sexual abuse
Consent: A Memoir by Vanessa Springora
Written in spare yet unflinching prose Consent, as the title would suggest, is a memoir that examines its author’s relationship’ to a renowned French author, Gabriel Matzneff. At the time Springora was 14 and Matzneff was 50. Springora looks back to that time in her life, evoking the feelings and emotions her teenage self was […]
MoreThe Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan
For a book published in the 90s The Kitchen God’s Wife comes across as strangely outdated. And I guess in spite of Tan’s writing—which is far from mediocre or incompetent—I could not look past the fact that her story was the antithesis of female solidarity. At first I was taken by Tan’s storytelling. The first […]
MoreButter Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi
“Hold it gently, this hungry beast that is your heart.” Butter Honey Pig Bread explores the complex relationship two sisters who were once close but have become estranged as adults. Their mother, Kambirinachi, believes that she is an Ogbanje, a malevolent spirit who haunts mothers by ‘coming’ and ‘going’ (usually the child dies in childhood). […]
MoreLonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura
“The only place she could now go to freely from her bedroom was the castle. If I’m in the castle, she started to think, then I’ll be safe. Only the castle beyond the mirror could offer her complete protection.” Lonely Castle in the Mirror is a heartfelt slice of life novel with a magical twist. […]
MoreThe Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
The Bluest Eye is an unflinching and deeply harrowing examination of race, colorism, gender, and trauma. Throughout the course of her narrative Toni Morrison captures with painful lucidity the damage inflicted on a black child by a society that equates whiteness with beauty and goodness, and blackness with ugliness and evil.In her introduction to her […]
MoreNotes on a Silencing: A Memoir by Lacy Crawford
“The teachers, rectors, lawyers, and priests of St. Paul’s School lied to preserve their legacy. It would take decades to learn not to hate the girl they disparaged, and to give her the words she deserved.” Notes on a Silencing is a profoundly poignant memoir and a deeply moving account of a young girl’s sexual […]
MoreAfter Elias by Eddy Boudel Tan — book review
From its heartbreaking first pages, to its lump-in-your-throat epilogue, After Elias is an emotionally charged novel. “People can bring you pain, but nothing will hurt more than the pain you inflict on yourself.” Grief, guilt, regret, and fear dominate Tan’s narrative. Coen Caraway and Elias Santos are meant to have a fairy-tale wedding and live […]
MoreReal Life by Brandon Taylor — book review
“Is it into this culture that he is to emerge? Into the narrow, dark water of real life?” It had been awhile since I finished a book in one day or since I read a book that made me cry…but once I started Real Life I simply couldn’t stop, even if what I was reading […]
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