Reviews tagging 'Hate crime'

When the Reckoning Comes by LaTanya McQueen

38 reviews

allisonfagan's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

I felt like this book was very heavy but had enough mystery and twists to keep you engaged. 70% through I felt like we were running nonstop (in the best way possible). Overall this story really made me reflect on the atrocities of slavery and made me realize how even I was desensitized to it to a certain degree.  It truly should never be a topic to be made light of and was probably one of the worst things to happen in human history. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, Cultural appropriation, and Colonisation

rorikae's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

4.25

'When the Reckoning Comes' by LaTanya McQueen is a haunting story about the echoes of ghosts of the past. 
When she was young, Mira and her friend Jesse encountered something haunting in the old, rundown plantation in their town. Though they both got out alive, that experience has haunted them both and sent them on different trajectories. Mira has left the town, gone to college, and now has a full time job. She thinks she's fully escaped her past but then she receives a call from her childhood friend Celine. Celine is getting married at the same plantation from Mira's youth, which has now been restored and acts as a tourist attraction. With Celine's insistence, Mira agrees to come home for the wedding, seeking to get to the bottom of what happened that day in her youth and to potentially see Jesse again. 
McQueen does an exceptional job of creating a haunting atmosphere that slowly ramps up throughout the course of the book. These horrors are all based on true events but with an added dash of paranormal. There were moments in this book that were hard, but necessary, to read as McQueen makes the reader confront the true horrors of slavery. One of the most effective aspects of this story is the melding of the past and present day elements. Mira is a great main character who is easy to care for while also being a complex person. I will be interested to see what McQueen writes next as it is clear she is great at creating atmosphere and melding horrors of the past and present to create an engaging narrative. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Rape and Suicide

thiszetasajerk's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

2.0

I didn’t like how the ending played out. I felt like it was unfair that the black woman was the one who was truly subjected to the whores of slavery. Meanwhile, the white people who, needed to do the most learning, got off easy. I don’t like that  most  of the gruesome details were done to the African-American characters, and when it came time for the white characters to experience death, all but one, was relatively quick.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

lilybisliterate's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-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? N/A

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Torture, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

lefthandlou's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, and Murder

kaerene's review against another edition

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

5.0

Another TikTok recommendation that lives up to the hype. It has everything thing: horror, ghosts, and multiple deaths at a wedding on an old plantation home. Once you get halfway through, you will be unable to stop reading as you are taken on a wild journey not knowing what is a vision and what is real. This is a really heavy read so be sure to check content warnings as these characters go through a lot in this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

seasidefaye13's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

The perfect ghost story. The writing is amazing and it left me completely chilled to the bone, as I’m sure it was intended. This book hit me hard. The horrors that black people have faced in America are unforgivable, and I have no doubt that some of the details in this book are based on fact. Thank you Ms. McQueen for this masterpiece.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Hate crime, Racism, Slavery, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Body horror and Rape

vigil's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

2.0

this book held my attention as i read it, but once i put it down, i had little inclination to pick it up again. 

i enjoyed the story, though if you’re looking for a fresh ghost story with twists and turns, this isn’t it. it’s a very classic revenge story and i think it’s strength lies more in it’s themes and how unflinching the author is in her criticism of racism, plantations, and how everyone can play into white supremacy, maliciously or not. my favorite portion of the book is towards the ending

where mira lives through the eyes of one of the slaves, and it uncovers just how horrific slavery really was, and how horrific everyone in the present is for ignoring and exploiting it.

it didn’t quite stick the landing though in my opinion. the latter portion of the book is rather unclear, making it hard to distinguish what fact from fiction and how did some of the more shocking events happen or didn’t happen. this vagueness isn’t bad in and of itself, but it makes the ending even more egregious. all the vague hallucinatory vibes disappear and the book is over because the protagonist literally says it’s over, not because anything is really done. i don’t need the protagonists to stick around and clean up the mess made by racist whites, but what about everything else? it felt like author thought she got her message across sufficiently and forgot about the story. the message it sends is good, but as a book it’s just okay.

also. i found celine’s character to be personally uncomfortable to me as a black person (but all too familiar) but i found the “poor girl dares to try to escape and gets put down like a dog by her partner” portion of the book to be rather distasteful. also a copout, no white person in this book has to personally reckon with anything. they’re either nameless racists, or end up dead.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

nchipp's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Classism

singalana's review against another edition

dark reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

 

I’m feeling conflicted about this book. I wanted to like it more, but it fell a bit short for me. The premise is interesting and important: the main character is invited to her childhood friend’s wedding. The wedding is held at a renovated plantation that has a dark history of slavery. 

The book starts slowly, exploring the childhood of our two main characters: Mira and Jesse, and their friend Celine, whose wedding they are now invited to. We get an account of the events that led to Jesse being ostracized and them drifting apart. The events really kick off at the end of the book, when the story turns chilling.

The book explores an important topic of slavery and how that history still affects the lives of black people today. There are some disturbing depictions of what happened to the slaves. Unfortunately, for me, the events got a bit confusing towards the end and I couldn’t keep up with why people did what they did. I wish Mira and Jesse could have been a bit stronger characters, and the relationship between them felt slightly forced.

In conclusion, the topic is extremely important, the main theme of the book was great and the “american gothic” atmosphere was well executed. With a better characterization and a little more thought to the ending this could have been an excellent book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Torture, Violence, and Classism

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Blood, Trafficking, and Murder

Minor: Animal death, Terminal illness, Stalking, and Alcohol