Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo

33 reviews

saturdayslaughter's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0


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kammikim's review

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

4.0

This is a powerful book - in voice, in story, in style, in message. I found it challenging on multiple levels, and consequently slow to get through. That said, I think it's a deeply profound and important book and I'm glad I did eventually see it through to the end. The imagery, emotion, originality, and storytelling were truly inspiring to me. It's an inventive and compelling satire from a clear, confident, and compelling voice.

The challenges:
1. The unique style of narration is no doubt intentional and I think meant to represent oral traditions of storytelling, while also making a point about the repetitiveness of history, but the constantly repeating phrases and sentence structures did make for a sluggish or exasperating read at times. Some places it added power to the story, others it took away from the power and momentum in my opinion.
2. The violence in this book is necessary to the story, but it is truly difficult to get through. I ended some chapters sobbing and had to step away from the book for a month+ at a time to process and recover. It's a testament to Bulawayo's incredible command of emotion, empathy, and unflinching attention to the worst sides of humanity that it had such a visceral effect on me as a reader, but be aware that this is a really, really tough read. 

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orlagal's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25


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pagesofash's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0


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rachelko's review against another edition

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4.5


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natrabbits's review

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challenging dark emotional fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot

3.0


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elle_g's review

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dark informative reflective 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? It's complicated

3.75

People sell this book as 'African Animal Farm', but that doesn't do it justice!
Glory describes the events surrounding the 2018 Zimbabwe election using animals rather than people; using animals provided distance for those close to the violence and made it accessible for those who didn't know this piece of history, while pulling back the veil every once in a while to remind you that these events happened to real people. 
Literary, heartbreaking, & hopeful.

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indiahollym's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny informative medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

- Took me a while to get into it
- Her writing is immense: tongue n cheek, emotive, skillful, colourful. She gives real character to each and every voice in the story basically just using their dialogue and very little else. P wicked
- Inspired me into pursuit of  learning about Zimbabwe’s history instead of being intimidated by what I didn’t know
- Some absolutely gutting moments with my heart in my throat

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imlfox's review against another edition

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challenging dark hopeful sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • 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


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oddity123's review

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challenging funny slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

Wow, just wow. Take Things Fall Apart’s cultural markers and oral storytelling feel, Animal Farm’s allegorical devices, the sweeping epic revolutionary backdrop of The House of the Spirits and set it in 2017 with WhatsApp and YouTube playing significant roles and you’ve got this Zimbabwean parable in about 400 pages. My favorite might be the “American tweeting baboon.” It’s  a challenging read, for sure, and I really think it could’ve been quite a lot shorter. The pace is really slow to start. Almost all the humor is in the first half though. Then it took my breath away. I wish I could incorporate this book into my world lit curriculum but it won’t fit. 

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