Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo

19 reviews

kammikim's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Colonisation, Child death, Animal death, Rape, Murder, Mass/school shootings, Kidnapping, Violence, Sexual violence, War, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Blood, Grief, and Genocide

orlagal's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Abandonment, Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Classism, Colonisation, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Deportation, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Violence, Vomit, War, and Xenophobia

pagesofash's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Colonisation, Gun violence, Murder, Violence, War, Police brutality, and Torture

Moderate: Homophobia, Physical abuse, Rape, and Sexual assault

natrabbits's review

challenging dark emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Religious bigotry, Racism, Grief, Genocide, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Police brutality, Gun violence, Murder, Blood, Suicide, and Death

toniamarieparker's review

emotional hopeful slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Suicide, Death of parent, Rape, Colonisation, Death, War, Sexual harassment, Grief, and Racism

Moderate: Genocide and Kidnapping

oddity123's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Genocide, Torture, Police brutality, Colonisation, Rape, and War

Moderate: Cursing

Minor: Suicide

kers_tin's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, Police brutality, Classism, Colonisation, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, and Animal death

faduma's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Forced institutionalization, Murder, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Violence, Blood, Classism, Colonisation, Child death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Police brutality, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Torture, and Trafficking

sarahweyand's review

challenging dark reflective slow-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

2.5

Honestly I feel kind of bad for disliking this one because I think the concept and the message are important. I appreciated the obvious nod to Animal Farm, and sometimes I thought there was nice prose. But this book was a slog if I've ever read one. I had to switch to the audiobook halfway through or I definitely would have DNF'ed it. I found the majority of the prose to be superfluous and overly repetitive (I'm talking literal pages of lists or repeated words). The story was told in such a style that the characters seemed flat and impossible to connect with.  There was less satire and humor than I was hoping for.

This book was a definite step outside my comfort zone to fulfill one of my reading challenges of reading a book from a different literary award shortlist each month, and I wish it had paid off more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality and Violence

Minor: Colonisation

foreverinastory's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Glory is an allegory of Animal Farm set in the historical background of the Zimbabwe revolution (1980s-2019). We follow various animals as they fills roles of historical figures and we see how dictatorship follows the patterns laid out in Orwell's fictional piece.

This was a very compelling and emotional story. I loved the way repetition and humor were used as tools in the narrative. The audiobook narrator (Chipo Chung) was absolutely incredible and brought a rhythm to the story with the way they repeated words with various intonations.

Bulawayo did a beautiful job of crafting this intricate historical fiction. I am glad I read this immediately following Animal Farm. Such an interesting juxtaposition. There were so many characters followed in this story, but I was most invested in Destiny's and my heart felt all the emotions. *insert tears*

Rep: All Zimbabwean cast.

CWs: Violence, genocide, war, rape, police brutality, murder, colonisation, death, gun violence, grief, misogyny, sexual assault, torture, blood, classism, sexual violence, religious bigotry, sexism, injury/injury detail, child death, gore, physical abuse, racism. Moderate: suicide (off-page action, on-page mention), xenophobia, mass shooting, death of parent, animal death, body horror, cursing, homophobia/homomisia, slavery, panic attacks, fire/fire injury, vomit. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Gun violence, War, Colonisation, Violence, Rape, Police brutality, Murder, Death, and Misogyny