Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Horse by Geraldine Brooks

16 reviews

chickaboogawah's review

challenging emotional informative inspiring 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? No

5.0

I loved this book by Geraldine Brooks. She is such a great author, and she skillfully wove the various storylines together. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Police brutality, Murder, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Trafficking, Colonisation, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Slavery, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Gore, Death, Death of parent, and Excrement

mitchelldavis1997's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative fast-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Death of parent, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, and Blood

mlander's review

adventurous dark emotional informative 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? No

2.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Animal death, Slavery, and Racial slurs

Minor: Murder

authemmie's review

emotional informative tense slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery and Racism

Moderate: Animal death, Murder, Animal cruelty, and Racial slurs

sierracaine's review

adventurous emotional reflective sad 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery and Murder

Moderate: War

Minor: Sexual assault

calamitydeeds's review

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Classism, Murder, Gun violence, Death, Racism, Abandonment, Blood, Colonisation, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Police brutality, Slavery, Violence, and War

menglert's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I usually love this kind of historical fiction/timeline switching/multiple POV parallelism, but this one didn't totally click for me. Some of the POV choices were a bit confusing, with some characters only having only one or two chapters. 

I think the core of this book was quite effective at examining themes of racism in America's past and present, so it could be worth the read for that. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Slavery, War, Racism, Police brutality, Grief, and Hate crime

Moderate: Gun violence, Grief, Hate crime, Emotional abuse, Murder, Police brutality, Racism, Racial slurs, Slavery, War, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Blood

melissabristol's review

emotional inspiring reflective 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? No

4.75

The only thing I thought was less than ideal was the ending.  Sending Jess back to Australia felt like a bit of a way to avoid harder questions about where her relationship with Theo was going and the interracial dating issues that would have been raised there.  I don't deny that, sadly, Theo getting shot was a realistic outcome (see, e.g., Ahmed Aubrey, RIP), but I felt that it was in some ways throwing a HUGE issue in without really having time to discuss it.  It could have been a book of its own.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Animal death, Death, Classism, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Animal cruelty, Racial slurs, Colonisation, Murder, and Blood

creativerunnings's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Gun violence, Murder, Animal cruelty, Blood, Grief, Racial slurs, Slavery, Violence, War, Animal death, Police brutality, and Racism

Moderate: Death and Death of parent

fifteenthjessica's review

challenging emotional informative sad slow-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

Horse weaves together two and a half story lines together across three different centuries, using the famous nineteenth century stallion Lexington as inspiration. The first (and my favorite) follows the life of the horse Lexington, primarily through the eyes of artist/Civil War soldier Thomas J. Scott who produced the most famous painting of Lexington, and Jarret, a fictional character based on an enslaved groom in one of those paintings. The second follows two modern young adults, Theo and Jess, as their work as an art historian and scientist at the Smithsonian brings them together into a project and a budding relationship. The last one is a handful of chapters that tries to answer the question as to why mid-20th century art gallery owner Martha Jackson had one of Scott's oil paintings of Lexington in her collection, which focused primarily on abstract art by her contemporaries. Throughout the story, there is also an exploration of the way people mistreat other humans and horses. I don't think these storylines are of equal quality. Jarret's life story was far more compelling and poignant than Theo and Jess's, especially when their plotline shifts from their research projects to their beginning relationship. Martha was interesting, but she could have ended up on the cutting room floor without much lost to the overarching plot and themes.

Geraldine Brooks definitely did her research while working on this and can create interesting characters as well as poignant imagery. Characters are complex and not necessarily likable. Jarret is my favorite of the PoV characters, and I enjoy his arc from acceptance of his fate to a determination to make his best life, as well as his attempts to show kindness when he can. A lot of historical fiction that comment on modern day issues tend to focus on more rebellious protagonists, and I like that Brooks made a compelling character within the reality that many people, unfortunately, can be accepting of unfair systems, even if they are the ones who are crushed by it. Another strength of Jarret's plotline is that all of the major white characters, including Scott, both oppose and are complicit with different aspects of life in the antebellum South. The modern cast features many dorks that are enjoyable because of their passions.

The book is not perfect. It talks a lot about racism in multiple points of American history, but African American women are almost exclusively relegated to bit roles as love interests. I'm not sure how to fix this (maybe tell Martha's story through the eyes of Annie, the maid whose family had inherited the painting?). Theo's justified resentment of racism paired with his utter lack of self awareness about how his parents' wealth sheltered him from some of the worst parts can be grating, and attempts to address this flaw fell flat for me.

His death in the third act also feels like it's more about shocking than a satisfying conclusion for his and Jess's arcs, but it is a good illustration of how far society has to go that the modern characters' arc has a more depressing end than the arc that heavily features slavery.

It is also has a rough first chapter that is a case study on why relatability in characters is not as important as resonance.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Slavery, Racism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Trafficking

Moderate: Classism, Misogyny, Gun violence, Grief, Bullying, Death of parent, Sexism, Police brutality, Murder, Violence, and War

Racism, slavery, and mistreatment of horses are very important to the themes of this book, but did not feel gratuitous to me.