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hannah_bookworm's review against another edition
dark
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Child death, Misogyny, Sexual content, Slavery, Colonisation, Sexual violence, Suicide, Sexual assault, and Torture
rafacolog's review against another edition
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Rape, Slavery, and Suicide
lexaprose_'s review
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.75
Highly recommend. It is very sad, but beautifully written.
Content Warnings
Minor: Animal cruelty, Slavery, Rape, Sexual assault, Antisemitism, Suicide, Animal death, Racism, Racial slurs, and Sexual violence
emmylunaa's review
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
This is the first book I’ve read by Condé and I’m looking forward to reading more! This reimagined story of Tituba’s life is the legacy she deserves. I loved this book and the poetic writing and imagery. I also enjoyed the interview done with Condé at the end of the book.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Abortion, Colonisation, Murder, Slavery, Violence, War, Sexual assault, Racism, and Child death
misty_kb's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
sad
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? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Abortion, Racial slurs, and Slavery
Moderate: Religious bigotry
Minor: Sexual violence and Sexual content
alp_books's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Deportation, Antisemitism, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual assault, Abortion, Racism, Slavery, Death, Hate crime, and Physical abuse
elderlingfool's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.0
The best thing I can say about this book is that it was engaging. That is no easy feat, but that was often obtained because I couldn't believe what I was reading and I was curious about what other weird things would come next.
I must say that the translation by Diogo Paiva also influenced my experience. I read this book in portuguese and I definitely do not recommend that. From the few words I could tell the original meaning of, there were much better translations to use. Even though the author is not at fault for this I can't help the fact that it influenced my experience and therefore my rating. With a better translation, there is a possibility I would give the book a weak 3 stars. With the translation out of the way, I am going to write about the rest.
The initial pacing is really fast, which is not my preference. It doesn't give the reader or the main character time to process feelings, but it does keep one curious about what is going to happen. After the first few chapters, it slows down a bit, but I still think overall the pacing is too fast for my taste. My guess is that the author was in a hurry to get to grown up Tituba and what her life was like so the childhood and most of the teenage years are quick mentions. I am surprised to see reviews that consider this book slow.
One good thing about the book is that it is informative in some ways. The author even uses an excerpt of Tituba's testimony during the trials, which I found really interesting. Still, as a work of fiction, many liberties were taken to feel in the gaps, including making Tituba see ghosts and giving her an ending that the author liked best. This completely imagined ending lasted for about 60 pages or more and I can't say it was the highlight of the book. More on that ahead.
The characters were, unfortunatelly, very one note. The only ones that had some complexity were Tituba and her husband. However, the author didn't seem to trust the reader to interpret their actions and had to explicitly write what those meant. Just adding more unecessary words to the book, I guess. All this did was make Tituba come off as dumb for not understanding why her husband and others acted in a certain way given the society they were in.
This book also contains love at first sight. It is also what I can only call extremelly heterosexual and it was so bothersome to read. The frequent line of "why can't women live without men?" got tiring really fast for someone that isn't heterossexual because we know perfectly well that they can. Other characters are also aware that Tituba can't spend too long without a man because she needs to have sex, which would be fine and dandy if that line didn't always come up. That also means that most men in this book are trash. Even the ones Tituba likes because she only cares about one thing coming from them either way and doesn't notice their awful personality.
One other thing that kept bothering me is how Tituba kept describing a man as deformed. It was like that was his main trait and even though he was portrayed more or less as an ok guy that's how she always thinks of him. Later, she also thinks of a man she has sex with as her son/lover and even mentions that it makes her feel incestuous. Can't you have sex with a younger man without this? Still, the first thing I mentioned bothered me way more than the later. This is part of the completelly made up ending by the author.
There were some lines about how Tituba cannot die because she is beautiful (something a lot of characters remark upon) and other two women deserve to die because they are ugly anyway. This type of childish thought process never works for me because it takes me out of the story when it comes from grown adults. I do not believe anyone past the age of 15 actually believes and says things like this.
There is an odd chapter where Tituba meets Hester Prynne from the Scarlet Letter in prison and admires and loves her just because they exchanged a few words and she called her pretty. Then, Hester is like "Have you read Paradise Lost? Milton is one of the few poets worth reading". More than anything, this chapter is in the book just so we know the literary tastes of the author. One of the weirdest things I read in a traditionally published book, especially because it came out of nowhere. It was kind of funny.
Now, this book is dark. There were two scenes that were really difficult for me to read so for anyone that needs content warnings I suggest to look these up, even though everyone probably knows more or less what happens in narratives about slavery.
Overall, I do not regret reading this book (I regret picking the portuguese translation though). It was a mess, but an interesting mess that I could talk about for hours. So, in that way is better than books that are alright and I have nothing to say about them.
I must say that the translation by Diogo Paiva also influenced my experience. I read this book in portuguese and I definitely do not recommend that. From the few words I could tell the original meaning of, there were much better translations to use. Even though the author is not at fault for this I can't help the fact that it influenced my experience and therefore my rating. With a better translation, there is a possibility I would give the book a weak 3 stars. With the translation out of the way, I am going to write about the rest.
