Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers

179 reviews

erilynne's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

So many beautiful parts to this narrative, and things that will stick with me.

There were many parts that were difficult to read because of the subject matter, but overall the book was hard to put down. The size is definitely intimidating, but for sure worth the read.

My only complaint is that the time jumps were confusing at times and I had a hard time remembering who was who when it switched back and forth. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual violence, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Racism, Drug abuse, Racial slurs, Hate crime, and Drug use

k_dubzy's review against another edition

challenging hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced

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

5.0

I still, a week after finishing this book, am at somewhat of a loss for words. I feel like any review I give this book will not do it justice. It's absolutely brilliant.

I would recommend this book to anyone except those who have no desire to become more familiar the legacy of slavery in the United States. For those people, I'd place it at the top of their required reading list.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Slavery and Racism

Minor: Sexual content and Sexual assault

ericasbookshelfx's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Racial slurs, Addiction, Slavery, Racism, and Drug abuse

chardkey's review against another edition

emotional funny informative inspiring reflective sad medium-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

5.0

One of the best books I have read in a long time and it might be my new favorite.  Such a powerful story of a young women figuring out who she wants to be while discovering where she comes from.  The book traces the lineage of one family all the way back to when they first arrived in American and their Native American roots as well.  This story is captivating, heartbreaking, triumphant and made me laugh out loud many times.  The writing is so beautiful.  I highly recommend making the commitment to read this one!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Forced institutionalization, Addiction, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Colonisation, Slavery, Drug use, and Racism

revarevareva's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Rape, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Racism, and Violence

shoshthemost's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Racism, Classism, Incest, Abortion, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Colonisation, and Rape

kizzy's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexual assault, and Rape

ejoliverio's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, and Racism

ruffian23's review

challenging dark 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Classism, Grief, Hate crime, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Violence, Child abuse, Addiction, Child death, Sexual content, and Drug abuse

welkinvault's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

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

3.5

This multigenerational tome was chosen purely as it was recommended by a book youtuber I follow.  I really wanted to like this, but it was though I was reading a different novel to them.  I started with this 30 hour audio but after a few hours bought the book too as I thought it was my fault that I found huge chunks of the novel long, flat and two dimensional (even though the narration was very good). 

The historical sections were interesting (although too much sexual violence reported almost in passing with little effort to show the impact on the survivors or the community).  The more contemporary main storyline of the very immature, precocious, Ailey and her romances was lengthly and not engaging.   As a coming of age story I found I was largely uninterested in her growth or her ridiculous reasonings for her prickly and almost combative realations with her school/undergraduate peers.  

That is until about the 550 page mark when the book started to tie together all the threads, Ailey finally gained some maturity and the emotional resonance that was missing from the first chunk of the novel was delivered (especially in the historical scenes).  At that point  I found I could not put the book down.  

The character of Root was fasciating, and I did want to know what happened to Nick, but for such a sprawling choppy work the author did a great job in tying up so many threads at the conclusion of the novel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual violence, Child death, Colonisation, Incest, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Slavery, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, and Rape