Reviews tagging 'Mass/school shootings'

Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo

6 reviews

notthatcosta's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

As a fan of Animal Farm I found myself invested very early into picking this book up. In the same way as the former, the use of animals (animalisation?) initially disarmed me and gave me some levity before the multiple, inevitable emotional gut punches that were to come.

I found this book to be immaculately paced and immaculately executed, most notably in the inclusion of social media, that I rarely seen done successfully in any form of media.

It’s cliche but this is the kind of book I would love to see rolled out in schools like mine, where the majority of the students descended from former colonies who will recognise Jidada and its inhabitants in their family members.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and War

kammikim's review against another edition

challenging dark inspiring slow-paced

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

4.0

This is a powerful book - in voice, in story, in style, in message. I found it challenging on multiple levels, and consequently slow to get through. That said, I think it's a deeply profound and important book and I'm glad I did eventually see it through to the end. The imagery, emotion, originality, and storytelling were truly inspiring to me. It's an inventive and compelling satire from a clear, confident, and compelling voice.

The challenges:
1. The unique style of narration is no doubt intentional and I think meant to represent oral traditions of storytelling, while also making a point about the repetitiveness of history, but the constantly repeating phrases and sentence structures did make for a sluggish or exasperating read at times. Some places it added power to the story, others it took away from the power and momentum in my opinion.
2. The violence in this book is necessary to the story, but it is truly difficult to get through. I ended some chapters sobbing and had to step away from the book for a month+ at a time to process and recover. It's a testament to Bulawayo's incredible command of emotion, empathy, and unflinching attention to the worst sides of humanity that it had such a visceral effect on me as a reader, but be aware that this is a really, really tough read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Genocide, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

sharpenedknives's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative inspiring tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Rape, Sexual violence, Police brutality, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and Classism

Minor: War

olivialambert97's review against another edition

challenging dark funny hopeful informative reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

 Powerful and poetically written

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Rape, Violence, and War

differentsisters's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.5

 I see what the author was trying to do. Once I got use to the inclusion of Zimbabwean dialect, the book was readable. What became tiring was the heavy heavy use of repetition (a whole page of just the word take). I could see why some uses of repetition was used, but it became tiresome and felt like an editor needed to cut at least a hundred pages of repetition. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Murder, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, and Classism

wy_woman's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, and Police brutality

Moderate: Gore, Gun violence, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Mass/school shootings, and Murder

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Vomit, and War