Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw

35 reviews

ingridreadss's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment

nad_books623's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad medium-paced

• 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

4.0

I did not like how the last story was written but I liked the idea. Each story had something that I could relate to or that I knew a family member could relate to.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Sexual content, and Lesbophobia

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Child death and Grief

apaudioreads's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.25

This was the first set of short stories. I have read in a while, and the first that I had culturally identified with in a long time. These are the stories of our mothers and grandmothers and aunts. There is a sense of familiarity and a sense of sadness that comes with a familiarity. Stories about women in love you still desire to fit into socially acceptable, sexual orientation so they may be cast out by the only families they've ever known. Stories of women already cast out by the loved ones in favor of new lives in different spaces with people they want to build families with. And stories of little girls they grow up too fast and the families that didn't protect them from the men who would eventually meet unfortunate ends. No matter who you are if you've grown up black or southern or both you have found yourself in one of these stories in ways that may hurt so guard yourself as you must. But also in ways that you may feel comforted by. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Dementia, Abortion, and Death of parent

axel_p's review against another edition

challenging emotional medium-paced

• 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Dementia, Abortion, Death of parent, and Alcohol

grandpas_farts's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

This short story collect kept getting so much buzz. The buzzing finally became loud enough I took a bite. Happy I did! This book may be titled Secret Lives of Church Ladies, but scripture doesn't really play into the stories. This is not a "preachy" book and more of a cup of tea.

In each short story we explore the lives of various women, throughout various decades, places, life stages, and situations of life. Anyone who has grown up in/around church culture will know some of the people in a few of these stories. This collection shines a light on what happens when the gossipers hang their laundry out to dry. He who is without sin and all of that!

My favorite short story was "Instructions for Married Christian Husbands" because it connected to "Peach Cobbler". Here we have a daughter (did we ever get her name), that never wanted to turn into her mother. As we see from the article or Facebook post, whatever it is she made, she has ultimately turned into... her mother.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Pedophilia, and Dementia

Minor: Cancer, Child death, Abortion, Death of parent, and Lesbophobia

clarabooksit's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

• 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, and Lesbophobia

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Grief, and Abandonment

Minor: Bullying, Death, Violence, Abortion, Death of parent, and Murder

felishacb's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Miscarriage, Dementia, Abortion, and Alcohol

alexisgarcia's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

i didn’t think i could ever give a story collection 5 stars. this collection had absolutely no misses, a few were better than others, but none were even close to bad. i loved loved this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Dementia, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Classism

sashawins's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

• 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? No

5.0

📚Book Review📚

Rate: 4.5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/5

🎵songs for book

"I hate you so much right now" Kelis

" I want you " Ciara

"Giving you the best that I got" Anita Baker

" Rich spirit" Kendrick Lamar

📚 Quotes

" Mother's raise their daughters and love their sons."

" You can't save me, I am not in peril."

" Friendship is not the same as history, just as bone is not the same as marrow"

📚 Review

Packed full of short stories that left me in reflection mood. Dessha Philyaw as a way to pull you in viscerally to each story. I laughed out loud, I cringed, shook my head, and my heart ache for majority of the characters.

Discuss themes of childhood trauma, love, friendship, death & grief, fear, daughter & mother dynamics, male predators, sexuality, self love,  colorismand how the Black church can cause harm. 

📚Favorite Stories:

●" When Eddie Levart Comes"

●" Instructions for married Christian Husbands"

●" Eula"

●"Peach clobber"

●"Jael"

📚 When Eddie Levart Comes--

I want to focus on the quote, " Mother's raise daughters and love their sons" as seen in the story When Eddie Levart Comes, in this story --Daughter cares for her mom who has dementia.  She cares for her mom 24/7 even though there is unresolved issues. Daughter still seeks the love of her mother she never received as a child. She does her best caring for her mother's needs even though her mother doesn't recognize her. Her babt bother, Rico, though hardly there, is the apple of his mommas eye--she recognized him with no issues.

I truly felt sad for Daughter-- not only did she need a true vacatio from caregiver role, she needed therapy for this childhood traumas.

What I learned from this story is to speak and pure love into your children. Childhood trauma is real and have lasting effects in adulthood❤️.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Death of parent

gabichatslit's review against another edition

5.0

A really amazing collection of short stories that find black women of various ages grappling with the desires of their heart and the ways they come up against their faith practice/beliefs, and the teachings of the church. I was blown away by the poetics of Philyaw’s prose. How melodic some of these stories read. Also the way I was mindblown by the connection between ‘Peach Cobbler’ and ‘Instructions for Married Christian Husbands.’ The characters in these tales felt so real. My favorites include the two aforementioned stories, as well as Not-Daniel, Dear Sister, and How to Make Love to a Physicist. I’m really excited to read what Philyaw releases next, she is a wordsmith. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Death, Homophobia, Infidelity, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent