Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

Born A Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah

4 reviews

lanayagraham's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

This is an absolute MUST READ. It was honest, funny, hearbreaking, interesting and easy to read.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Excrement, Grief, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism

clarabooksit's review against another edition

funny inspiring reflective fast-paced

3.5

This is good—not as good as the hype claims, but enjoyable. If you like Noah’s comedy and especially his delivery style, you’ll like this.

Noah is clever, nerdy and funny and this memoir showcases that. His love of South Africa, where he came from and his mother are apparent on every page, even as he’a cracking jokes about them. I especially enjoyed learning a lot about South Africa.

Where the book let me down is in its lack of emotional resonance. That and it was very obviously written for a U.S. American audience, which felt confining even if I’m a part of that audience.

Noah has lived a fascinating life full of sticky, incredible and awful moments, but his voice remains distant like the person at a party who tells wild and traumatic stories for laughs without registering how deeply personal they are. While there’s a great deal of reflection in the book, it all felt anecdotal to me. The format of the book also makes every story feel like a lesson and that didn’t quite work for me.

To be fair, that may be more of a reflection on me than the book. I did like it: it’s zippy, I learned a lot, it made me laugh and at the very end, it made me cry. But it didn’t thrill me. Would still recommend.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Drug use, Slavery, Excrement, Police brutality, Medical content, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Animal cruelty and Rape

sabrina_d_arcy's review against another edition

emotional funny informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Genocide, Excrement, Antisemitism, Kidnapping, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

remy_licked_my_book's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny informative inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

5.0

This is hands down the best book I've read this year. This book should be read by everyone. I loved that it was a mix of personal stories of growing up in apartheid south Africa as well as the history of apartheid. This is truly an homage to Trevor's incredibly resilient mother who raises him as a single mom for a lot of his life. Trevor presents the facts without it feeling too traumatic. What I mean is that he manages to tell these stories in a way that make it so anyone can read it without becoming too triggered by anything.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Police brutality