Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Book of Phoenix by Nnedi Okorafor

4 reviews

illiumbluebell's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

I've had this book for years and on my tbr many times. Often I postponed my reading it. Without realising it I picked up the sequel last year, read it and loved it. I was reorganising my shelves when I saw that they were by the same author...in adding it to my TBR on this app that this was actually the prequel. So I thought I was somewhat prepared... I was not.

The story of Phoenix, Saeed and Mmuo is dark, sad and brutal, yet the glimpses of hope and happiness is what makes them bearable. Loved the plot and characters, but the ending felt a bit rushed to me. Will reread next part in the series sometimes this year now I have more history of events.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence

macknificent's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad fast-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? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Child abuse, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Genocide, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, and War

Minor: Sexual content

aconfundityofcrows's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Violence, Xenophobia, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Racism, Murder, Medical trauma, Medical content, Hate crime, Gun violence, Grief, Gore, Genocide, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Death, Confinement, Body shaming, Body horror, Blood, and Misogyny

Moderate: Excrement, Child death, Child abuse, Slavery, Torture, Islamophobia, Death of parent, and Mental illness

Minor: Animal cruelty, Cancer, Infertility, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, and Kidnapping

ejb44's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

 

The Book of Phoenix by Nnedi Okorafor is a Afrofuturist short novel following SpeciMEN creations in Tower 7, set (we can assume) a couple hundreds of years into the future. Sunuteel, the character who brings this story to us, is transmitted a file called The Book of Phoenix upon stumbling across a cave with computers, and we hear the story of Phoenix, a creation, and her life.     

As someone who doesn’t particularly like sci-fi or fantasy, I was worried about disliking the book, particularly because I find tropes are repeated in this genre – good guys vs bad guys; intense love story; a “be all and end all” atmosphere. However, luckily for me, the author added amazing complexities to her novel, exploring themes of post-colonialism (despite independence in Africa being years ago), bodily autonomy and what it means to grow up and develop as an individual. 

The best part of the book was the structure and the way the author chose to explore the story of Phoenix through this audio file. This was a really unique way to explore a story, and brings in the conversations of narration, storytelling and what counts as narration. In the world we live in, with new technologies constantly replacing the last, and the on-going (pointless) debate about whether listening to audiobooks is the same as reading books (fun fact, they are), I thought it was quite telling that Okorafor uses an audio file to explore both Phoenix’s story and allow for conversations about how media can be conveyed. 

Despite this brilliance in artistry, I still found it quite difficult to connect with the characters and the overall setting because, again, I don’t like sci-fi and think the genre overall just doesn’t sit quite right with me. Even though themes and conversations woven into the novel were poignant and brilliant, it just didn’t hit me as hard as I had hoped. 

To add to this, there is one part of the book where the protagonist, Phoenix, “realises” something about one of her doctors, however, she then also discovered it about 30 pages later, as if for the first time. This slight mishap in the writing did make it a little difficult to remain immersed in this post-apocalyptic fictional world, sadly. 

Overall, if you’re looking for a fantasy sci-fi novel that deals with real issues, talks about the effects of colonialism and engages in meaningful dialogue about technology and the treatment of black people as objects to be tested on, then this book is brilliant. If you love Star Trek, any Lovecraft book or narratives like Raven Stratagem by Yoon Ha Lee, then this book is probably right up your street. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Murder, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Violence