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What Members Thought
I can't rate this book. The experience of reading it was horrifying. It's a hard, awful, terrible story. It's well written. But it's just too much.
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To say that I enjoyed reading this book wouldn't be quite right. This was one of the most challenging reads I've tackled in a while, not for the pace (I read it in 2 days), but for its content. This book is not for the faint of heart and quite nearly devastated me, especially in the 2nd half.
This is a book that uses the kidnapping and torture of a Haitian-American woman to explore the dynamics of relationships in both the small and large scale. Roxane Gay somehow touches on race, gender, privil ...more
This is a book that uses the kidnapping and torture of a Haitian-American woman to explore the dynamics of relationships in both the small and large scale. Roxane Gay somehow touches on race, gender, privil ...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
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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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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Well that was harrowing. Beautifully written, but intensely hard to read.
May 20, 2014
Nina
marked it as to-read
May 23, 2014
LT
marked it as to-read
Aug 10, 2014
taeli
marked it as to-read
Sep 08, 2014
Nicole Adrienne
marked it as to-read
Dec 05, 2014
Amy
marked it as to-read
Dec 09, 2014
Martha
marked it as to-read
Jan 06, 2015
Sarah
marked it as to-read
Apr 27, 2016
Lisa
marked it as to-read
Jun 02, 2016
Julianne Dunn
marked it as to-read
Jul 09, 2016
Isabel
marked it as to-read
Sep 21, 2016
Michelle
marked it as to-read
Jan 04, 2017
Karina Ambartsoumian-Clough
marked it as to-read
Jan 22, 2017
Chris Lott
marked it as to-read