The initial pacing is really fast, which is not my preference. It doesn't give the reader or the main character time to process feelings, but it does keep one curious about what is going to happen. After the first few chapters, it slows down a bit, but I still think overall the pacing is too fast for my taste. My guess is that the author was in a hurry to get to grown up Tituba and what her life was like so the childhood and most of the teenage years are quick mentions. I am surprised to see reviews that consider this book slow.
One good thing about the book is that it is informative in some ways. The author even uses an excerpt of Tituba's testimony during the trials, which I found really interesting. Still, as a work of fiction, many liberties were taken to feel in the gaps, including making Tituba see ghosts and giving her an ending that the author liked best. This completely imagined ending lasted for about 60 pages or more and I can't say it was the highlight of the book. More on that ahead.
The characters were, unfortunatelly, very one note. The only ones that had some complexity were Tituba and her husband. However, the author didn't seem to trust the reader to interpret their actions and had to explicitly write what those meant. Just adding more unecessary words to the book, I guess. All this did was make Tituba come off as dumb for not understanding why her husband and others acted in a certain way given the society they were in.
This book also contains love at first sight. It is also what I can only call extremelly heterosexual and it was so bothersome to read. The frequent line of "why can't women live without men?" got tiring really fast for someone that isn't heterossexual because we know perfectly well that they can. Other characters are also aware that Tituba can't spend too long without a man because she needs to have sex, which would be fine and dandy if that line didn't always come up. That also means that most men in this book are trash. Even the ones Tituba likes because she only cares about one thing coming from them either way and doesn't notice their awful personality.
One other thing that kept bothering me is how Tituba kept describing a man as deformed. It was like that was his main trait and even though he was portrayed more or less as an ok guy that's how she always thinks of him. Later, she also thinks of a man she has sex with as her son/lover and even mentions that it makes her feel incestuous. Can't you have sex with a younger man without this? Still, the first thing I mentioned bothered me way more than the later. This is part of the completelly made up ending by the author.
There were some lines about how Tituba cannot die because she is beautiful (something a lot of characters remark upon) and other two women deserve to die because they are ugly anyway. This type of childish thought process never works for me because it takes me out of the story when it comes from grown adults. I do not believe anyone past the age of 15 actually believes and says things like this.
There is an odd chapter where Tituba meets Hester Prynne from the Scarlet Letter in prison and admires and loves her just because they exchanged a few words and she called her pretty. Then, Hester is like "Have you read Paradise Lost? Milton is one of the few poets worth reading". More than anything, this chapter is in the book just so we know the literary tastes of the author. One of the weirdest things I read in a traditionally published book, especially because it came out of nowhere. It was kind of funny.
Now, this book is dark. There were two scenes that were really difficult for me to read so for anyone that needs content warnings I suggest to look these up, even though everyone probably knows more or less what happens in narratives about slavery.
Overall, I do not regret reading this book (I regret picking the portuguese translation though). It was a mess, but an interesting mess that I could talk about for hours. So, in that way is better than books that are alright and I have nothing to say about them.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Abortion, Slavery, and Child death
Minor: Ableism
mariekeroos's review
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Religious bigotry, Misogyny, Racism, Slavery, Abortion, Animal death, Antisemitism, Colonisation, and Death
capucapulet's review against another edition
dark
emotional
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Rape, and Slavery
amkclaes's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
tense
fast-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
4.75
I loved this book. the story of Tituba, a woman born on a plantation in Barbados - it starts strong, she's born through the rape of her mother by the plantation owner.
Tituba's perspective is tragic, fresh, cunning... the story is so obviously horrible and full of suffering, but her pov adds so much depth and humanity to it all. i haven't read a bunch of stories set in slavery conditions, but i really appreciated that this was not trauma porn like in the least. in fact this was really masterfully done, i was totally absorbed and got through it quickly, even though i felt like the last part lagged a little, outside of that this was really a perfect novel to me.
it's funny that she references Ann Petry in the end, because as I was reading this I thought of The Street, especially the way the main character, as a black woman, provides truly intersectional analysis of the people around her, commenting on gender, class, even age, as well as race, and specifically shows the ways that we can be supported and betrayed by those with whom we find some kinship.
beyond all of that, the story is really gripping, and i love the witch parts, the supernatural elements and the relationship to the natural world, and healing, its so cool.
Tituba's perspective is tragic, fresh, cunning... the story is so obviously horrible and full of suffering, but her pov adds so much depth and humanity to it all. i haven't read a bunch of stories set in slavery conditions, but i really appreciated that this was not trauma porn like in the least. in fact this was really masterfully done, i was totally absorbed and got through it quickly, even though i felt like the last part lagged a little, outside of that this was really a perfect novel to me.
it's funny that she references Ann Petry in the end, because as I was reading this I thought of The Street, especially the way the main character, as a black woman, provides truly intersectional analysis of the people around her, commenting on gender, class, even age, as well as race, and specifically shows the ways that we can be supported and betrayed by those with whom we find some kinship.
beyond all of that, the story is really gripping, and i love the witch parts, the supernatural elements and the relationship to the natural world, and healing, its so cool.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery, Blood, Racism, and Colonisation
Moderate: Rape, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, and Pregnancy