Reviews tagging 'Hate crime'

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

33 reviews

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Rape, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child abuse, Hate crime, Medical content, Incest, Death, Racism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Vomit, and Grief

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Classism, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Excrement, Sexism, and Death of parent

grboph's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

This was quite the read. It was definitely one of the most heartbreaking stories I've ever read, and the characters were fully fleshed out and even the more insignificant ones played important roles. Morrison's writing is so beautiful and engaging that despite how heavy this book is, it made me want to read more of her books as soon as I can. I would recommend this book to just about anyone out there.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Classism, Incest, Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent, Pregnancy, Sexism, Alcohol, Infidelity, Alcoholism, Child death, Cursing, and Death

Minor: Blood, Bullying, Hate crime, Mental illness, and Slavery

narbine's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Racial slurs, Alcohol, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Bullying, Abandonment, Alcoholism, and Incest

Moderate: Animal death and Animal cruelty

Minor: Religious bigotry, Slavery, Grief, Hate crime, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, and Adult/minor relationship

littlebrittofthis's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.0

My first Morrison novel, I’m honestly surprised that I made it this far without reading anything by Morrison, but then again I’m kind of glad for my first taste to be as an adult. In her first book, Toni Morrison explores the meaning of beauty, and how destructive attempting to conform to beauty standards can be, with lyrical language that grips the soul.

Morrison is a powerhouse of showcasing the hard realities no one wants to face in such a way that we must always be confronted with it. Never, in a Morrison novel, are we allowed to forget what the central problem is. There is no lull into some false sense of security. There is only facing the harsh reality and the consequences of how we choose to deal with it.

This novel has been banned across schools in the U.S. since 1999 and continues to be. While I say this is an amazing read, there are heavy trigger warnings that everyone should check before picking this up. If working through this book, has taught me anything about the way we try to filter what we want society to be — whether it be through banning books that make us uncomfortable or through ostracizing people we classify as Other because they make us afraid — it’s that doing so has nothing but horrendously negative results. Pecola’s story is fiction, but just how fictitious is it, really? And what does it mean when we won’t listen? What does it mean when we won’t look her in the eye?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Bullying, Classism, and Hate crime

Moderate: Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Incest, Alcoholism, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, and Misogyny

ruthypoo2's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This is the first book by Toni Morrison that I've read. Her writing is lovely and lyrical despite the story in this case being told primarily from the perspective of older children and dealing with some genuinely painful and ugly human behavior. Additionally, I listened to the audiobook as the narrator is Toni Morrison, and in this case, I felt it really enhanced the experience hearing a story in the voice of the author.

The Foreward of the book sets the tone by starting with the following, "There can't be anyone, I am sure, who doesn't know what it feels like to be disliked, even rejected, momentarily or for sustained periods of time. Perhaps the feeling is merely indifference, mild annoyance, but it may also be hurt. It may even be that some of us know what it is like to be actually hated - hated for things we have no control over and cannot change."

The primary individual in the story, the one with a common thread throughout, is eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove. She's a demure child already broken down by a harsh life of indifferent parents and the taunts of too many bullies, sometimes school children and sometimes family. The most common and reliable narrator in the book is eight-year-old Claudia MacTeer. She and her twelve-year-old sister, Frieda, are as true of friends to Pecola as anyone in her life will be. The story is set in a time right after the Great Depression, as the country is recovering. Claudia shares how her and Frieda's life is comfortable, and they live in a sometimes harsh, but happy and stable home. One day Pecola enters their life and from this point the reader learns about other characters with Claudia as the narrator or via third person narrative with inset narratives, resulting in differing people's experiences at differing points in time. These inset first person narratives give the reader more of the backstory, or formative years, for various characters in the story. I thought this was a great way to create an immersive experience for the reader.

This book deals with many heavy subjects, and chief among them is how young Pecola was dealt a very bad hand in life and ended up accepting as truth that her life was of little value because of the way she was talked to, talked about, treated, and mistreated. Pecola's idea of a perfect life was associated with whiteness and having blue eyes, so maybe if she had blue eyes, she could escape her painful life.

This book really feels like it's a story you're hearing from some intelligent but cautious children living in a complex world where they understand a lot more than you want to believe children that age should know. They're self-sufficient because they have to be and, in many ways, this makes them able to survive the hazards and ugly truth that comes into their lives. While there are really rough edges to this story, the resilience of child narrator Claudia helps make it easier to digest when some characters in the book do not get a happy ending.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Animal death, Incest, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Racism, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Infidelity, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Death, Alcoholism, Bullying, Classism, Hate crime, Excrement, and Miscarriage

kristenhuck's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Racism, Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, Violence, Pedophilia, Rape, Hate crime, Miscarriage, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Incest, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, and Bullying

sailtothemoon's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, and Racism

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Racial slurs, Hate crime, Pedophilia, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Miscarriage and Mental illness

vanesst's review against another edition

challenging emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Racial slurs, and Racism

Moderate: Hate crime, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Classism, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Abandonment, Excrement, Fatphobia, Pregnancy, Addiction, Alcohol, and Child death

gkgkgk's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Grief, Incest, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Racism, Sexual content, Violence, Addiction, Pedophilia, Rape, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Hate crime, Sexual harassment, Body shaming, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Alcoholism, Abandonment, and Alcohol

mold_munchr's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

I can't even begin to describe this book. Read it. Look up content warnings before you do. But read it if you can. There were times I had to put it down because of the visceral reaction it gave me it and times I couldn't stop reading, and overall one of the most heartwrenching and beautiful books I've ever read. 

"Love is never any better than the lover. Wicked people love wickedly, violent people love violently, weak people love weakly, stupid people love stupidly, but the love of a free man is never safe. There is no gift for the beloved. The lover alone possesses the gift of love. The loved one is shorn  neutralized, frozen in the glare of the lover's inward eye."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual content, Violence, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence