Book Review: Girl, Woman, Other

I received Bernadine Evaristo's Girl, Woman, Other from a friend as a birthday gift. My first thought was 

1. I had seen it on the BLM must-reads. 

2. The front cover was multicoloured, eye-catching and very appealing (but you should not judge a book by its cover!)

Initially, I was not impressed by the first few pages and figured the book will drearily plod on. There is no real punctuation involved in Evaristo's writing. Madness! However, after momentary doubt, I was obsessed. Hooked. I had not felt like that with a novel since Gail Honeyman's Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. Chapter after chapter, I would keep on reading. You are probably wondering what this mysterious novel is about. Evaristo has separated the book into five chapters, with three sub-chapters in each of them titled as names. After many sub-chapters, I could not conclude how each of the personas fitted together in one puzzle. The way in which all of the characters are interconnected is revealed in the final chapter. All of the women are from different backgrounds, ages, countries, jobs. Each of the character's stories wonderfully come to life, thanks to Evaristo. Her writing style is full of wit and humour but with serious undertones which makes the book meaningful and a real gem to the BLM movement, educating through literature. In relation to what I mentioned earlier about there being deliberately little punctuation, after finishing the book I realised I was creating my own punctuation. I inserted my own imaginary commas, whenever I needed a breath. I put full stops in places where it was suitable, to enhance that previous sentence's power, and a break for me to even reflect. So, the whole no punctuation game was not pretentious in the end. I really enjoyed how Evaristo wrote the whole novel. 

If you do have the chance to lend this off someone, buy it first or second hand, I highly recommend. 

Bernadine Evaristo - Girl, Woman, Other.