Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

60 reviews

jotee76's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

It wasn’t the most gripping book I have ever read, but I knew nothing about Biafra so for me the book was more of an educational tool than a pleasurable read. It is very well researched and written. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, War, and Injury/Injury detail

snoopyluvr_22's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

A must read. A profound read. I couldn’t put this book down. It educated me. It showed me a world so different to my own. It’s a long but worth it read. I recommend reading Things Fall Apart by Achebe before reading this book as well. This author deserves so much praise. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Cursing, Genocide, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

crazytourists_books's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

During the 80s and early 90s in Greece, something that adults couldn't tolerate (adults that lived through the famine of the German occupation) was the waste of food. Kids were too often persuaded to finish their food given as example the kids of Biafra (and later Ethiopia) that were starving. A country that no longer existed, the death of children that were probably not even an afterthought in Europe, played such a vital role in our upbringing. 
This story is an important one to tell (and read about), and it should not be told by white bystanders. 
Adicie writes really well, I liked her prose, and I enjoyed her use of Igbo throughout the novel. The characters could have been better developed, though, their behaviour more realistic. 
A good book overall. It is very sad that Adicie has sided with the TERFs , I am not someone that can easily separate the art from the artist, especially when the artist is still alive. Even though this book is of a genre that I enjoy I wouldn't have read it if it wasn't given to me a few years ago. Now I can let it go, and with it, Adicie. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

bee_a_friend's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

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

selimhannah's review against another edition

informative inspiring sad medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Genocide, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Medical trauma, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug use, Gore, Hate crime, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Excrement, Medical content, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Abortion, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, and Colonisation

reikista's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Excrement, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

rebcamuse's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This is a beautiful and difficult book. Difficult because of the painful narratives of the Biafran War, but beautiful in the characters who are so vivid and real in their flaws, their hopes, and their lived existence. We meet Ugwu, a thirteen year old boy from a small village who works as a servant for Odenigbo, Professor of Mathematics at Nsukka University. Odenigbo's girlfriend, then wife, is Olanna, daughter of the influential Chief Ozobia, and more significantly, twin sister to Kainene, who was one of my favorite characters in the book. Not blessed with Olanna's commonly-accepted beauty, Kainene is fearless, acerbic, and honest (especially in the latter half of the book when war reaches her heart). Kaynene takes up with Richard, an English writer who comes to Nigeria to write a book about the art. Adichie artfully uses Richard to express the more subtle racism (whereas his ex-girlfriend is outright and obviously racist). For example, in Chapter 6, Kainene says to Richard: "...it's wrong of you to think that love leaves room for nothing else. It's possible to love something, and still condescend to it." This powerful statement is made after Richard is called out at a party for going on and on about the amazing details and complexity of some African bronzes, not realizing the implication of his surprise--why would they NOT be amazing and complex? Richard is one of the three main narrative voices and the way he grows, partially due to his love for and relationship with Kainene, is really thoughtful and not a single narrative. None of the main characters are unidimensional. Odenigbo moves from idealist to grieving son. Ugwu moves from innocent to war-worn and morally compromised. But perhaps it is mostly the story of the two sisters, Olanna and Kainene where this book touched me most. The horrors of war have their own narratives, but Adichie does not lose sight of the human story that perseveres -- love, betrayal, friendship, enmity--everyone with a heart that has to question some of the time.

Adichie does not sidestep some of the particulars of the Biafran War, however. The book is an opportunity to understand better (particularly for those of us who were not taught about the Igbo and the Hausa) the complex politics, racism, and global manipulations/voyeurism that brought about between 500,000 and two million Biafran civilians dying of starvation.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, War, and Injury/Injury detail

demeryg's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.5

I thought this book was fantastic. Though I would say at  points it was slow.  It took me a moment to fall into the rhythm but once I did it was game over! 
I found the topics in this book really educational and relevant to other genocides happening at the hands of USA and Britain. It was informative and also a beautiful story between the mix of characters and their interpersonal relationships.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

kalobar's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, and War

Moderate: Alcoholism, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Infertility

fionafsw's review against another edition

challenging funny informative reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

Fact and fiction blend, past and present blend, as I read about the Nigerian civil war next to BBC headlines and couldn't stop thinking about the indiscriminate misery and human suffering Israel has unleashed in its current war in Gaza. It is impossible in March 2024 to read about starvation and not be reminded that 1 in 6 children <2 years are acutely malnourished in Gaza, with dozens dying of dehydration and malnutrition. The sheer desperation of a population brought to its knees and then beaten while on the ground translates seamlessly from the late 1960s to this week.

There's not much more I can say about this powerful novel except that Adichie manages to weave humour throughout to help the reader get through the horrors of war and to present something so alien to readers like me who have had the dumb luck of knowing nothing but peacetime through an individual, human lens rather than statistics or political or military manoeuvres. And for readers like me who had no idea about Nigeria, her fantastic writing brought to life every smell, taste, and sensory input. 

But where the book really excels, I think, is in describing tension between individuals in the most subtle way that still makes it obvious. Tension (sexual and otherwise) that you could cut with a knife, as if you were there, in the room, as the protagonist. As Richard might say, it's really quite fantastic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Murder, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Grief and Classism

Minor: Pregnancy