Girl, Woman, Other

The overall structure of the story revolves around the narratives of 12 women (and others) who share three common elements: (1) they are of African descent, (2) they are biologically female (and, as indicated by the title’s mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive terms—"women," "girls," and "others"—this includes LGBT individuals), and (3) living in the UK—are told with care, each intertwining gradually with the others. This narrative style forms the core of the book’s appeal and successfully conveys the author’s message to readers. While people who fit the aforementioned three criteria tend to be lumped together by society, the diversity of the stories presented here seems to thoroughly and thoughtfully refute this reductive view (i.e., prejudice). Above all, there is great value in portraying all of these individuals—who have rarely been given a voice in previous literary works—as the 12 protagonists of this story. Furthermore, by depicting one character’s perspective on another (the protagonist of a different chapter), the book illustrates the misunderstandings and differences in values that can arise even among women in the same position. Amidst this diversity, the shared hardships experienced by virtue of being women or people of African descent are depicted throughout the story. As a reader, one might feel empathy or aversion and be tempted to voice one’s own opinions, but the author’s message regarding this is likely encapsulated in the final concluding sentence: This is not about feeling something or about speaking words—this is about being together. Come to think of it, *The Testaments* was also structured around the stories of three female protagonists. Giving a voice to those living on the margins of society—that is precisely the role that books and literature have played since long before the advent of social media. I don’t think we should dismiss books that amplify the already loud voices of people who are, for better or worse, always influencers (self-help books, etc., haha), but I’d like to express my own thoughts through the act of purchasing books—an activity that, for readers, can be seen as a form of voting.