Scan barcode
c1aud55n's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
qqjj's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Classism
sabrinaleaf's review against another edition
4.5
Amazing, Safiya Sinclair has such a way with words: she pulls you into her story and doesn’t let you go.
The only reason why this isn’t a five star read for me is because I almost dnf it after I read the prologue. To me, the prologue felt more like it was written for a fantasy standalone; it felt disjointed with the rest of her memoir.
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Violence, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Miscarriage
stellahadz's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment, and Classism
Minor: Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Racism, and Abortion
readandfindout's review against another edition
4.75
Themes: 4.5 stars
Perspective: 4.5 stars
Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Racism and Colonisation
Minor: Cancer and Miscarriage
katewhite77's review against another edition
5.0
Safia Sinclair is a poet, and it shows in her wonderful prose style. Though the writing style is beautifully poetic, the content is hard to read to read. Don't go into this expecting an easy ride, especially because the writing is visceral.
Safia grew up in Montego Bay Jamaica with her mother, father, and three younger siblings, who are all rastafari. This is, for the most part, a peaceful religion that believes Jamaica should be free from white colonial rule, also known as Babylon.
Over time however Safia"s father is over taken by religious furver and starts to follow a sect that believes in a very narrow interpretation of rastafaranism, particularly in regard to the role of women. This leads to him exerting tighter and tighter control over the females in the family.
Safia finds an escape route out through education and poetry. The book is dedicated to her mother, and it is easy to see why because she is amazing.
I fully expect this book to feature in my best books of the year, not least because it references the best band in the world. The Mighy Cranberries.
Graphic: Child abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Cultural appropriation
Minor: Religious bigotry and Classism
mmccombs's review against another edition
3.5
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Religious bigotry
barbarella85's review against another edition
5.0
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Violence, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Racism and Xenophobia
not_another_ana's review against another edition
4.0
After more than nineteen years, my father still could not see me. To him, nothing I wrote would ever matter. Poetry was the voice I had forged because for so long I had been voiceless; I had written every word because I wanted him to hear me. Now I knew he never would.
I find it tricky to cast judgement on a memoir. How can I sit here and judge what happens when it's not just plot but someone's actual life and experience, it feels voyeuristic. At the same time the author is handing me their life on a platter, is asking me to come and see and experience. In How to Say Babylon Safiya Sinclair presents us the story of her life growing up in Jamaica under the control of a domineering abusive father who used Rastafarianism to control and terrorize the family. We're taken on this journey to her childhood, her struggles and how she persevered and became an award winning poet. She also explains what Rastafarianism is, how it got started, what are the practices and beliefs, and how that affected her.
I could not put this down, I read it in four days. The prose is beautiful and fluid, you could probably infer her background as a poet. If you don't enjoy purple prose, this might not be a good fit for you, for me it worked because I felt like I was right there in her head with her as the events happened. And boy did things happen to her, this is a book that deals with such complex and heart wrenching abuse. Verbal abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, spiritual abuse, at times it felt so heavy and anxiety inducing. I was at a roller coaster right before the drop, or a balloon inflating with no sign of stopping and then... Well the drop didn't happen, the balloon never popped.
That was my only real issue with the book. The pacing brught us to this dazzling height only to gently let us down. To me it felt like perhaps she could have waited to write this memoir, there were a lot of painful memories she had to face and put to paper and the more recent ones just didn't come across as robust as the past. By this I mean I felt like she's too close to the point in time where her book ends to have been able to pull it apart and analyze it, process it. There's a lot of silence at the end, like the story was cherry-picked in some spots.
Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Cursing, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Colonisation
tamaramo's review against another edition
3.5
Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Self harm, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Racism, and Sexual harassment