Wednesday 21 February 2018

Mini-Review! - An Untamed State by Roxane Gay

An Untamed State title image with bird flying outside bird cage in a vintage style with purple and brown tones; 'Book Review @ dorareads.co.uk' is written in the bottom-right corner




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Title: An Untamed State


Author: Roxane Gay



Amazon: UK - USA















Verdict:


This book is an open wound.

It is raw. It is powerful. And, somehow, it finds a way to be beautiful.









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Huge warning, straight off: this book contains SEVERAL scenes of GRAPHIC RAPE, SEXUAL ASSAULT, and TORTURE, as well as graphic details of PTSD, and PTSD flashbacks.

Please, please, PLEASE, be careful when reading.

You're important, and your well-being is important. Take things slow. Not finishing the book is NOT a failure. Do what's right for you.








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Additional warnings for... well, pretty much anything else you can think of.

A lot of things that are just briefly brushed upon, like cancer, miscarriage, racism, emotional abuse, etc., could be damaging to people in their own right.

So please, take care my nerdlets - this is heavy stuff.











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This #OwnVoices novel by Roxane Gay, a Haitian-American, and a rape survivor, is the expression of hurt, and the dim flicker of hope, transformed into words.








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Mireille Duval Jameson is kidnapped on a vacation at her parents' home in Haiti.

Her captivity is hell, and her life afterwards, dealing with what happened to her, is a different type of hell.

To some, the violent and graphic nature of this novel seems gratuitous and exploitative. I disagree.

I can see what would lead people to thinking this was money-grabbing sensationalism, but, to me, this was the opposite of exploitative.

This was reality; which is probably why some readers instinctively placed it in the realms of the outrageous. Sometimes it's easier to deny the truth than face it.






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This is an important book because it's so raw, so difficult to read, so intense.


It's hard to explain it, but there's something incredible about this book.



Deeply troubling though it is, painful though it is, I'm glad I read it... because wow.

























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Last Update: 17th April 2018









12 comments:

  1. I recently got this book from a charity shop and knew nothing about it, other than it`s by a great feminist author. I`m really happy I saw your review, so I can prepare myself for all emotional charge.


    Carmen`s Reading Corner

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Be careful - I hope you... 'enjoy' is the wrong word... I hope you find it worth the read, but if you have to stop reading, then stop reading.

      Glad my review was useful! :)

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  2. I’m glad you found this book powerful and gripping! I have never read anything from Roxane Gay but I definitely know that a lot of people love her writing. I think I could give this a go!

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    1. Hell, if you're feeling up to it, then give it a shot! :) Be careful though - like I said, it's heavy!

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  3. Thank you again for all the warnings. I always wanted to read Gay's books because of the subject matter. So I tried Hunger and found the narrative extremely repetitive so it was a DNF but I AM SO reading this one! Thanks for the review Cee!

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    1. I hope you find it worth the read! XD I thought it was truly excellent.

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  4. Thanks for the warnings. I like to be prepared for that sort of reading.
    With all the things going on in the world right now, I don't think I can handle a heavy and raw book like that. Right now, I like to enjoy some escapism from reality.

    Dinh@Arlene's Book Club

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    1. There's nothing wrong with that! Read whatever you feel like reading :)

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  5. Wow, this sounds like a very heavy book. But I get what you're saying, people often don't like to accept that reality can be terrible, so it does make sense that some people saw this as over-the-top and yet you saw it as being very real. Books like that are important. I'm glad you found this one to be so powerful.

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    1. I totally get why people would find it over the top - I think framing it in that way gives them a level of protection from the toughness and harshness of this book, and I'm not going to blame anyone for that.

      But I totally agree - books like this are extremely important, even if the image they reflect of the world is not a flattering one.

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  6. Thank you for this review. I don't know that this is a book I can read, but I totally see that reading this book can be important to many people.

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    Replies
    1. You're welcome - and thank *you* for the comment! :)

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Comments? I love comments! Talk to me nerdlets!