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

Reviews tagging 'Rape'

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

181 reviews

abigailhaagen's review against another edition

slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.0

I was looking forward to this book, because I've heard a lot of good things about it and it won some awards, but it was meh. The writing was extremely longwinded, and I know the author did this for "effect" in some places, but the run-on sentences were too much for me. The pace seemed really slow to me, and I had to trudge through it. The characters were pretty good, but I only felt attached to a few of them. Also, the author's random rants of commentary on today's America seemed out of place and messed with my sense of time in the novel.

So yeah. It wasn't a bad novel, and I know most of my qualms are subjective, but I just didn't like it.

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ewillreadit's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense fast-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

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spacebeyonce's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful 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? Yes

4.75

thank you monkey pants 😭😭😭😭😭😭

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aggie2010's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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cassidy's review against another edition

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mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

It was a little hard to keep track of the number of characters because there were a lot of different characters/plot lines that ultimately all connected. By the time I got to the end I forgot the premise of the book and how the mystery was solved. I found the portrayal of 1920s/30s America very interesting and it was interesting to me to learn about Jewish immigrant culture too.
Ultimately there were parts of the book that were quite despicable and challenging to read. The parts of the book that took the perspective of doc or plitzka were just gross. Big tw for white supremacy and then also for sexual violence.

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aimeejane's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful 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

4.75

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clarkg's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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

5.0

"The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store" is a beautiful, lyrical tale of community and solidarity. McBride has created a rich world full of brilliant, dynamic characters whose fates entwine in surprising places. I appreciated many things about this book--the language, the care given to crafting the story's Black and Jewish communities, the breadth and depth of disability representation (though not without flaw), and its callbacks to a larger conversation about the possibilities and limits of justice on stolen land. If I had to describe "The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store" in a single word, it would be "abundant".

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