Book Review - Girl, Woman, Other By Bernadine Evaristo

We all have media blind spots. Books, films, TV shows, or media in general which everyone says is great and we keep meaning to get around to at some point. That thing you want to check out, but stuff keeps getting in the way and preventing it. While writing these reviews, whatever algorithm the internet uses has been paying attention and suggestions and recommended lists have been popping up. Almost always, one of the first few books on those lists is Girl, Woman,Other by Bernadine Evaristo. At this point I feel like I’m late to the party with this one, but I finally read it. Since it came out in 2019 it has been given all the accolades and laurels by many people who are far smarter and more educated than me. Now in 2025, nearly six years later, there’s nothing I can write about this book that hasn’t already been written by someone else. Yet knowing this, upon reading it I still felt compelled to write this review, because its good, really good. That’s the short version, it’s an easy recommend, read it. If you want to stop reading here and get Girl, Woman, Other instead then I encourage it. On the other hand, if you’d like to read the thoughts of some random white guy about it then feel free to stick around.

One of the first things that struck me when I started reading was the writing style and structure of the book. From the first page I noticed the lack of punctuation. No full stops to indicate where one sentence ends and another begins, no quotation marks to show when characters speak, an occasional comma here and there was about it. That might make it sound like a block of words on a page, but while it took a little adjustment on my part, Evaristo has done a phenomenal job controlling the ebb and flow of the book. Her writing moved well enough that I had no problems reading it with natural pauses and breaks emerging throughout where punctuation would be in other books. The book is almost structured like poetry in places with line drops here and there when Evaristo wants to slow the reader down and emphasise something, or make sure a point sits with the reader for a few seconds. It’s quite an impressive trick to pull off, even more so to pull it off consistently for over four hundred pages. It speaks volumes of Evaristo’s skill and talent as a writer that she’s able to just casually discard punctuation, one of the fundamental tools of writing, without losing the reader in a maze of never-ending sentences.

This is absolutely a character driven novel first and foremost. To be honest, and this isn’t a bad thing, the plot is almost non-existent. If I were to really boil down what actually happens in the novel, that isn’t a flashback, I can sum it up here quickly without fear of spoilers. A bunch of people, some more closely connected than others, go to the same after party for the premiere of a play. Some of them talk and its awkward, some of them talk and it’s not awkward. That’s pretty much it, other than a reveal in the epilogue. As someone who is a fan of science fiction and fantasy which tends to have much denser and overtly plot driven stories this was in many ways a refreshing change for me. There is no single main character, there are twelve who take their turns in the spotlight of the narrative. The book is made up of twelve distinctly different character studies with Evaristo going into the personal history and relationships of each through extensive flashbacks. Here, the lack of punctuation mentioned above really enhances the story making it more strongly feel like the reader is seeing twelve separate streams of consciousness. The reader is invited to delve deep into the minds and thoughts of these twelve individuals, and here like in real life, people don’t think in a straight line, or with perfect punctuation. Our thoughts are rarely orderly with a neat beginning, middle and end. They tend to be a collection of fragments that can randomly spark off and lead to the next fragment, which can bring back random memories of times past. One moment the narrative can be focusing on how a character feels and suddenly its years or even decades back in the past showing some of the events that made each one the person they are, and why they think and act the way they do.

One of these flashbacks that stuck out to me enough that I want to focus on it was in Dominique’s chapter. Dominique is a proud and open Black lesbian who founded a theatre company with her friend because they were sick of the typecasting and racism in mainstream theatre. Her chapter opens with a flashback years ago to when she met a Black American woman named Nzinga. What follows is a tour of their relationship and how it quickly turned abusive once Nzinga got her claws in Dominique. I’ll say now that I deeply hated Nzinga in a way I’ve not hated many characters in fiction I’ve read, watched, or played in the past. Hated her, hated her, hated her. The woman is an emotionally manipulative, controlling, abusive monster. To my mind at least with Nzinga, Evaristo has created a villain on the same level as Dr Doom, or Lex Luthor made all the worse by how much more real and mundane she is. I got a pit in the bottom of my stomach as I continued reading and saw the signs Dominique seemed to be oblivious to as Nzinga whisked her off to America isolating her from her support network, and then proceeded to break her down mentally micromanaging everything from who she could speak to all the way down to what she could eat, and how she could wear her hair. I can’t emphasise enough how much Dominique’s chapter especially had me locked in and emotionally invested. I was turning pages thinking if she doesn’t get out of this relationship soon, I’m going to be upset. Thankfully she was able to escape with help and rebuild her life, regaining her independence and Nzinga disappears from the story. Nzinga remained a monster and would go on to abuse the woman she was in a relationship with after Dominique. It was briefly mentioned by one of Nzinga’s other victims that she’d had a stroke twelve year later and died a while after and that was it. Sadly, albeit realistically, there was no big cathartic moment of victory for Dominique. It might seem strange to focus so much on this one small aspect of the novel as Nzinga only exists in this one extended flashback of one chapter of the book, but I can only write about my own experience reading it, and this chapter in particular, grabbed me by the throat and wouldn’t let go.

While it explores many themes through each of its characters, at its core, Girl, Woman, Other is about intersectionality, and how a person’s identity is shaped by the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, class, and history with some of the flashbacks going all the way back to the early twentieth century. Evaristo delves into the complexities of these intersections showing how identity is fluid and constantly evolving. Her characters are all so different from each other that they show how wide ranging the Black experience in modern day, and past, Britain can be. Through her characters she explores how factors like Britain’s history of colonialism and migration, and generational divides can affect the complexities of Black British identity. There is a character who is an out and proud playwright, one who is a more conservative schoolteacher, and one who is a non-binary influencer, to give a few quick examples. Evaristo emphasises that there is no one way to be Black in modern Britain, and the Black British experience isn’t just one thing, but is an umbrella term encompassing an entire confluence of different, sometimes contradictory ideas.

Despite its emphasis on these differences ultimately this book is a celebration of community. Evaristo’s characters might lead separate lives and have separate stories, but they are still connected. The novel’s final chapter, which brings most of the characters together at the above mentioned after party shows these seemingly disparate characters connections. Some of the interactions between these characters are uncomfortable as Evaristo acknowledges the conflicts and tensions that arise within and between groups. However, she also emphasises the power of understanding and empathy to bridge these divides. I’ve barely scratched the surface of this novel and its themes, characters, and subject matter. I could keep digging into it for days but to wrap this up I’ll end this review saying it deserves all the success it has had, and all of the acclaim it has received. I am more than happy to be able to humbly add my own praises to the ever-growing pile.

 You can purchase this book by clicking here: https://tinyurl.com/nm3na9ru