Reviews tagging 'War'

Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo

34 reviews

notthatcosta's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

As a fan of Animal Farm I found myself invested very early into picking this book up. In the same way as the former, the use of animals (animalisation?) initially disarmed me and gave me some levity before the multiple, inevitable emotional gut punches that were to come.

I found this book to be immaculately paced and immaculately executed, most notably in the inclusion of social media, that I rarely seen done successfully in any form of media.

It’s cliche but this is the kind of book I would love to see rolled out in schools like mine, where the majority of the students descended from former colonies who will recognise Jidada and its inhabitants in their family members.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and War

themagicalbeard's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, and War

kammikim's review against another edition

challenging dark inspiring 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? Yes

4.0

This is a powerful book - in voice, in story, in style, in message. I found it challenging on multiple levels, and consequently slow to get through. That said, I think it's a deeply profound and important book and I'm glad I did eventually see it through to the end. The imagery, emotion, originality, and storytelling were truly inspiring to me. It's an inventive and compelling satire from a clear, confident, and compelling voice.

The challenges:
1. The unique style of narration is no doubt intentional and I think meant to represent oral traditions of storytelling, while also making a point about the repetitiveness of history, but the constantly repeating phrases and sentence structures did make for a sluggish or exasperating read at times. Some places it added power to the story, others it took away from the power and momentum in my opinion.
2. The violence in this book is necessary to the story, but it is truly difficult to get through. I ended some chapters sobbing and had to step away from the book for a month+ at a time to process and recover. It's a testament to Bulawayo's incredible command of emotion, empathy, and unflinching attention to the worst sides of humanity that it had such a visceral effect on me as a reader, but be aware that this is a really, really tough read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Genocide, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

orlagal's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Trafficking, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

pagesofash's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Homophobia, Physical abuse, Rape, and Sexual assault

plasticpansy's review against another edition

challenging dark funny tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Genocide, Torture, Violence, Blood, and War

natrabbits's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Racism, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

elle_g's review against another edition

dark informative reflective slow-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

3.75

People sell this book as 'African Animal Farm', but that doesn't do it justice!
Glory describes the events surrounding the 2018 Zimbabwe election using animals rather than people; using animals provided distance for those close to the violence and made it accessible for those who didn't know this piece of history, while pulling back the veil every once in a while to remind you that these events happened to real people. 
Literary, heartbreaking, & hopeful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and War

Moderate: Police brutality

Minor: Rape and Suicide

indiahollym's review against another edition

challenging dark funny informative medium-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

- Took me a while to get into it
- Her writing is immense: tongue n cheek, emotive, skillful, colourful. She gives real character to each and every voice in the story basically just using their dialogue and very little else. P wicked
- Inspired me into pursuit of  learning about Zimbabwe’s history instead of being intimidated by what I didn’t know
- Some absolutely gutting moments with my heart in my throat

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Genocide, Gun violence, Rape, Police brutality, and War

toniamarieparker's review against another edition

emotional hopeful slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Rape, Suicide, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Genocide and Kidnapping