Reviews with content warning for Forced institutionalization - The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

154 reviews

jt793's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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katosta8815's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

This book was not my favorite. The writing was overly descriptive and made way too much fluff. The chapters did not flow together well, and each scene change felt very abrupt. There were way too many characters to keep track of, and not enough time given to the MCs. New characters were being introduced even in the last few chapters, which was obnoxious.

All of the deaths were underwhelming and written in a confusing way — two of them were beloved characters, and I didn’t even feel sad when they died because I simply didn’t realize what happened. The third death was so incredibly random, and didn’t feel like justice at all.

Read the trigger warnings, and be prepared for it to be worse than what you’re anticipating.

Overall, from start to finish, the story itself was beautiful, but challenging. Some of the subject matter made me put the book down and walk away for a few days. But I liked the ending. I just didn’t like the way it was written, and probably won’t revisit this author.

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dogoodwithbooks's review against another edition

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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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chewy__stuff's review against another edition

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vatodd's review against another edition

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Was too sad with little to no change in sight. For a black woman on the cover it didn't feel like a book for black readers. The black characters at least for now felt very 2 dimensional and mostly anchored to the Jewish storylines for torture and saving. Having to read from the perspective of 2 racist characters and the Jewish story be larger 3 to 1 was enough to feel like I as a black woman was not the intended audience.

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smreads24's review against another edition

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challenging informative 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? No

4.75

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nicoleisalwaysreading's review against another edition

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slow-paced

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

3.5

TH&EGS starts off very slow, like a steam train beginning to move down the tracks, until it reaches a fast clip, coupling rods slamming and horn blowing, until it eases into something peaceful and lingering and hisses to a stop.
this book is about characters: larger than life, representing ideals or the worst of us, somehow co-existing. the second half of the book’s momentum belongs with the plot, but its purpose is to share the human condition. I’ll be thinking about this one for a while.

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