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Reviews tagging 'Child death'
Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction by Sheree Renée Thomas, Zelda Knight, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki
5 reviews
kylieqrada's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I don't like rating anthologies because some of the stories are gonna hit and some are gonna miss. There were some stories in here that I LOVED, some that I didn't like, and one I DNF'ed. Hence the 3 stars. But I love the project of this and the chance to find new African authors to read more from!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Child abuse, and Gore
Moderate: Addiction, Death, and Rape
Minor: Alcoholism, Confinement, and Child death
mandkips's review
adventurous
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault and Child abuse
Moderate: Death, Rape, Addiction, and Gore
Minor: Confinement, Alcoholism, and Child death
peachani's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-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? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Blood, Gore, Murder, Child abuse, and Dysphoria
Moderate: Colonisation, Misogyny, Fatphobia, Death, Death of parent, Rape, Gaslighting, Religious bigotry, and Grief
Minor: Sexual content, Homophobia, Mental illness, Police brutality, Confinement, Drug use, Alcohol, Body shaming, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Slavery, and Suicidal thoughts
amandadevoursbooks's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- 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
5.0
Thank you, NetGalley and Tordotcom for my access to the audio book of Africa Risen.
This anthology of science fiction and magical realism spans the breadth of Africa and the African Diaspora. In 32 stories, the authors paint vivid pictures of the future rooted firmly in African and Diaspora traditions, stories, and experiences. Each story invites readers to sit, listen, and absorb. Each one is unique, and taken as a whole, they show Africa as whole, vibrant, and powerful.
Collections of short stories present options for all types of readers. Not everyone will resonate with every story, and yet each of these stories is well crafted and is worth reading.
This book was easy to savor and appreciate. I know I will be haunted by some of these stories forever. Here are 10 that I am still thinking about.
This anthology of science fiction and magical realism spans the breadth of Africa and the African Diaspora. In 32 stories, the authors paint vivid pictures of the future rooted firmly in African and Diaspora traditions, stories, and experiences. Each story invites readers to sit, listen, and absorb. Each one is unique, and taken as a whole, they show Africa as whole, vibrant, and powerful.
Collections of short stories present options for all types of readers. Not everyone will resonate with every story, and yet each of these stories is well crafted and is worth reading.
This book was easy to savor and appreciate. I know I will be haunted by some of these stories forever. Here are 10 that I am still thinking about.
- Mami Wataworks - Why would a towns leaders lie to the town about rain clouds?
- Rear Mirror - In a battle of traditional beliefs and Christianity, will the wishes of the Dead be stronger than the will of some of the living?
- A Dream of Electric Mothers - If you could ask your ancestors one question, what would it be? Would it be them answering you?
- Housewarming of a Lion Goddess - What happens when you live so long your memories become tangled up?
- Cloud mine - If the only way you can get rain is to strip a person of their humanity would you do it?
- The Sugar Mill - When your only property for sale is a sugar mill built on top of the bodies of your ancestors, will you listen to their ghosts or your own material needs?
- Ghost Ship - What happens if you are on a ship with a mysterious package and everyone else goes missing?
- A Girl Crawls in a Dark Corner - If you were enslaved and your enslaver forced you to hurt young children, what would you do if you had enough courage?
- Exiles of Witchery- Your magical vehicle is acting up, when its doors open somewhere you didn't want them to, what will you do, find the girl, save the witch, kill the agressors?
- The Taloned Beast - What if the housekeeper and you are both victims and prisoners of your cruel uncle? Would you run away or would you work to free her too?
It's hard to keep it to ten. Some are more haunting (A Soul of Small Places) others charming and relatable (Hanfo drivers), and more are beautiful and magical (The Paper Makers). Each chapter is new, thoughtful, and moving in its own way.
Audio Review: This audio book is well-narrated. The voices change off chapter by chapter so it makes it an easy and engaging listen. It is long, but it was perfect to listen to during my trips to town and doing chores around the house.
I loved it so much I bought a hard copy as a gift for a friend and a hard copy for myself. If you want to find new African and African Diasporic authors to follow, you should pick it up.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation
Moderate: Child death, Death, Sexual assault, Child abuse, and Sexual violence
Minor: War
sarrie's review
challenging
dark
funny
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
TL;DR: A super interesting collection, but with a lot of darker stories, especially in the second half.
It’s extremely hard to review an anthology of this size without just muddling through a bunch of individual reviews. There are, like with any anthology, weaker and stronger stories. The depth and aim of this collection is to highlight and feature stories from African writers using and from African lore/view/history. On that this succeeded fantastically.
The stories and authors were varied in style and type. A lot of these had some very interesting, fun, and not so fun nods to history and I was happy to have caught some of those as I’m working on educating myself more on those things. On the whole I enjoyed this, though the last half felt heavier and darker due to a few triggers that popped up, specifically for me. These are stories I did skim through to the next, so be aware there maybe stories here that you’ll find hard to read or disturbing. My favorite stories all came from the beginning of the collection - in fact my favorite story was the first story, The Blue House. This one was so vivid and grabbed me so intently I was lost in for the duration
I would recommend this one for anyone who is looking for more stories from the African voice. There were some weaker stories of course, but the whole of it felt strong and rich in tone and voice. Another fantastic collection for those of us who enjoy short stories.
It’s extremely hard to review an anthology of this size without just muddling through a bunch of individual reviews. There are, like with any anthology, weaker and stronger stories. The depth and aim of this collection is to highlight and feature stories from African writers using and from African lore/view/history. On that this succeeded fantastically.
The stories and authors were varied in style and type. A lot of these had some very interesting, fun, and not so fun nods to history and I was happy to have caught some of those as I’m working on educating myself more on those things. On the whole I enjoyed this, though the last half felt heavier and darker due to a few triggers that popped up, specifically for me. These are stories I did skim through to the next, so be aware there maybe stories here that you’ll find hard to read or disturbing. My favorite stories all came from the beginning of the collection - in fact my favorite story was the first story, The Blue House. This one was so vivid and grabbed me so intently I was lost in for the duration
I would recommend this one for anyone who is looking for more stories from the African voice. There were some weaker stories of course, but the whole of it felt strong and rich in tone and voice. Another fantastic collection for those of us who enjoy short stories.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism and Rape
Minor: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Body horror, Death of parent, Deportation, Colonisation, Domestic abuse, Abortion, Addiction, Blood, Death, Miscarriage, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Infertility, Medical content, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual violence, Animal death, Child death, Cultural appropriation, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, and Self harm
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