Girl Woman Other by Bernadine Evaristo

Excellent read!

This book discusses all the issues we didn’t even know existed and the way the main characters establish their point of view to be firm and stand out , is unmatched.

Title ; Girl Woman Other

Author ; Bernadine Evaristo

Genre ; LGBT fiction

Pages ; 464

Goodreads rating ; 4.4 stars

Publication date ; 2nd May , 2019 by Hamish Hamilton

Format ; E book

Review ; Spoiler or non spoiler ; Both

Standalone or series ; Standalone

Book Review;

Firstly, It’s a 4.5 star book for me. I have my reasons and it’s not going to be personal. The book isn’t a run through book , and there’s so many issues I’m new to , so it took time to understand them and I just felt , some parts were a bit too dragged but definitely not unnecessary.

This book is centered on 12 British women , who have to face tribulations because of their gender , beliefs or color. The roots of the women, are mostly traced to Africa and some , coming to Europe for a better life and not minding the obstacles they are faced with. It is later realized , that all their lives are connected and one way or the other , they are faced with the same ideals and issues the book has brought foward. I’ll be explaining the first five characters mentioned not because they’re my favorite , but because they have introduced the African diaspora .

Amma

Who believes in freedom and equality of everyone. Very versatile and likes to think of anything as it is . She has a daughter , Yazz who doesn’t really see things as it is. Maybe it’s because she is now old school, but everything she does is for her because she loves her very much. Even before then , she has always tried to make a difference and show that lesbians like her , and people of color can also do exceptional stuff , start from the scratch and be successful.

Yazz

Amma’s daughter who sees blacks as already oppressed in the society, her views differ from her mother , but all the same , they just want to be accepted in this society. There’s more liberation in Yazz generation anyways. Her friends and their lives also play a big role in the book . Even as they aren’t main characters , you can tell that they’re strong young women even when society tries to tell them otherwise. I told you before that no one is left out. The power of the hijab and culture through her friends; warzi , nensi and Courtney and the power of choice and identity.

Dominique

Already starts to hustle for herself in a lonely world. She loves what She and Amma is doing but wants more. She doesn’t want to be confined to a particular space . She wants to be free. She meets Nziga (Nziga is a self centered radical feminist and someone eho doesn’t smoke or drink) . Nziga to me , is so toxic that it disgusts me. She even centers racism , feminism and Lgbt issues around her as if we care😩. I didn’t care . Thankfully, she escapes the hand of a crazy psychotic partner. For a while you would think that It didn’t happen in all kinds of relationships (toxic masculinity) and it felt so annoying.

Arghhhhhh. Dominique regains her strength again. She is a strong woman

Carole

Comes from a Nigerian Background and her Mother , from what we all can see is a proud Nigerian who has come to Britain to better her daughter’s life to be free from suffering. Did she succeed?

There’s the issue of manipulation and rape from the silly Trey in her school party. It’s sickening and sad that people can think of such disgusting act not minding that it can affect someone. The feeling of withdrawal and wanting to be recognized by people. She’s successful no doubt but has passed through the cruel world.

Bunmi

The story of how she comes to Europe and the sacrifices her mom has made , to put her in the position she is. She loves to identify as Nigerian no matter the situation. She has to do what she has to do after her husband is no more. She even notices that she feels something for a Woman and the feeling is reciprocated. Very proud mother and will risk being humiliated or ridiculed to give her a good life.

They keep arriving, Latisha who has decided to choose her own path , even when she has the opportunity to be who she wants to be. It teaches us that, we should follow our heart and do what’s important for our well being.

Shirley , Winsome , Penelope, Megan/Morgan , whose POV opens the door on the issues of ; Gender fluidity, transgender , non binary people , modern feminism and gender related issues. Hattie and Grace. There’s even a twist to it and someone is a main Characters daughter.

Excerpts from the book;

“in any case, ageing is nothing to be ashamed of

especially when the entire human race is in it together”

“can’t they see I’m a living goddess?”

“I let her know she’s an apologist for the patriarchy and complicit in a system that oppresses all women

she says human beings are complex

I tell her not to patronize me”

“unfortunately, once seen, never unseen and it was a lesson for her at a young age that you never know people until you’ve been through their drawers

and computer history”

“Yazz sometimes has sleepless nights worrying she’ll be alone for the whole of her life

if she can’t get a proper boyfriend at nineteen what hope is there for when she’s older?”

“to which Waris replies that she wears a hijab to make a statement about her Muslim identity, and while there are those who make out it’s a proper religious thing, there’s nothing about women covering up in the Koran, you know?”

“nobody talked loudly about being gang-banged at thirteen and a half”

“to replace someone irreplaceable was impossible

this was different, Omofe was a woman”

“L is for love, I is for immortal, F is for family, E is for eternal”

“because we need to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past and to deepen our understanding of who we are as the human rac”

“Winsome feels quite a literary person these days and has got used to reading book”

“we the women/whose praises go unsung/whose voices go unheard”

“Dora said there was no such thing as objective truth and if you think something’s good because it speaks to you

it is”

“she loathed that feminism was on the descent, and the vociferous multi-culti brigade was on the ascent, and felt angry all the time, usually at the older boys who were disrespectful and the bullish male teachers who still behaved as if they owned the planet”

“gotcha, so here goes: women are designed to have babies, not to play with dolls, and why shouldn’t women sit with their legs wide open (if they’re wearing trousers, obv) and what does mannish or manly mean anyway? walking”

“with long strides? being assertive? taking charge? wearing ‘male’ clothes? not wearing make-up? unshaved legs? shaved head (lol), drinking pints instead of wine? preferring football to online make-up tutorials (yawn), and traditionally men wear make-up and skirts in parts of the world so why not in ours without being accused of being ‘effeminate’? what does effeminate actually mean when you break it down?”

“this is not about feeling something or about speaking words

this is about being

together.”

There’s other POVs not explained here , it’s the beauty of the review , because while you read , it gets intriguing and even more interesting. You begin to wonder why these things are happening. How it was then to live as a woman and a person of colour. An immigrant to top it up and not have money. Sadly , these issues are even still in our daily lives where people still feel the need for superiority over a gender or over a person of colour because of ignorance and lack of knowledge. There’s a lot of lessons to learn in this book , with the sole purpose of using particular topics as the center of the lecture the novel.

So many pressing issues discussed in this book under the umbrella of 12 women living in a world where they still have to walk an extra mile to prove they’re like every other person. They are also human and their decisions or perspectives on how life should be doesn’t define Character.

They are all connected once you read towards the end , which makes it more exciting.

Issues like ; Racism , patriarchy, feminism, love and relationships, religion , rape , abuse (of all sorts ). The big issue of identifying as a Lesbian , gay , transgender , bisexual , non binary , queer also plays a role in this book . Their struggles and how they gained their strengths against the cruel world. It’s an eye opener and I feel like you will learn more , when you decide to crawl under the skin of the characters.

It’s a very good and informative read and I would recommend for everyone and anyone.

I wish i could say more 😩. But you will have ti find out when you read it.

Till i come your way next time .

Bye✨