Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo

6 reviews

inkamaar's review against another edition

challenging 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? No

3.0

Mielenkiintoinen kurkistus eri kulttuuriin ja maahanmuuttoon. Pidin kirjan alkupuoliskosta enemmän, lapsen näkökulma elämästä poliittisesti epävakaassa maassa oli viattomuudessaan koskettava.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal death, Death, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, and Colonisation

katy_bee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

A really beautifully written book with some very dark themes. The early section was the most compelling for me. I thought the child's perspective on a confusing adult political situation was really well done. The latter half felt disappointed and lost- very intentionally as it mirrored the characters experience

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Infertility, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Colonisation, and War

ameliasbooks's review against another edition

emotional funny sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

Usually I'm having difficulties with child characters in stories. Very often I find their thoughts and dialogues unbelievable, but this wasn't the case here. I really enjoyed reading about the daily life and the adventures Darling and her friends went on. Maybe I would have preferred one or two characters less, because not all of them were portrayed really memorably.

The author did a good job in letting the place and the experiences the protagonists had coming alive on the page.

Can't really say which part I enjoyed more, the one that takes place in Zimbabwe or the one in the US. Both are similar important to the story, so I had no preference. 

The only criticism I have is that Bulawayo tries too hard to cover numerous themes and therefore can't really go into depth with most of them. This is a short book, so most of the covered topics stay quite on the surface and aren't explored enough. Which I would have been really interested in.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Dementia, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Colonisation

Minor: Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Mental illness, Mass/school shootings, War, and Injury/Injury detail

hotkoolaidpotato's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Police brutality, and War

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Abortion, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Eating disorder, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Mass/school shootings, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

mmatti300's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

I read this book for school, so it's a little difficult for me to fully rate this book as I think I may have enjoyed certain pieces of it more if I wasn't coming at it from a purely analytical standpoint. At first, the lack of quotation marks bothered me as it seemed to make the story a little bit more confusing than it needed to be, but I actually think this was a really interesting choice by Bulawayo to make the text read more like an oration than a novel. I do think it was an extremely thought provoking and enriching text and am excited to discuss it with my class as I think they will provide some interesting perspectives. However, I felt like Bulawayo almost did too much for how short the novel was. This book is only 292 pages, with relatively big font, and yet she tackles:

coat hanger abortions, AIDS, ineffectiveness of NGOs, Starvation, class conflict post decolonization, anorexia in America, overeating in America (in a way that I found almost extremely fat phobic/ said in a way that was unnecessarily derogative), difficulty of immigration, depression, joining the army, family asking for money, porn addictions from a young age, teen angst, the list goes on

This was probably not actually spoilers, but just in case. I think that these were important things to tackle, especially in the context of immigration and Zimababwean culture, but it also felt way too rushed for me and like I didn't get a second to process what she was saying before another thing came at me. Perhaps this was on purpose, but it really took me out of the story and made me really hate the main character, Darling, who we want to connect with and love at least in the beginning. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Eating disorder, Genocide, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Abortion, and Death of parent

Minor: Fatphobia

cclardo's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Body shaming, and Fatphobia

Minor: Child death, Death, Mental illness, and Suicide