Reviews with content warning for Violence - Invisible Man

Dense- so very dense. it'll be helpful to pull up the litcharts summary webpage for some of the chapters. It can get real confusing at times.

The beginning of the book is intriguing but can get to be a bit of a slog after the first handful of chapters(was considering abandoning this book during the dreamlike narration from Trueblood. Very glad I decided against it.)
But, after the narrator arrives in Harlem and starts to adapt to his surroundings, the book quickly picks up the pace and seemingly goes at break-neck pace for the rest of it.

All in all, I won't be forgetting this book very easily.

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feefeeberry's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

It’s so unbelievably well written. Almost every little detail comes back in some kind of way. It’s woven and written so well. Literally the smartest book I’ve ever read. Anyone who says this is boring has the reading comprehension skills of a toddler.

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haileyeh's review against another edition

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challenging reflective tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

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nunchikoi's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.5

An incredible work by Ellison who manages to balance a magical reality that is also prescriptive to quantum physics; thoroughly examining Black experiences in North America, Ellison uniquely incorporates specific 'Negro-American' culturalisations like folkloric motifs in his story-telling. This results in a magnetic kind of writing which swings between being poetic and clinical, a fictional story which testifies to real historical experiences and events, and a narrator who keeps the reader at arms length but also confides in and almost prays to you.

Through this, Ellison constructs a compelling portrait that his contemporaries otherwise neglected: he demonstrates how Black characters in a novel can be complex and nuanced, with fully-realised moral, philosophical, and intellectual capacities.

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