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fenouil's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.75
woahhhh, I like the writing, the concept of the book is inriguing, the reflections made can be applied elsewhere
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Racism, and Blood
Moderate: Drug abuse, Racial slurs, Alcohol, Grief, Police brutality, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Chronic illness, Drug use, Genocide, and Gun violence
schnaucl's review
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-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? N/A
3.0
I really wanted to like this book more than I did. Instead, I struggled with it to the point that it took almost two months to read, and it's not that long. Part of it is just the physical structure of the book. There are four sections, one for each season, but no chapter breaks so it was sometimes difficult to find a natural stopping point.
I can't decide if it's not for me (in the sense that I'm not the intended audience), which is obviously fine but might be why I struggled with it.
It's very disjointed. Purposely so, I think. There are a lot of characters, who nearly all have their own backstories. I often found myself really interested in a backstory about the time the backstory was wrapping up.
The book had a lot to say about race and class and gentrification and the last season in particular is very bleak.
I can't decide if it's not for me (in the sense that I'm not the intended audience), which is obviously fine but might be why I struggled with it.
It's very disjointed. Purposely so, I think. There are a lot of characters, who nearly all have their own backstories. I often found myself really interested in a backstory about the time the backstory was wrapping up.
The book had a lot to say about race and class and gentrification and the last season in particular is very bleak.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Death, Drug use, Racial slurs, Racism, Cancer, Chronic illness, Classism, Murder, Terminal illness, Blood, and Police brutality
lj_sophia's review
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
slow-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? Yes
4.25
Overall, this book was an emotionally heavy, desperate message for things to change as soon as possible especially since it's set in the very near future. I only dock points from this book because of the structural issues I had with the story. At times I think the pacing took away from the important themes.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Police brutality, Colonisation, and Racial slurs
Minor: Sexual assault
rorikae's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-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? Yes
4.25
'Goliath' by Tochi Onyebuchi is an insightful and lyrical novel that looks at the inequalities of space travel through the eyes of those who are left behind.
The story weaves between different characters who live on or are visiting Earth. Those with money have left earth for the Colony, leaving behind a world that is plagued by poor air quality, housing inequality, and police violence. Through snippets of these characters' lives paired with occasional articles and recordings, Oneyebuchi demonstrates how venturing into the stars is for those who are wealthy and white while those who have historically been abused by systems continue to be hurt on what remains of Earth.
Oneybuchi paints a future that is keenly connected to our present and feels that way. By focusing on the characters and their lived experiences, he distills systemic horrors down to the people that it directly affects, making those horrors even more apparent. Despite this story being informed by space travel, we very rarely see any of the characters in the colonies. This story is about those that the world has left behind and failed to care for. The characters and their lives are painted in stark but human strokes using Onyebuchi's evocative prose. It feels as if one has been plopped down in this world and is walking around in it, especially as he showcases the small human moments that make up lived experiences.
I believe this is a book that should be read by a book club that can reflect on and dissect all that Onyebuchi is doing. This should definitely be taught in schools as it discusses a lot about our current lives while exploring how these problems could only grow worse in this possible future.
The story weaves between different characters who live on or are visiting Earth. Those with money have left earth for the Colony, leaving behind a world that is plagued by poor air quality, housing inequality, and police violence. Through snippets of these characters' lives paired with occasional articles and recordings, Oneyebuchi demonstrates how venturing into the stars is for those who are wealthy and white while those who have historically been abused by systems continue to be hurt on what remains of Earth.
Oneybuchi paints a future that is keenly connected to our present and feels that way. By focusing on the characters and their lived experiences, he distills systemic horrors down to the people that it directly affects, making those horrors even more apparent. Despite this story being informed by space travel, we very rarely see any of the characters in the colonies. This story is about those that the world has left behind and failed to care for. The characters and their lives are painted in stark but human strokes using Onyebuchi's evocative prose. It feels as if one has been plopped down in this world and is walking around in it, especially as he showcases the small human moments that make up lived experiences.
