Reviews with content warning for Bullying - How to Say Babylon

Beautifully written, if a bit long-winded at times. I was really taken aback by how similar stories of abuse are, even though the circumstances vary from person to person. I connected it with my own life a lot, and I saw the resemblance to similar memoirs such as Educated.

I also appreciated that Safiya Sinclair included information about Rastafari and Jamaican history, so we would have proper context as we read.

Safiya is clearly an incredible writer, and she does a wonderful job weaving together the complex emotions that come from experiencing abuse. On top of that, the complexity is deepened even further by the generational trauma of colonization and poverty. I found it to be a very well-rounded memoir with a great balance of personal experience and historical research.

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christy_lauren's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative sad tense fast-paced

5.0

My dear friend sophie made me own perfectly curated tbr list and it is the greatest gift. To be thought of when sophie is reading floors me regularly, to know they read such complex and emotionally challenging books and think ‘Christy would like this’ means that I get to exist in so many multitudes. Non fiction has never been something I have flocked too, fiction work has flooded my teens and early twenties but I made a promise I would venture into non fiction if only it meant I could share a little more love for books with sophie.

This book shattered me plain and simple, each word I read on the page felt like striking a match, every chapter devoured the flame burning with more fervour until I felt engulfed entirely. I felt like Safiya had bared her heart and soul on the pages, with such vulnerable retelling of her memories that It was like treading on her nostalgia with each page turned, the rawness of every time portion she described was so perfect I could not read this book fast enough.

To Safiya Sinclair this book is a marvel, a testament to your life and a reminder that woman are so much more than the rage they are born from. Thankyou.

And to my sophie, for thinking of me whenever you read, I ache to be closer to you in all the smallest of ways but getting to love the same books as you feels like an honour you will never full grasp.

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vlawsreads's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced

5.0

This memoir is a stunningly poetic, deeply personal story of a girl growing under an abusive, controlling Rastafarian father. Themes within her life are painfully relatable to my own experience in a high control religion. Themes of sexism, hating your growing feminine body, and the pressure of perfection under the angry gaze of a religious patriarch… I found this book to be both triggering, and incredibly healing. I also realized how woefully ignorant I am of the history of Rastafari, and appreciated how the author wrote about it with both forgiveness, and deep hurt. A masterpiece of a memoir.

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sophiemattholie's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

5.0

this book made me want to write a memoir and forgive my mother and walk into the sea

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lostinthelibrary's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative inspiring sad tense slow-paced

4.5

This may be the best memoir I've ever read. What a life Safiya has experienced but the book didn't come across as inspiration porn, just a very talented women completely laying herself and her experiences bare; the good, bad and ugly. You can tell that she is a poet with the beautiful lyricism in the writing, it was just very special and a fantastic read.

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mamaofperfectpayton's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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