Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - Breath, Eyes, Memory

I had to read this for a college course years ago. And I always meant to come back and read it again for myself. I've done that now, settled that in myself.

This book is still so touching and so painful, even after all these years. I can't say I love it. But I felt it.

Content Warnings

abbie_'s review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

3.5

I picked up this copy of Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat secondhand, not realising that it was filled with someone else’s underlinings and notes in the margins. While I find it interesting to see other people’s thoughts (when I can decipher the handwriting), I find my eyes flicking to the annotations far too often and it takes me out of the story. I genuinely have a hard time remembering much about this book that I read two weeks ago because most of what I could concentrate on was the previous reader’s fixation on Danticat’s use of colours 🥲

I do remember enough to tell you that this is a harrowing read filled with sadness. It explores mother-daughter relationships, examining how trauma is passed down from generation to generation. Sophie grows up in Haiti with her aunt after her mother moves to the US, and when she eventually sends for her, both women are forced to confront the past which still haunts them. It’s a very difficult read, with rape, sexual trauma and self-mutilation all playing a part, but I found it especially difficult to read the parts where mothers inflict the same violences they experienced at the hands of their mothers on their daughters, despite recognising the irreversible damage it will leave/did leave on them. The cycles are hard to break, but the ending (‘Ou libéré? Are you free, my daughter?’) does offer a small glimmer of hope.

Despite the overwhelming pain of this novel, I’d quite like to read it again, with a clean copy this time, as I don’t feel I gave it the benefit of my full attention with all the annotations!

Content Warnings

arbitrary_convenience's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional reflective fast-paced

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

3.5

Please don’t read this if you have sexual trauma, because that’s a big theme here.
It wasn’t something I would read for fun or relaxation so much as for perspective. I think it shows the effects of how your childhood shapes you as an adult. It was hard to read at some times because of its themes and I did have to put it down for a while and come back to it.

Content Warnings

sillyduckie's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-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

4.75

Content Warnings

katie69's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional reflective sad medium-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

4.5

Content Warnings

tina94's review against another edition

Go to review page

medium-paced

3.0

Content Warnings

curlymango's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging reflective sad medium-paced

I’m not sure whether I can give this a rating, because I don’t think it would really reflect how I felt during and after this read. At times I was deeply uncomfortable; I felt like I was intruding into the darkest sides of the characters’ intimate, complex relationships. But of course that’s the core of the book: untangling matters of womanhood, motherhood, generational trauma, sexual violence, heritage, and death. What struck me most was the gentle simplicity of Danticat’s prose and how she weaves such brutal topics into Sophie’s story, without it necessarily feeling gratuitous. Quite haunting, though. I’m still thinking about the final passage and don’t know whether to feel hopeful or hopeless about it.

Content Warnings

bookshopvampire's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Content Warnings

More...