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A review by breezie_reads
Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi
dark
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This book was a ride, and I enjoyed listening to every second of it. It was dark, it was gruesome at times, it was emotional. I got emotional, anyway. It was also a great chance to see into the mind of someone with multiple personalities. I feel like listening to the audio of this enhanced my enjoyment of the book, especially since the author was the narrator.
This wasn't my first book of Akwaeke's that I've read. I read Pet and Bitter before this, and I did have some background information about the author before going into this book, so maybe that helped me understand better what was going on and helped me interpret everything. I saw some reviews talking about how confusing and hard to follow it was, but I didn't get that vibe with freshwater at all.
This book was nothing if not intriguing. You don't get to see into the mind of someone with multiple personalities very often to begin with, let alone in a way that has you experiencing and living these things alongside them. As heartbreaking as it is to have to go through the things you go through for more personalities to be born, I feel like no one actually understands in the ways they need to understand. Reading books like this helps understand what goes on in the mind of someone "different" from you.
I find it really interesting that the author has never considered themself to be mentally ill living the way they've lived, despite Western medicine saying that it's a mental illness. They don't view it like that because It's just reality to them, and you can see that belief reflected in this book.
I didn't mean for this to get as long as it did, but this is definitely going to be one of my favorite books this year, I can already tell. It isn't long, no, but I started and finished it in one day and I feel like that says a lot.
This wasn't my first book of Akwaeke's that I've read. I read Pet and Bitter before this, and I did have some background information about the author before going into this book, so maybe that helped me understand better what was going on and helped me interpret everything. I saw some reviews talking about how confusing and hard to follow it was, but I didn't get that vibe with freshwater at all.
This book was nothing if not intriguing. You don't get to see into the mind of someone with multiple personalities very often to begin with, let alone in a way that has you experiencing and living these things alongside them. As heartbreaking as it is to have to go through the things you go through for more personalities to be born, I feel like no one actually understands in the ways they need to understand. Reading books like this helps understand what goes on in the mind of someone "different" from you.
I find it really interesting that the author has never considered themself to be mentally ill living the way they've lived, despite Western medicine saying that it's a mental illness. They don't view it like that because It's just reality to them, and you can see that belief reflected in this book.
I didn't mean for this to get as long as it did, but this is definitely going to be one of my favorite books this year, I can already tell. It isn't long, no, but I started and finished it in one day and I feel like that says a lot.