I believe this is a book that should be read by a book club that can reflect on and dissect all that Onyebuchi is doing. This should definitely be taught in schools as it discusses a lot about our current lives while exploring how these problems could only grow worse in this possible future.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Classism, Colonisation, Racial slurs, Racism, Drug use, Grief, Police brutality, and Violence
lizzie24601's review
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
DNF about 60% of the way through. This is 100% a character driven book - there is almost no plot or action at all. It is mostly about a group of Black and brown teenagers and young adults who are employed as construction stackers by an old gangster to keep them out of trouble in an apocalyptic city - but it took me nearly 100 pages to figure that out, since there is no exposition for any of the characters and it's difficult to understand who everyone is and what their relationships are.
The book is mostly comprised of descriptions of the characters' backstories or everyday life, maybe with some overarching goal going on (ex. Jonathan setting up his house or the kids from Bishop's work crew capturing the horses). The pacing is extremely slow and the jumping around in time and between characters is very confusing.
There is no plot and even very little dialogue. Honestly, the few scenes where there is dialogue feel like scenes in a play, where we're either dropped in in the middle of a conversation about nothing in particular, or one character is giving a long-winded monologue. Maybe this would've been better as a play.
Onyebuchi is definitely a skillful writer and his thesis comes through loud and clear as an important and underrepresented message, but this book will give you a headache well before reaching the end.
The book is mostly comprised of descriptions of the characters' backstories or everyday life, maybe with some overarching goal going on (ex. Jonathan setting up his house or the kids from Bishop's work crew capturing the horses). The pacing is extremely slow and the jumping around in time and between characters is very confusing.
There is no plot and even very little dialogue. Honestly, the few scenes where there is dialogue feel like scenes in a play, where we're either dropped in in the middle of a conversation about nothing in particular, or one character is giving a long-winded monologue. Maybe this would've been better as a play.
Onyebuchi is definitely a skillful writer and his thesis comes through loud and clear as an important and underrepresented message, but this book will give you a headache well before reaching the end.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Classism
Moderate: Chronic illness and Addiction
Minor: Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Death, Dementia, Police brutality, Child death, Drug abuse, and Drug use
albernikolauras's review
challenging
dark
tense
medium-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? Yes
5.0
In this book, we are following a city on an Earth that the rich and able escaped from to avoid the poisoning left behind by nuclear waste, climate change, and chemical destruction. Now, some of those in space are returning to "live the rough life" and are coming in contact with those left behind.
This is a book to sit and chew on and reread and sit and chew on some more. There are so many tightly packed themes and moments and reveals in this fairly short novel. Onyebuchi's character-building and emphasis on physical constructs of themes are the star of this book. The world-building was a little weaker and there were definitely some holes that can be found in what caused the mass exodus. There's not enough space to describe the themes in detail, but there is so much depth in his main themes - environmental racism, incarceration, gentrification & colonization of space, white "saviors," and the construction and destruction of community.
In short, read this book. Give it time to meld and grow with you. It is a book that might require a lot of research, but it is a work of art. The acknowledgements also provide many excellent resources to read nonfiction about some of the themes this book was based on.
This is a book to sit and chew on and reread and sit and chew on some more. There are so many tightly packed themes and moments and reveals in this fairly short novel. Onyebuchi's character-building and emphasis on physical constructs of themes are the star of this book. The world-building was a little weaker and there were definitely some holes that can be found in what caused the mass exodus. There's not enough space to describe the themes in detail, but there is so much depth in his main themes - environmental racism, incarceration, gentrification & colonization of space, white "saviors," and the construction and destruction of community.
