Reviews with content warning for Rape - Another Brooklyn

I didn’t like how the past and present monologues were intertwined in this book, it could have been more cohesive but overall the book is hard hitting.

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zoes_human's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

A quietly sad coming-of-age tale set in the impoverished Brooklyn of the 1970s. Brilliantly performed on audio by Robin Miles and one of Jacqueline Woodson's rare adult novels. It explores friendship, grief, and the traumas faced by girls as they become women.

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jcstokes95's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book is best enjoyed like a painting. I think the sooner you release the idea that a narrative is going to form, the better off your reading experience will be. Woodson is drawing vivid portraits of a place, time and its people. The stories here are heartbreaking, but presented as the mundane life of a community. Woodson doesn't dwell on the abuse, addiction or violence or at least, she doesn't present it for us to leer at. It feels so fluid, like you're moving through life with these girls. It also shares their moments of joy, of confidence and their friendship. Another Brooklyn manages to tell a real, dynamic story about young, Black girls and their different but intrinsically tied paths to adulthood.

It's really astonishing how full of a picture Woodson can draw in such a short book. I read it in audiobook form (highly recommend) and it felt like someone spilling their life history in a late night talk. It got straight to the heart of everything that could possibly touch girlhood without pulling punches or gawking. Woodson's always evocative writing is the centerpiece holding this together. Favorite quotes include:

"And she whispered how she was the queen of other places. ‘Close my eyes and boom, I’m gone. I learned it from my mother,’ she told us. ‘So many days you look in that woman’s eyes and she isn’t even there.’”

"We had blades inside our kneesocks and were growing our nails long. We were learning to walk the Brooklyn streets as though we had always belonged to them - our voices loud, our laughter even louder. But Brooklyn had longer nails and sharper blades."

There are so many of these gorgeous, lyrical moments here. I think this book will feel a bit plotless to some. I also am not sure if Woodson fully hammers home her message on memory at times; though I feel that may be because everything these young girls experience feels relevant and recent. In all, this books feels like a great doorway into lives of young girls not always fully seen.

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irenemarie's review

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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suzyreadsbooks's review against another edition

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dark sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

I loved Red at the Bone and was looking forward to reading more by Woodson.
In Another Brooklyn, she explores the possibility and precariousness of Black girlhood for August and her friends in 1970s New York. This had very sparse, lyrical writing with interesting use of repetition.
But, it sped along too quickly for me. I kept wishing it was slightly more fleshed out, because RATB was so masterful at balancing brevity with deep character studies. This felt like an outline of the pain without the full picture of these characters’ lives.

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azyef's review

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challenging emotional relaxing 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? Yes

3.75

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melaniereadsbooks's review

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challenging emotional reflective 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

4.25

This book was such an interesting and well-written novella. I was able to read this in practically one sitting and it flew by.

I loved the character growth that happened in this memoir-esque fiction. It felt so real and I was definitely empathizing with the main character and her friends.

The writing in this book is absolutely beautiful. One thing I really loved about it was its repetition of memory, and how it played around that theme. There were some twists I didn't really see coming and the unreliability of the main characters memory really kept me on my toes.

Great and important story.

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