and let the rest of the world move over to where I was." 
13. Muse (lonely, violent men). Not relevant to me but I completely agree with this. Emezi describes and changes tack in a sentence exactly as I do. 
14. the first two pages of Gore
15. Money - love the storytelling and transparency and camaraderie 
    1. MFA --> Miles Morland scholarship 
    2. 10K non-negotiable offer for Freshwater 
    3. "Maybe if I didn't insist on walking everywhere aflame." 
    4. 2017, Commonwealth writers in Singapore
    5. 40K for Pet to friend Chris Myers 
    6. people knew Freshwater would succeed x people not knowing how to market it x photo by Annie Leibovitz for Vogue before first book x no counter and negotiation to the 10k 
    7. started bidding at 100K for Vivek Oji
16. Shiny, on other people not understanding a house is for belonging so discussions of its resale value do not make sense 
17. skipped Desire, Holy, Anointing, Impermanence 
18. entirety of Pain, which saddles up alongside me in a sort of quiet understanding like the first few chapters did (an old memory now!) and nothing in the middle quite came close to. 
19. Glory, on how protecting transness includes accepting that conventional rewards will never be given to us, and how that fucking sucks because we entirely deserve the recognition
20. Undefeated -- incredibly accurate, but has a structure problem of concentric ballooning that I know because I also have the same problem in my work
21. Grief, I've said these exact words + wanting someone who won't protect you + "I don't have time for mourning, but my God, how mourning makes time for me." 
22. Resurrection, yep exactly. 
23. Masks, where I find out that the name I was mispronouncing for Emezi earlier is one of their chosen names
24. Guard (“spent most of my life watching the world try to convince me that it’s not doing anything to me”)

Non-chapter 

1. Very hard to see this book as a book, when it appears more to resemble that text thread you have with a friend where you both understand yourself and the universe, adding to the bank every week. 
2. Also a very lonely 300 pages. 
3. "A colorful cloud of slashed tulle falls from the ceilings" (40) <3 
4. At first nothing connected. Then everything else did a little too well-- like a ball punctured and pulled back over the rump round. It is not so fun to read the poetry and these letters at the same time, and some editorial spacing/re-arranging could have made the middle more connective. 
5. very good font for this page texture. the full stops are little stars! 
6. "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderlay again." <3 
7. letters to Nonso are usually :)
8. For a knot of reasons, this book is not good for me to read. 
9. The heavy use of "are", which implies a heavy use of "you (are)". 

lmblue's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

speranta's review against another edition

I don't know how I feel about this book. But it helps to better understand the place from which Emezi's works come from.