Reviews tagging 'Racism'

If They Come for Us by Fatimah Asghar

16 reviews

yinflower's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Islamophobia, Racism, Xenophobia, Violence, Death of parent, and War

bibliorama's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective fast-paced

4.0

How do you review a poem or a book of poems? I have no idea.

I don't read enough poetry to feel like I could give a decent review, so take my star rating with a grain of salt.

I liked many of the poems in this collection. The standouts to me were "Kal" "Partition, 1945: my grandfather steps off a train in Jammu & Kashmir" "How we left: Film Treatment" and "Other Body"

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Grief, Murder, Xenophobia, Blood, Bullying, Racism, Sexual content, War, Body shaming, Child death, Hate crime, and Islamophobia

lingfish7's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

📖This collection of poetry is deep, melancholy, and reflective. This is the first poetry book I’ve read that centers on the Pakistan India partition. The partition was a brutal time in the 1940’s that tore India into two countries based off culture and religion (Pakistani Muslims and Indian Hindus). Every Pakistani family has a partition story, and Fatimah’s poetry is such a beautiful way to process that collective, generational trauma. The partition is such an important world event that every person and culture should learn about and this poetry book is a powerful introduction to beginners. 

🏳️‍🌈Since publishing this poetry book, Fatimah now identifies as non-binary and so this was a perfect poetry book club read for pride month. Fatimah has a poem in this collection called “Other body” that specifically talks about gender nonconformity. Thanks to @jenny for choosing this book for our poetry club. It was such a deep and informative read!

🌻Note: For fans of Rupi Kuar (author of the sun and her flowers), this book reminded me of her poetry collections in many ways, including topics and tone.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Violence, War, and Xenophobia

seawarrior's review against another edition

5.0

This is a brilliant collection of poetry that is both well-written and accessible to those who are less familiar with the form and how emotions are expressed through it. Asghar speaks both about herself and to the reader, inviting us to process her emotions and understand her perspective with honesty and vulnerability. I highly recommend this collection to other readers curious in experiencing the strength and beauty of poetry. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, and Islamophobia

Moderate: Misogyny, Sexual assault, and Death of parent

the_vegan_bookworm's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

3.75

A beautiful, personal poetry collection from Fatimah Asghar. The emotion and vulnerability was so present throughout, and it was a really great read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Islamophobia, and Racism

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual violence

doomluz's review

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

Beautiful and powerful. I didn't know much about the Partition of Pakistan and India. Asghar mentions it and how it still affects people. They also talk about their sexuality and gender. Also about being an immigrant, Muslim, and the Islamophobia after 9/11.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Islamophobia, Racism, Colonisation, Death, War, Bullying, Body shaming, and Grief

Moderate: Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Rape, and Sexual assault

Minor: Death of parent

juliaisnotalright's review

emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

3.75

I feel bad for not rating this book 5 stars but some parts were boring af.
Nevertheless I still learned a lot about the Partition of India and all the struggles Someone had to go through. It was emotional and I now I know some more traditions and terms.
But I didn’t vibe with the poetry. It was okay but not breathtaking.
And as previously said I feel bad for rating this book because I feel like I’m rating the life of the author.
All these poems felt so personal and vulnerable.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Racism, Violence, and Sexual violence

ridaaamina's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring sad tense medium-paced

4.75

If They Come For Us is a beautiful poetry book written by an Immigrant Desi Muslim writer whose parents died as a consequence of the India-Pakistan partition & grew up in an orphanage in the United States, away from home and nothing to go back to. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation and Sexual content

Moderate: Racism

aishallnot's review against another edition

informative reflective tense

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War and Colonisation

Moderate: Death of parent, Sexual assault, Islamophobia, and Racism

_saphyr_'s review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

5.0

I need a physical copy of this book! I am dying to annotate. It is so lyrical, eye opening, daring, daunting, and blunt in the best ways possible. It definitely touches on some serious subject matters, definitely look into trigger warnings but as far as it's structure and execution, top tier. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cancer, Death, Hate crime, Islamophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Child abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Genocide, and Murder