Reviews with content warning for Religious bigotry - Small Great Things

Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult

12 reviews

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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lexithelion's review against another edition

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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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savreads28's review against another edition

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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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or10n's review against another edition

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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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crobinson81217's review

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emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

This book was extremely well written and hard to read at times due to the nature of the topics in the book.

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mrhouse's review against another edition

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tense 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
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

I really wish part of the author's note was in the beginning and not the end. I really wanted to like the book but for most of the story, I felt conflict with a white woman telling the story of a black woman. I felt uncomfortable at times with how easily derogatory words were used so frequently, again constantly remembering it is written by a white author.
I think the book does show racism in America but it is not the author's story to tell. I think there are other ways it could have been done to avoid speaking from a black woman's perspective.

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lcl_reads's review against another edition

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challenging hopeful informative inspiring sad

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.5

As a Black woman living in the United States who has read several novels by Jodi Picoult, I was curious to consider how this one would be handled, particularly because of what I know of Picoult's background. I must admit, I was a little shocked when the first "nigger" was dropped, but as I read I appreciated the way Picoult confronted her subject head on and without flinching.

As I was reading, I felt a bit conflicted about rating the book. I really appreciated this part of the author's note at the end: " I was writing to my own community - white people- who can very easily point to a neo-Nazi skinhead and say he's racist... but who can't recognize racism in themselves." I think my conflicted feelings are because this book is not written for me.

This book was bold in its pursuit and the amount of research and thought Picoult put into the topic was evident to me.

Some critiques I've read of the book are that Ruth's story is not as developed and I actually appreciated that. I would have loved to have more of the respectibility politics, colorism, and relationships between Ruth, her mother, and her sister explored. I also think Picoult was smart in identifying that that was not her story to tell nor was that the point of this particular book.

I think it is important to remember that no book can be everything, so, yes, this book is not everything, but it is the story I think was right for Picoult to tell to the audience she has, from her position, with the support of the research she did and for what it is, it was executed as well as it could have possibly been.

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