Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - The Women of Brewster Place

Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor

15 reviews

mmmbooqz's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.5

There’s an amount of trauma in this that is beautifully written, true, and painfully inescapable.

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gobblingupbooks's review against another edition

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4.0

I really loved this but holy shit check trigger warnings before reading!! That last story really took it out of me

My favorite story was Mattie! I also really loved Naylor’s lyrical, feverish prose in the prologue and epilogue.

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fschulenberg's review against another edition

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challenging sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

3.5

Enjoyed reading some of the stories more than others. Overall themes I enjoyed reading about were change, community, and loss. I would recommend reading content warnings for this book.

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ianridewood's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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midnightmarauder's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

The Women of Brewster Place highlights the stories of many different women who come together unintentionally due to their shared grief over the things they've gone through in their lives.

There's Mattie Michael: a woman who had a baby out of wedlock and thought she could raise him well on love alone. He ends up

killing a man in a bar, forcing Mattie to put up her house as collateral for his bail, and he jumps bail, leaving her high and dry.

Then Etta Mae Johnson: Mattie's best friend who has only ever known how to

use a man for all he's got, and when he can't give her anymore, he's gone.

She soon realizes that living this type of life causes her pain; no matter how hard she tries to ignore that fact.

Following, Kiswana: a radical woman who fully embraces her black heritage and moves to Brewster Place for the purpose of finding the community she feels she lacked growing up.

Cora Lee: a lover of babies since childhood, whose obsession gets a bit too large and causes her to

have eight children by the end of the book

.

And finally, Theresa and Lorraine: a lesbian couple who often fight about whether or not they're different from everyone else, solely on the count of their sexuality.

All of these women come from backgrounds that are not nearly similar to each other. But, they all come to Brewster Place to run, essentially, from the issues of their past. It is seen as a clean slate from the beatings, trauma, and pain that they experienced in those times.

Each story fits together like a puzzle piece as you read along, and I personally found myself captivated by these women's strengths. It gives a reminder that pain can often bring people together, and that isn't always in a bad way.

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