Reviews tagging 'Hate crime'

Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult

63 reviews

sarahbada's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Violence, Medical content, Antisemitism, Homophobia, Suicide, Hate crime, Self harm, Grief, Islamophobia, Racial slurs, Medical trauma, and Suicide attempt

squarahreads's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad 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

3.75

flew through this one and really reading it overall (though it made me feel sick to my stomach at times)

a little trope-y and not entirely sure how I feel about some aspects of the storytelling- though I think it is pretty well-suited to tell this kind of story to the target demographic. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Racism, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Antisemitism, Self harm, Suicide, Medical trauma, Homophobia, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Child death, and Religious bigotry

impatientprincess's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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

5.0

Every White Person should read this book.  Jodi Picoult at her finest.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Cultural appropriation, Hate crime, Racial slurs, and Racism

lexithelion's review against another edition

challenging 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? Yes

4.75

Wow, what a captivating novel. I went into it not really knowing what it was about or how intense it was going to be. I was a bit caught off guard in the first 3rd of the book because of how blatantly head-on it is on the topic of racism. As a white person myself, I feel the same way Jodi did writing this book as I was reading it; I want to understand and adjust my perspective to better face the injustice in this world and after reading this I feel as though I am less lost on how I can help. This story is not only based on a true one, but the fictional characters feel so real as if this did actually happen. Every character has a fully fleshed-out backstory and motive for their present actions. Every character feels as though they were written by a different author, creating incredible character diversity. They feel authentic and make the story feel well-timed and not rushed. I do wish that more was written about Edison, however, as we started to see his character change throughout the novel without really an answer as to why or what triggered this. I thought it would have been interesting to read how Ruth and Edison's dynamic changed as Edison faded out of being this 'perfect American high-school scholar' archetype.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Racism, Antisemitism, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Death, Islamophobia, Pregnancy, Gore, Medical content, Suicide, Racial slurs, Child death, Cultural appropriation, Grief, Cursing, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Infertility, Medical trauma, and Sexism

Moderate: Miscarriage, Excrement, and Blood

kecskestimi's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective 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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Child death, Hate crime, and Medical trauma

savreads28's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Death, Murder, Racial slurs, Gore, Hate crime, Suicide, Violence, Body horror, Bullying, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Mental illness, Racism, Blood, Cursing, Gaslighting, Medical content, Toxic relationship, Medical trauma, and Suicide attempt

or10n's review against another edition

challenging informative inspiring reflective 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

3.75

 I gotta admit, it was really hard to start this book. I won't sugar coat it, there were parts of this book that were difficult to read for sure. However, now that I have finished it, I think the payoff was just worth it. That being said, I think that the slurs could have been censored and still gotten idea across. That aspect just rubbed me the wrong way.
I've seen a lot of reviews saying that the white supremacist character got too much of a sympathetic narrative, but I don't really see that. I assume what they mean is that they dislike his role as one of the narrators, since he is such a flagrantly unreliable narrator. But "sympathetic" is not the word I would use to describe his characterization. He is an almost unbelievably cartoonish Nazi. Literally one step from having a Hitler stache for 99% of the book. Sure, he has a redemption arc in the last chapter, but I think that is more indicative of the author's wishful thinking than anything else.
There were aspects of white knighting in this book that I wasn't super keen on. Kennedy seems to get her head out of her own ass by the end, which made up for it a little, but you still have Ruth *needing* her, so I guess it just breaks even.
Ruth's sister is also portrayed as overreacting or sloppy or a bad mother frequently too, from both Kennedy's and Ruth's perspectives, which I think rings of respectability politics. There is nothing that she does in this book that is actually indicative of a bad sister, other than involving Wallace Mercy, but even that is shown to ultimately help Ruth! Justice for my girl!
From this review, it really sounds like I didn't like this book, but I did! I think it would have benefitted greatly from assistance from a Black co-author or a bit more research into commom unfavorable tropes, but the story overall was good. If you have the patience to get over the hurdles I mentioned, you WILL like this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Homophobia, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide attempt, Violence, Suicide, Religious bigotry, Miscarriage, and Medical content

mmanschu's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Violence, Racism, Child death, Hate crime, and Suicide

evipefi's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad medium-paced

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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Child death, Medical content, Antisemitism, Self harm, Death, Hate crime, Racism, and Suicide

katreena's review against another edition

challenging emotional 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexism, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Self harm, Terminal illness, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Suicide attempt, Violence, Child death, Classism, Death, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Antisemitism, Death of parent, Gore, Mental illness, Hate crime, Murder, Misogyny, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Gaslighting, Cursing, Slavery, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Colonisation, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Medical content, and Toxic relationship