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What Members Thought
Wowowowow. This is a fantastic, brutal book featuring a strong woman who is broken and has to put all the pieces back together. I'd recommend this one to fans of ROOM. (And be aware that there are many graphic descriptions of violence, including sexual violence.)
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This book has gotten so much praise and so much buzz that it's hard for me to say anything bad about it-- it's a fine book but one that wasn't for me. I knew going in that it featured extended accounts of rape, violence, and torture and, normally, those elements in a book don't bother me. "An Untamed State" is really a study in pain and torture rather than a book in which those elements are part of a larger story. That's just not something I find particularly compelling.
It was also tough for me ...more
It was also tough for me ...more
I Couldn't put it down and read it in one day. Today.
So much love and beauty mixed with so much hate and violence. The author's way of painting Haiti is the perfect way to explain this book. ...more
So much love and beauty mixed with so much hate and violence. The author's way of painting Haiti is the perfect way to explain this book. ...more
SUCH a powerful and complex look at rape and PTSD, but also at class and poverty and Haiti and all these complicated intersections. And such gorgeous prose.
I wanted to read this for awhile because duh, Roxane Gay, but I also put off reading it because I was worried about how heavy it would be. It's like... pretty heavy, but it's not quite the unending wall of bleakness I feared it might be. (Although it has its moments.)
Highly recommended (when the reader feels emotionally prepared). ...more
I wanted to read this for awhile because duh, Roxane Gay, but I also put off reading it because I was worried about how heavy it would be. It's like... pretty heavy, but it's not quite the unending wall of bleakness I feared it might be. (Although it has its moments.)
Highly recommended (when the reader feels emotionally prepared). ...more
Apr 17, 2014
Melle
rated it
it was amazing
Shelves:
copyright-2014,
fiction,
adult,
read-in-2015,
family-dynamics,
marriage,
survival,
violence-against-women,
rape,
kidnapping
Words fail to describe the power, brutality, and ugly beauty of Roxane Gay's novel, and I spent the last fourth of the book crying. The writing is powerful, glorious stuff. (I want to write "she makes words her bitch" here, but it seems wildly inappropriate, so I'll just say what I've been saying since the first page of Bad Feminist -- I love Roxane Gay.) The story itself is painful, infuriating, simultaneously filled with and absent of hope, and compelling. Gay perfectly captures complex, layer
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This shit is RAW. Maybe to the point the it could have used more editing? I don't know. This is an important book most adult humans should read, which is maybe going to be my standard Roxane Gay review from now until forever.
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This is not an easy topic to write about and engage the reader with. However, Gay makes sure that you not only stay with the character but also feel what she feels and understand every little bit of it. A must-read for everyone, not just women. I swear you'll never complain about anything in life again! Very well written.
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This book is so well-rendered and claustrophobically tense that I had to put it down. A fine piece of literature that I'm too neurotic for right now.
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"Read this book. It's brutal and beautiful and will devastate you on every page." - tough sell I'll be giving all my friends for a while
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I didn't like the writing. Another example of writers workshop writing. I always felt at a remove from the characters.
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Mar 31, 2014
Hannah
marked it as to-read
May 18, 2014
Lynne
marked it as to-read-contemporary
May 23, 2014
LT
marked it as to-read
Dec 06, 2014
Jenny
marked it as to-read
Jan 06, 2015
Sarah
marked it as to-read
