Scan barcode
tigger89's review
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I've often said that speculative fiction is very much of the time it's written. Accordingly, this novel, begun in the mid-2010s and published in early 2022, is very much of our times. And yes, it is very political. How could it not be, with themes including eco crises, mass incarceration, white supremacy, class and racial privilege, healthcare inequality, police brutality, white flight, and gentrification? The job of good speculative fiction is to use a fictional narrative to illuminate something of our own time and place, and in that regard this book is stellar.
The book's biggest strength — its varied cast of characters, painting a picture of the future through several distinct narratives — unfortunately also contributes to its biggest weakness. This is due to the way the story is told, with the narratives fragmented and presented non-linearly. While I believe my sense of the whole is complete, or near enough, I'd honestly struggle to tell you, start to finish, what precisely befell each character in the story. There's nothing quite like seeing a character pop up in a scene and having to pause, confused, and think to yourself: "I thought he was dead by now!" I'm not sure that reading it again would help. I think I'd likely have to break out the index cards and start laying the plot out down the hallway to make complete sense of it. Honestly, some kind of dates on the sections would have helped, but that would have ruined the near-future feel of the disaster so I understand why the author left them out.
I also have to mention that this book frequently calls upon Christian themes, ones that go beyond the David and Goliath reference. It's not terribly surprising, given the historical role of spiritual leaders in community organizing, but based on what blurb you read it's easy to get caught off guard. I will say that the book was never preachy, so this is certainly the better kind of Christian-inspired fiction, but if you're someone who avoids such references for whatever reason you might want to give this title a pass.
On a similar note, there's something about the gay couple in this story that gave me pause. Specifically, it's that the only gay couples are among the colonizers. All of the people who'd been left behind on Earth were depicted, as far as I could tell, pursuing exclusively cis-het relationships. I know I'm prone to paranoid reading when Christianity and queerness meet, so I've spent a fair bit of time turning this over in my mind before I sat down to write this, to try to be as fair as possible about a book that, overall, I enjoyed. Ultimately, I don't see any evidence that the author was attempting to make a point by writing it this way. I'm not mad about it. But that doesn't mean that this doesn't have the potential to be disturbing to some readers, so I wanted to mention it.
Last, but not least...do the horses die? Mild spoilers ahead!A handful of wild horses are rescued and adopted as community livestock. These horses later die in a stable fire. Their demise is not narrated in detail, but it's made clear that they don't survive.
The book's biggest strength — its varied cast of characters, painting a picture of the future through several distinct narratives — unfortunately also contributes to its biggest weakness. This is due to the way the story is told, with the narratives fragmented and presented non-linearly. While I believe my sense of the whole is complete, or near enough, I'd honestly struggle to tell you, start to finish, what precisely befell each character in the story. There's nothing quite like seeing a character pop up in a scene and having to pause, confused, and think to yourself: "I thought he was dead by now!" I'm not sure that reading it again would help. I think I'd likely have to break out the index cards and start laying the plot out down the hallway to make complete sense of it. Honestly, some kind of dates on the sections would have helped, but that would have ruined the near-future feel of the disaster so I understand why the author left them out.
I also have to mention that this book frequently calls upon Christian themes, ones that go beyond the David and Goliath reference. It's not terribly surprising, given the historical role of spiritual leaders in community organizing, but based on what blurb you read it's easy to get caught off guard. I will say that the book was never preachy, so this is certainly the better kind of Christian-inspired fiction, but if you're someone who avoids such references for whatever reason you might want to give this title a pass.
On a similar note, there's something about the gay couple in this story that gave me pause. Specifically, it's that the only gay couples are among the colonizers. All of the people who'd been left behind on Earth were depicted, as far as I could tell, pursuing exclusively cis-het relationships. I know I'm prone to paranoid reading when Christianity and queerness meet, so I've spent a fair bit of time turning this over in my mind before I sat down to write this, to try to be as fair as possible about a book that, overall, I enjoyed. Ultimately, I don't see any evidence that the author was attempting to make a point by writing it this way. I'm not mad about it. But that doesn't mean that this doesn't have the potential to be disturbing to some readers, so I wanted to mention it.
Last, but not least...do the horses die? Mild spoilers ahead!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Terminal illness, Colonisation, and Violence
Moderate: Cancer, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Police brutality, Addiction, Alcohol, Animal death, Gun violence, and Grief
Minor: Slavery, Pandemic/Epidemic, and War
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
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
podanotherjessi's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
inspiring
slow-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
4.75
This was a book I fell in love with in stages.
For the first half of the book, I loved the themes being explored (gentrification, white flight, racial injustice in a myriad of ways, community), but I wasn't sure whether there was more there for me. It felt like we weren't really getting to know the characters well enough to be attached. The plot was too confusing and disjointed for me to follow. But I've been pulled through Onyebuchi's stories before on themes alone, and while I was wary of that working for a full novel, I was intrigued.
Moving into the second half, Onyebuchi opens the world to us. We start to see how it got to the state it's in. What happened in the near future to cause the mass exodus. And it's HARD to read. He shines a mirror on right here, right now and it's not hard to imagine things following the path he describes. So I got pulled in by this world to see more, to hope just a little about how things could be turned around.
And then suddenly, I was caring about the characters, and I'm not sure how it happened. There's a moment around 80% where I found myself unexpectedly crying over someone. From there, it was like it all just opened up, and I was attached. I cared about each of the characters and wanted to see them happy even when I knew it was likely impossible.
The plot is definitely still the weakest part of this book, but I don't think that was ever the point. It comes together and makes sense by the end, but by the end you don't really care about that any more.
As a side note, I really recommend the audiobook. There's a different reader for each perspective which both makes everything a little bit easier to follow and really immerses you in the story.
For the first half of the book, I loved the themes being explored (gentrification, white flight, racial injustice in a myriad of ways, community), but I wasn't sure whether there was more there for me. It felt like we weren't really getting to know the characters well enough to be attached. The plot was too confusing and disjointed for me to follow. But I've been pulled through Onyebuchi's stories before on themes alone, and while I was wary of that working for a full novel, I was intrigued.
Moving into the second half, Onyebuchi opens the world to us. We start to see how it got to the state it's in. What happened in the near future to cause the mass exodus. And it's HARD to read. He shines a mirror on right here, right now and it's not hard to imagine things following the path he describes. So I got pulled in by this world to see more, to hope just a little about how things could be turned around.
And then suddenly, I was caring about the characters, and I'm not sure how it happened. There's a moment around 80% where I found myself unexpectedly crying over someone. From there, it was like it all just opened up, and I was attached. I cared about each of the characters and wanted to see them happy even when I knew it was likely impossible.
The plot is definitely still the weakest part of this book, but I don't think that was ever the point. It comes together and makes sense by the end, but by the end you don't really care about that any more.
As a side note, I really recommend the audiobook. There's a different reader for each perspective which both makes everything a little bit easier to follow and really immerses you in the story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Racial slurs, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Death and Grief
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
blackmetalblackheart's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
Goliath is not an easy read. Onyebuchi takes his time with weaving all the pieces of the story together, and he leaves it up to the reader to fully map out what this near apocalyptic future looks like. That being said, Goliath is a book that has a big pay off by the end. It is intelligent, deep, political, brutal, beautiful, and honest all mixed together. I can see why some people will bounce early on with this book, but for those readers who do not mind a little hard work. stick with it. It is worth it.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Death, Terminal illness, Grief, Murder, Police brutality, Classism, and Racism
Minor: Rape and Vomit
More...