Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

117 reviews

carlottab13's review

emotional reflective sad slow-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

4.75

In five acts the life’s stories of eleven black women and one non-binary character are told which then slowly start to intertwine with each other. Evaristo assembled an astonishing array of emotions, relationships, struggles and paths of life in this narration that were at times hard to read and difficult to process. Just like a number of here characters described of feeling out of place  and not fitting the norm, so does the novel’s writing style as it breaks traditionally grammatical rules (Google is saying it’s Fusion Fiction). The free-form writing style stripped of most of its punctuation felt complimentary to the narration and its contents. As of now my favourite story was Hattie’s. Highly encourage everyone to pick this up when they have the time and emotional capacity. Check trigger/content warnings beforehand!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Racism, and Rape

Moderate: Child death, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Transphobia

lesley12's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

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

3.75

Each section is the story of one character and some I liked more than others. It's really like fourteen short stories. What I loved was seeing how the stories and characters intertwined, separated and came together.

How a character said - my mother obviously thought this. But then reading a section from the mother's point of view and they don't think that at all. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual violence

justpatches's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny 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

5.0

Super interesting read! Very raw and honest. Evaristo created a complex web of characters each with very dynamic and unmistakable inner monologues and belief systems and lives. Loved how all of their stories tied together even in small ways and am honestly in awe of the writing. I mainly listened to it as an audiobook and would highly recommend! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Sexual violence

arlaubscher's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Cursing, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Grief, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Bullying, Cancer, Death, and Death of parent

Minor: Biphobia and Slavery

hanxahjudd's review against another edition

hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

I LOVE BEING A WOMAN

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Violence

ilya14's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

In this book you'll read the story of 12 black women, all these women are connected in a way or another, this book is really interesting to read

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Racism, and Sexual violence

littlebiintern's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful sad tense medium-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

life changing ground breaking brilliant 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence

lukhanyoreadthis's review against another edition

informative reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Islamophobia, and Sexual harassment

charley0796's review against another edition

lighthearted reflective fast-paced

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

3.75

A collection of short stories about women and non binary individuals. The author does a great job of interweaving all the stories, so characters overlap and yet are entirely different. It explores themes of transgender, domestic violence, feminism and race in such a reflective way of just living. She makes the narrators more than the sum of their world roles and really showcases such a wide range of women - they’re never perfect and always human.
But, I never adjusted to the lack of full stops, I just couldn’t cope. As all the characters were mentioned in seemingly disjointed order, I also struggled to connect and found my interest waning towards the end until a plot line came full circle. 
So 3.75/5 it is from me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual violence, and Violence

lucyhicks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative medium-paced

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

3.0

I really wanted to love this book and there was so much that was great about it. Each character’s story was poignant and striking, and I loved the way they were all intertwined. My problem was that I just couldn’t quite bring myself to care deeply enough about any of them. Maybe that’s part and parcel of having that many characters, but I found their stories less powerful because I wasn’t truly invested in them as people. This varied from person to person, and some characters evoked more emotion than others, but I wish there had been fewer characters and more plot overall. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Classism