In short, read this book. Give it time to meld and grow with you. It is a book that might require a lot of research, but it is a work of art. The acknowledgements also provide many excellent resources to read nonfiction about some of the themes this book was based on.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Police brutality, Racism, and Grief
Moderate: Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Deportation, and Classism
jo_lzr's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-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
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death of parent, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Police brutality, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Alcohol, Colonisation, Drug use, Addiction, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Islamophobia, Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Chronic illness, Classism, Confinement, Death, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, War, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Child abuse, Addiction, and Infidelity
Minor: Rape
jennikreads's review
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
3.75
This is a tough one for me. I got a lot out of this book and I think it has a lot to say, but i didn't enjoy reading this at all. It was hard to read and a little too close to the bone at times, but it really does highlight how a lot of the things were are dealing with in terms of race and class if left unchecked will only worsen and intensify. Climate change and the exodus from earth and how those things are experienced differently across race and class is brought into stark relief in this book. As i said, a lot to unpack here.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Police brutality, Murder, Gun violence, Racism, Terminal illness, Death, Child death, Classism, Grief, Forced institutionalization, and Confinement
jackelz's review against another edition
dark
Imagine it. It’s year 20XX. You have to walk around wearing a mask because the air is radioactive/carcinogenic. All the white rich people have f*cked off to space. It doesn’t seem so far off from our current reality.
Goliath critically engages with racism (including environmental racism), police violence, gentrification, the prison system, and climate crisis as those still living on Earth suffer from resource scarcity and illnesses caused by pollution.
Jonathan and his lover, David, return from space and find a place they want to fix up for themselves, inevitably participating in a post-apocalyptic form of gentrification, as more folks start taking over the houses of Black people.
Linc, a Black worker, earns a living by salvaging from old houses and stacking the bricks that will be sent to the space colony.
The narrative moves from one point of view to another, from the white returnees to the Black workers, weaving in stories of their pasts. About halfway through, though, it completely switches to two other perspectives and it threw me off at first. One is a sort of interview that details a man’s life up to the 2050’s, mixed with current (to us) events and situations he finds himself in. The other is told from the perspective of a white supremacist neo-confederate soldier on the run from a U.S. Marshall.
This book was definitely a journey, and one that I appreciated. Take your time with this one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Police brutality, Gore, Classism, Blood, Racism, Drug abuse, Racial slurs, Violence, Gun violence, and Murder
Moderate: Animal death, Child death, and Animal cruelty
Minor: Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Rape, Child abuse, Sexism, and Sexual assault
laurareads87's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
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
5.0
Goliath is the first 2022 release I've read - I'd preordered it, having appreciated Onyebuchi's Riot Baby as well as his short fiction + interview in Short Story Club. Goliath is ambitious, far-reaching, relevant, and, as others have written in their reviews, urgent.
Goliath is a non-linear multi-POV novel that follows a range of characters living in the 2050s; Earth is heavily polluted, and many of the wealthy have departed to space stations where they continue to extract resources from the planet they poisoned. Those still living on Earth navigate imposed resource scarcity, illnesses caused by pollution, and precarious infrastructure. Goliath critically engages with racism (including environmental racism), economic exploitation, police violence, and climate crisis, and in these respects it can be a challenging read, but it is far from all despair: there is joy here, humour, community. I suspect Goliath will be one of the absolute best standout sci-fi works of the year -- highly, highly recommend.
Goliath is a non-linear multi-POV novel that follows a range of characters living in the 2050s; Earth is heavily polluted, and many of the wealthy have departed to space stations where they continue to extract resources from the planet they poisoned. Those still living on Earth navigate imposed resource scarcity, illnesses caused by pollution, and precarious infrastructure. Goliath critically engages with racism (including environmental racism), economic exploitation, police violence, and climate crisis, and in these respects it can be a challenging read, but it is far from all despair: there is joy here, humour, community. I suspect Goliath will be one of the absolute best standout sci-fi works of the year -- highly, highly recommend.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Gun violence, Drug abuse, Police brutality, Gore, Racial slurs, Violence, Classism, Murder, and Blood
Moderate: Child death, Animal cruelty, and Animal death
Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Rape, Sexism, Child abuse, and Sexual harassment