Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

24 reviews

dogoodwithbooks's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book was something else. While I don’t really read a whole lot of historical fiction and that I thought the pacing at first was pretty slow, I was captivated by McBride’s storytelling of the residents in Chicken Hill. Capturing the various points of intersectionality in terms of race, social class, and disability (just to name a few), McBride’s stories of the African American and Jewish residents who live in Pottstown’s Chicken Hill is both heartbreaking yet hopeful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Racial slurs, Forced institutionalization, Sexual assault, Antisemitism, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Child abuse, Medical content, Ableism, and Child death

Minor: Infertility, Death of parent, Excrement, and Abandonment

chewy__stuff's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, Antisemitism, Chronic illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Grief, Confinement, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Child death, Mental illness, Infertility, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Murder, Excrement, and Child abuse

Minor: Death of parent

shiverowl's review against another edition

emotional

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Child abuse, and Child death

Moderate: Mental illness

redheadorganist's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Forced institutionalization, and Racism

Moderate: Excrement, Murder, Rape, and Grief

Minor: Child death, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Religious bigotry, and Chronic illness

killeenm's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I liked it overall. I’m not sure why some plot points existed, and I wished things had been made a bit more clear. It got REALLY dark at times in ways that I didn’t think added to the storyline.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Child abuse, Child death, Antisemitism, Sexual assault, Racism, Forced institutionalization, and Xenophobia

biobeetle's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Xenophobia, Ableism, Antisemitism, Racism, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Violence, Forced institutionalization, and Child abuse

Moderate: Murder and Child death

Minor: War

marianka1992's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault, and Child death

clarkg's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

"The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store" is a beautiful, lyrical tale of community and solidarity. McBride has created a rich world full of brilliant, dynamic characters whose fates entwine in surprising places. I appreciated many things about this book--the language, the care given to crafting the story's Black and Jewish communities, the breadth and depth of disability representation (though not without flaw), and its callbacks to a larger conversation about the possibilities and limits of justice on stolen land. If I had to describe "The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store" in a single word, it would be "abundant".

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Violence, Rape, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Medical trauma, Ableism, Child death, Death, and Excrement

Moderate: Classism, Antisemitism, Colonisation, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Infertility, Death of parent, Mental illness, Misogyny, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Xenophobia

Minor: Slavery, Infidelity, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

jennshelfishlife's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Ableism, Antisemitism, Bullying, Classism, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Racism, Religious bigotry, and Medical trauma

Minor: Excrement and Infertility

craftyanty's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

Not at all what I expected, but a beautiful book, no less.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Child abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Confinement, Child death, and Antisemitism