Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H

7 reviews

shaun_dh's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

This memoir is stunning. Lamya H’s writing is beautiful and I particularly enjoyed the juxtaposition of her stories with stories from the Quran, which I have never read nor known anything about

It’s pretty amazing that I saw so much of myself in the author—me, a cis femme Biracial Black atheist witch dyke—especially in the final chapter. It feels like that chapter could have been written for me

This book is for anyone who has felt othered, anyone who is curious about religious interpretation, anyone who is interested in differing perspectives. Anyone with an open mind. Really, I think everyone needs to read this

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infertility, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Dementia, Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism

clarkg's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

Beautifully written, thematically rich, philosophically engaging, "Hijab Butch Blues" rearticulates the contours of the contemporary memoir into something incredible and fresh. Lamya H. is one of the great poets and thinkers of our time and has raised the bar for how we narrativize the stories of our lives.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, and Deportation

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Infidelity, Suicide, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

auteaandtales's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Islamophobia, Lesbophobia, and Deportation

Minor: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism

savvylit's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

4.0

Lamya H is an immensely skilled memoirist. Hijab Butch Blues is full of emotionally evocative remembrances and shrewd reflections in equal measure. I appreciated her unique perspective as a devout Muslim and queer woman. The ways that she strengthened her sense of self alongside her faith were fascinating to experience secondhand.

That being said - and this is entirely my personal preference - I did not love the amount of religious parables retold throughout this memoir. I think it worked for Lamya's narrative, but I sometimes felt like I wanted to just know her and not the prophets of yore. Perhaps it's because I was already familiar with many of these parables as they're the same as many Christian ones (Jesus, Moses, Jonah) and that was the faith in which I was raised. Or perhaps it's because I am an atheist and religious parables in general give me the ick. If not for the parables, this would have been a five-star memoir for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Homophobia, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, and Lesbophobia

maddramaqueen's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, and Islamophobia

Moderate: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Slavery, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Blood, and Colonisation

marigoldgem's review

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia, Toxic friendship, and Classism

Minor: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

carriepond's review against another edition

inspiring reflective medium-paced

3.75

In Hijab Butch Blues, author Lamya H intermingles stories from the Quran and their own experiences growing up queer and Muslim, first in the Middle East and then, as an adult, in the United States after moving for college. 

This was a great memoir. The author very eloquently discusses the feeling that persisted throughout their life of not quite fitting-- not quite fitting in growing up in the Middle East with dark brown skin and less wealth than schoolmates, and not quite fitting with the queer communities and Muslim communities after moving for the United States. There are also a lot of great reflections on coming out, the risks and rewards of that decision, and whether queer people need to be out to live, as someone told the author, "an authentically gay life." And along with these great reflections, we hear Lamya's own story, which is earnest and honest. 

Recommend for folks who like memoirs, especially queer or coming-of-age memoirs. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Islamophobia

Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, and Transphobia

Minor: Child abuse, Infidelity, and Physical abuse