Reviews with content warning for Hate crime - When the Reckoning Comes

Reviews tagging 'Hate crime'

When the Reckoning Comes by LaTanya McQueen

38 reviews

lindseyas'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? No

4.75

This was another book that I read for my "Literary Hauntings" class. It wasn't like the normal "hauntings" that we'd been reading about, but it was the most realistic, and certainly the most visceral, emotional and raw. The combination of history and the supernatural is the perfect encapsulation of what the gothic really is – our pasts coming back to haunt us. The novel played perfectly into this archetype, with a tense tone and winding suspense keeping it in place. It used gore and mental anguish to create a haunting aura that has lasted with me long since reading.

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cam356's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective tense fast-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? No

5.0

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hunkydory's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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finleyfrogreads's review against another edition

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dark sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.75

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akt1212's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional 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

4.25

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savvylit's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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? Yes

4.0

When the Reckoning Comes has many layers to its horror. First, there's the genocidal legacy of chattel slavery. Then there are the deeply sadistic acts of this specific plantation's owner. Third, there are groups of murderous ghosts. Fourth, there's deep-seated modern racism and classism. Lastly, there's the unique terror of a plantation becoming a luxury resort.

Like all of the horror in this novel, the latter element of terror is inspired by reality -- many former plantations throughout the American South have been renovated into deluxe event spaces. McQueen skillfully depicts this unique and ignorant glossing over of the truth. That a place of such immense suffering can be turned into a for-profit monument to a romanticized version of antebellum America? How deeply twisted. At the Woodsman plantation central to this novel, not only have the grounds been turned into a resort BUT one of the paid "entertainments" is reenactment of slave labor. Reenactments that are done by local Black people - the very descendants of the folks originally enslaved at that exact location.

Ultimately, When the Reckoning Comes is revenge horror at its finest. The ghosts of slaves that had been brutally tortured ultimately force many white descendants of owners and staff to reckon with their legacy of death and terror. Not only that, but McQueen's story itself pushes readers to consider the myriad, nuanced ways in which genocide echoes throughout the modern American South. The bloody echoes of slavery are still here. And that's the real horror.

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