Reviews with content warning for Hate crime - The Trees

Reviews tagging 'Hate crime'

mo_za11's review against another edition

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challenging funny informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
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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annamariesreads's review

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

I read this on the back of Erasure, which was amazing satire. I was very excited

I think the first third of this book is immaculate and throughout, there's alot to love. Ed and Jim really made me laugh and the pure ridiculousness of the white people was very entertaining. I also think Everett always does a great thing of making you laugh out loud and then immediately questioning why you just laughed out loud.

I think it's also really factually interesting. You learn alot, particularly about the Emmett Till case.

Ultimately I think it lost its way. I'm unsure if we were supposed to be surprised by the ending but for me, it was evident early on who was responsible so I was a bit disappointed by that.

I also think the pacing was off when they were skipping between counties. I was mostly invested in the activity in Money, Mississippi, so I found this quite frustrating. I can see why he did it though, to show the

enormous scar of racial violence

that will never disappear and for these victims to finally have their

vigilante justice on white America.

I think maybe the cast of characters became too large and it threw the pacing off.

Definitely not his best but a good read and I had some laugh out loud moments, for sure, as well as profound moments of reflection, which I think Everett does so well.

Trigger warnings are as to be expected for a novel about black history in the deep South.

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mandareads222's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.0

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isobel_laura's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious 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

4.0

Content Warnings

truly_yours_insomnia's review

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dark funny informative mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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kasjon18's review against another edition

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dark funny informative reflective sad medium-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

4.0

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disguisedposer's review

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challenging dark funny mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

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mattyvreads's review

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dark mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

2.5

Truly one of the most exciting and promising premises I have ever encountered. What a cool idea for a book, to say the least. Brilliant.

I am not sure, overall, that the book delivered on its promising premise, or that the novel was wholly effective for me. Parts, I loved. Other parts really detracted and/or distracted from the story.

What worked for me: the book kept me guessing, with lots of twists and turns. Eventually those turns became somewhat predictable or formulaic, but the plot was like a giant boulder thundering downhill, impossible to stop.

For that reason, it was effective that the book didn’t have a definite conclusion; it ended, in fact, with a question.

Very clever, in my humble opinion. Mostly, the pacing really worked for me. It was cool to see the different character point of views.

What did not work for me: The book was mostly dialogue, and the dialogue was completely forced. There were attempted jokes that ended a majority of the chapters, that did not land for me. Stuff like “you order the chicken fried steak, and I’ll stick to my salad.” Like… okay….

There were mild anti-Asian sentiments, a brief (seemingly) anti-sex work scene, misogynistic references, a borderline transphobic dialogue exchange, and many many many fatphobic exchanges. Basically the punchline to a majority of the opening chapters. Even though many readers say it is a satire of American racism, many of those quips and insults come from the protagonists of the story (and the people we are rooting for.) It left a bad taste in my mouth.

Also, the Trump stuff didn’t work for me. He’s already a buffoon, so it didn’t feel like satire. It just felt like fan fiction.

Other than that, I really enjoyed the book.

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