Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir by Akwaeke Emezi

11 reviews

hannah_and_her_stories's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Body shaming, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Cancer

laurareads87's review against another edition

challenging emotional medium-paced

5.0

Dear Senthuran is beautifully written, extraordinarily intimate, and covers a lot of ground: spiritedness + spiritual life, gender, mental health, childhood, career, fame, interpersonal relationships, navigating life amidst humanity.  Extraordinary & like nothing I've ever read before (though those who've read Freshwater will certainly find some familiar content here); also a very difficult read - I'm sure I've forgotten some relevant content warnings.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Body horror, Homophobia, Racism, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, and Injury/Injury detail

starrysteph's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring slow-paced

4.5

Reread July 2024: Even better on a reread - and so much more stood out to me now that I've read all of their books, including Little Rot. 

Agonizingly relatable. Unapologetic. Their prose is SO good and illuminates so much of my own life and brain. 

Chills the whole way through. Grateful that I'm here at the same time they are publishing books.

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Beautiful. Deeply poetic, deeply vulnerable, and deeply illuminating. 

Having already read most of Emezi's work, this memoir gave me a lot of clarity around the concepts explored in their books (specifically Freshwater). 

CW: suicide attempt, suicidal thoughts, transphobia, rape, sexual assault, mental illness, medical content, dysphoria, grief, infidelity, toxic relationship, chronic illness, self harm

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Infidelity, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Transphobia, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Dysphoria

Minor: Cannibalism and Car accident

byagz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

I will read anything and everything by akwaeke emezi. Reading their work—it is so blatantly obvious—they know wtf they’re doing. this memoir made me cry, it was inspiring in moments, full of real shit. You can feel their energy through their words. Straight up powerful. Powerful. this book is covered in highlights. their writing is unlike any other for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Suicide attempt

criticalgayze's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

Y'all, Emezi will do it and then do it again. A world of worlds live inside of their head, and they produce with the efficiency of an assembly-line author, yet each book is whole and unique and rejuvenating. Emezi lifts up the Queer in all the facets that the word can encompass and leaves a sense of refresh and enlightenment in their wake.

Even more affecting here for the artist and art-inclined among us, Emezi gives a sense of transparency that is often lacking in the business of the arts that can feel so intimidating, especially to historically marginalized creators. To that end, Emezi weaves in a level of knowledge and advice that is reminiscent of such workbook memoirs as You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero and Minority Leader by Stacey Abrams.

This work also bolsters what I have come to find about my own reading life. What seems to leave the greatest impact on me as a reader are works of memoir, auto-, and experimental fiction by Queer creators. Works that Queer the space of writing while being Queer themselves, and works that peel back the exterior and interior process of creation that help me access that space within myself. (Now to take Emezi's advice and start letting that inspire, instead of intimidate!)

Quotes:
I tell him that my search for somewhere to be is really a search for self, and the only self I feel at home with is one that doesn't exist, not anymore, one that's bee taken apart, whipped into dust. (2)
The magician tells me that other people can't do what I do, and maybe I believe him a little, but that's not the point. People can do such spectacular things if you forget to tell them it's impossible. I want them to try. (22)
Illusions are the best things to burn, I think, but some people consider such fires to be threats, and those who start them even worse. (24)
People would read Freshwater and speculate about what my career would have looked like after starting with a book so bold. I would be less of a threat, they wouldn't hesitate to call the book what it was - not the way they do when you're alive and young, Black and pretty and fucking talented, and you don't pretend like you don't know all of this. (30)
I am, at once, the person most bent on my death and the person most successful at keeping me alive; even the devil won't take me. (44)
So, you could just show a terrible thing and let the showing be the strength of it? I thought it was brilliant. (77)
'I stood at the border, stood at the edge, and claimed it as central,' you said, your voice weighted with intent. 'Claimed it as central and let the rest of the world move over to where I was.' (77)
You should see my centers, Ms. Morrison. They're glorious. They pull with the force of a planet and I'm patient; it's only a matter of time. (80)
The rules are clear, no matter the stakes: when anyone fucks with the work, burn them to the ground. (87)
Everything advances, mutates, we are in new worlds constantly (154)
It gets so ugly, this thing of punishing other for prioritizing their well-being over reassuring insecurities. (206)
It's never too late - that's a human lie of time, there is no late, there is mostly now because now is so flexible, I find. You can change a whole life, a whole world, inside of a now. (213)
'You write when you are most fragile, because you're changing from one form to another. These transformations and transmutations that take place - it has to be painful.' (227)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Drug abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Transphobia

Minor: Excrement

liaandersson's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced

I love everything Akwaeke Emezi writes. They are such a phenomenal writer, I want every book they have ever written. I am transpired to a new dimension and I see life through their eyes - it's terrifying, beautiful, inspiring, saddening, and so many emotions at once. It feels weird writing a review on somebody's memoir, so I will simply say that this book was yet another literary masterpiece by Emezi, while we were afforded the opportunity to get to know them better on the way. Thank you for this book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Medical content, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

maryberthelsen's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Cannibalism, and Suicide attempt

merin_aran's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Gore, Mental illness, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Medical content, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

translove's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Medical content, and Outing

caseythereader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective fast-paced

5.0

 - Per usual, when I try to sit down to write about an Emezi book, I cannot find the words. Their work is simply beyond my ability to discuss. Each book bends my mind and cracks open the world a little differently.
- DEAR SENTHURAN is a look inside their brain, their heart, their soul. It's an extended discussion of how to deal with a world that does not want you, on several levels. It's the pain and joy and revenge of making space for yourself anyway.
- Even beyond the larger ideas explored, the actual writing and words of this book are expansive, visceral, horrifying and elegant. They are truly a master of their craft.
- Also, I've listed content warnings below: please take them seriously. Emezi does not hold back on some graphic descriptions, particularly about suicide and self harm. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, and Abandonment