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fenouil's review
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Death, Racism, and Blood
Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Police brutality, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Classism
schnaucl's review against another edition
- 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? N/A
3.0
I can't decide if it's not for me (in the sense that I'm not the intended audience), which is obviously fine but might be why I struggled with it.
It's very disjointed. Purposely so, I think. There are a lot of characters, who nearly all have their own backstories. I often found myself really interested in a backstory about the time the backstory was wrapping up.
The book had a lot to say about race and class and gentrification and the last season in particular is very bleak.
Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug use, Racial slurs, Racism, Terminal illness, Blood, Police brutality, Murder, and Classism
lj_sophia's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Racial slurs, Police brutality, Colonisation, and Classism
Minor: Sexual assault
rorikae's review against another edition
- 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
4.25
The story weaves between different characters who live on or are visiting Earth. Those with money have left earth for the Colony, leaving behind a world that is plagued by poor air quality, housing inequality, and police violence. Through snippets of these characters' lives paired with occasional articles and recordings, Oneyebuchi demonstrates how venturing into the stars is for those who are wealthy and white while those who have historically been abused by systems continue to be hurt on what remains of Earth.
Oneybuchi paints a future that is keenly connected to our present and feels that way. By focusing on the characters and their lived experiences, he distills systemic horrors down to the people that it directly affects, making those horrors even more apparent. Despite this story being informed by space travel, we very rarely see any of the characters in the colonies. This story is about those that the world has left behind and failed to care for. The characters and their lives are painted in stark but human strokes using Onyebuchi's evocative prose. It feels as if one has been plopped down in this world and is walking around in it, especially as he showcases the small human moments that make up lived experiences.
I believe this is a book that should be read by a book club that can reflect on and dissect all that Onyebuchi is doing. This should definitely be taught in schools as it discusses a lot about our current lives while exploring how these problems could only grow worse in this possible future.
Graphic: Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, Colonisation, and Classism
lizzie24601's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
The book is mostly comprised of descriptions of the characters' backstories or everyday life, maybe with some overarching goal going on (ex. Jonathan setting up his house or the kids from Bishop's work crew capturing the horses). The pacing is extremely slow and the jumping around in time and between characters is very confusing.
There is no plot and even very little dialogue. Honestly, the few scenes where there is dialogue feel like scenes in a play, where we're either dropped in in the middle of a conversation about nothing in particular, or one character is giving a long-winded monologue. Maybe this would've been better as a play.
Onyebuchi is definitely a skillful writer and his thesis comes through loud and clear as an important and underrepresented message, but this book will give you a headache well before reaching the end.
Graphic: Racism and Classism
Moderate: Addiction and Chronic illness
Minor: Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Police brutality, Dementia, Grief, and Death of parent
albernikolauras's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
5.0
This is a book to sit and chew on and reread and sit and chew on some more. There are so many tightly packed themes and moments and reveals in this fairly short novel. Onyebuchi's character-building and emphasis on physical constructs of themes are the star of this book. The world-building was a little weaker and there were definitely some holes that can be found in what caused the mass exodus. There's not enough space to describe the themes in detail, but there is so much depth in his main themes - environmental racism, incarceration, gentrification & colonization of space, white "saviors," and the construction and destruction of community.
In short, read this book. Give it time to meld and grow with you. It is a book that might require a lot of research, but it is a work of art. The acknowledgements also provide many excellent resources to read nonfiction about some of the themes this book was based on.
Graphic: Racism, Police brutality, and Grief
Moderate: Gun violence, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation
jo_lzr's review against another edition
- 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
4.25
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, and Infidelity
Minor: Rape
jennikreads's review against another edition
3.75
Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, and Classism
jackelz's review
Graphic: Drug abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Murder, and Classism
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Child death
Minor: Child abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment
laurareads87's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Goliath is a non-linear multi-POV novel that follows a range of characters living in the 2050s; Earth is heavily polluted, and many of the wealthy have departed to space stations where they continue to extract resources from the planet they poisoned. Those still living on Earth navigate imposed resource scarcity, illnesses caused by pollution, and precarious infrastructure. Goliath critically engages with racism (including environmental racism), economic exploitation, police violence, and climate crisis, and in these respects it can be a challenging read, but it is far from all despair: there is joy here, humour, community. I suspect Goliath will be one of the absolute best standout sci-fi works of the year -- highly, highly recommend.
Graphic: Drug abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Murder, and Classism
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Child death
Minor: Child abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment