Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

Hell of a Book by Jason Mott

7 reviews

paigereitz's review

challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

 It is, as the name suggests, a hell of a book. It is an intense deep dive into race relations in novel form, from the Black experience, and it is an emotionally heavy read, but it was so, so good. An indictment on modern society, skillfully woven through a story that is disorienting and jarring and hard and emotional.  I'll be processing this book for a long time. 

From the book, "Laugh all you want, but I think learning to love yourself in a country when you're told that you're a plague on the economy, that you're nothing but a prisoner in the making, that your life can be taken away from you at any moment and there's nothing you can do about it - learning to love yourself in the middle of all that? Hell, that's a goddamn miracle."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Police brutality, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Terminal illness, and Death of parent

Moderate: Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Cancer, Slavery, and Grief

thelittle_seokmin's review against another edition

informative inspiring mysterious sad medium-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? It's complicated

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Murder, Police brutality, Racism, Gun violence, Mental illness, and Hate crime

Moderate: Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcohol and Slavery

kshertz's review

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I think this book is too smart for me. It’s very deep with a lot of metaphors and multiple characters that mold into each other and there’s some imaginary pieces and fantasy.  At the end it all comes together but I spent most of the book confused and frustrated with myself about not getting it. I think anyone interested in deep dives into Black trauma and Black lives would learn a lot from this. I hope in the future I can pick it back up again and understand more of it. I don’t think the book was written for me but I think it’s an important read. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Death of parent, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Abandonment, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, and Violence

reshusky's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Racial slurs and Slavery

emily_koopmann's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny mysterious reflective fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

Moderate: Racism, Slavery, and Gun violence

Minor: Sexual content

deenice2819's review

challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad medium-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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Racism, Bullying, Gun violence, Police brutality, Murder, Racial slurs, and Alcohol

Moderate: Death of parent, Death, Blood, Child death, Classism, Slavery, and Mental illness

nicoleisalwaysreading's review

adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.5

Wow. I’m in awe. This concept just continued to expand and expand and encompass so much more beauty and difficulty as it grew. The technical side of this writing is genius. Would be 5 stars if not for a slight doubt that this exact narrative structure was 100% effective. There was a building sense of a “reveal” that never quite came, but that ended up being what I thought all along. So I’m wondering if some of the mystery or uncertainty throughout was completely necessary/clouded the poignancy and clarity of the themes which were already so complex…nevertheless, this is EXCELLENT. Please read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Police brutality, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Slavery, and Child death

Moderate: Alcohol

Such an interesting way to play with magical realism or a bending of how we perceive “reality” in something that is already fictional.