Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo

9 reviews

luise96's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

4.5

What an interesting read! The writing style felt really unique and immersive. However I wish I would have known a bit more before reading the book as it had some very dark parts, which I wasn‘t prepared for. All characters felt so real even though they are portrayed as animals. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Misogyny, Genocide, and Violence

Moderate: Rape

faduma's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Forced institutionalization, Murder, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Violence, Blood, Classism, Colonisation, Child death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Police brutality, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Torture, and Trafficking

foreverinastory's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Glory is an allegory of Animal Farm set in the historical background of the Zimbabwe revolution (1980s-2019). We follow various animals as they fills roles of historical figures and we see how dictatorship follows the patterns laid out in Orwell's fictional piece.

This was a very compelling and emotional story. I loved the way repetition and humor were used as tools in the narrative. The audiobook narrator (Chipo Chung) was absolutely incredible and brought a rhythm to the story with the way they repeated words with various intonations.

Bulawayo did a beautiful job of crafting this intricate historical fiction. I am glad I read this immediately following Animal Farm. Such an interesting juxtaposition. There were so many characters followed in this story, but I was most invested in Destiny's and my heart felt all the emotions. *insert tears*

Rep: All Zimbabwean cast.

CWs: Violence, genocide, war, rape, police brutality, murder, colonisation, death, gun violence, grief, misogyny, sexual assault, torture, blood, classism, sexual violence, religious bigotry, sexism, injury/injury detail, child death, gore, physical abuse, racism. Moderate: suicide (off-page action, on-page mention), xenophobia, mass shooting, death of parent, animal death, body horror, cursing, homophobia/homomisia, slavery, panic attacks, fire/fire injury, vomit. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Gun violence, War, Colonisation, Violence, Rape, Police brutality, Murder, Death, and Misogyny

differentsisters's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.5

 I see what the author was trying to do. Once I got use to the inclusion of Zimbabwean dialect, the book was readable. What became tiring was the heavy heavy use of repetition (a whole page of just the word take). I could see why some uses of repetition was used, but it became tiresome and felt like an editor needed to cut at least a hundred pages of repetition. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual assault, Torture, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Mass/school shootings, Grief, Violence, Death, Sexual violence, Rape, Misogyny, Classism, Blood, War, Religious bigotry, Gun violence, Gore, and Colonisation

deedireads's review against another edition

challenging funny sad medium-paced

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

4.25

All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.

TL;DR REVIEW:

Glory is a challenging but rewarding read. I liked it, but I respected and admired it even more. It won’t be for everyone, but there’s no denying that Bulawayo is masterful.

For you if: You like satire, enjoy a challenge, and don’t mind anthropomorphized animals.

FULL REVIEW:

Glory is NoViolet Bulawayo’s second novel to be shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and it’s easy to see why. This book is smart, inventive, and effective at what it sets out to do.

Glory closely follows the events during and after the coup that ousted Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe in 2017 — except that in this world, the country is called Jidada (with a -da and another -da!) and all the people are talking (clothes-wearing, cell-phone-using, otherwise extremely human) animals. It swoops between a lot of characters’ perspectives and mixes in alternative storytelling formats like Tweets. But it’s also all tied together with a fictional character named Destiny, who’d self-exiled from Jidada after experiencing war violence and has now returned.

This book is challenging, but I (and many others) found it rewarding. Others found it impossible to connect with or get through. It’s not going to be for everyone, but I think it’s worth the attempt! Bulawayo’s approach here with the animals works so well in highlighting the farcical nature of its subject matter and society overall, and it enables her to add extra absurdism to underscore her point that would just come across dumb if the characters were human (for example, at one point the President starts hitting on Siri).

I also really liked the more traditional verbal storytelling style of the writing, filled with lots of repetition and punctuation. It translated really well to audiobook. Be aware that parts of this book are hard to read, as they deal with genocide and war violence (including sexual violence).

All in all, there were definitely parts that I struggled to stay engaged with, and I wasn’t sorry to finish this book and mark it complete. But I do put it in the “liked overall” column, and I have a ton of respect and admiration for what Bulawayo has done here.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Misogyny, Violence, Genocide, and Rape

Moderate: Sexual violence and Police brutality

rhi_'s review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

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

0.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexism, Homophobia, Misogyny, Xenophobia, Classism, Colonisation, Police brutality, Gun violence, Violence, and War

Moderate: Sexual violence and Rape

lochanreads's review against another edition

dark funny inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

I really love and admire this book for its linguistic skill and hopeful message

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Religious bigotry, Police brutality, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and War

Moderate: Grief, Homophobia, and Misogyny

wy_woman's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, and Police brutality

Moderate: Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Racism, Sexism, Gore, Violence, Xenophobia, and Mass/school shootings

Minor: War, Vomit, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Rape

woolgatherer's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

3.75

I really enjoyed Bulawayo’s previous novel, We Need New Names, and had high expectations for Glory. She certainly delivered with unique storytelling (I actually read the book alongside the audiobook, which really made a difference) and interesting characters. Unfortunately, I wasn’t as taken to the plot as I thought I would be, mostly due to pacing and repetitiveness. However, this book is clever, especially the way she expanded on George Orwell’s Animal Farm to satirize the Zimbabwean coup d’état in 2017, as well as to provide other commentary on other topics such as colonialism and racism. On that note, I wish I knew more about this to further appreciate what Bulawayo wrote, though I certainly could see elements of this book taking place in other oppressive countries. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Police brutality, Genocide, Death, Rape, Colonisation, and Murder

Moderate: War, Racism, Homophobia, and Misogyny

Minor: Gore