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deliriah's review
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Alcohol, Car accident, and Racial slurs
Minor: Vomit and War
lakea's review against another edition
challenging
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Racial slurs, and Sexism
Minor: Abortion, Incest, Death of parent, Death, Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, Slavery, Physical abuse, Car accident, Body shaming, and Alcohol
isabelle_mary's review
challenging
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
When going into this book I did not expect it to be as good as ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’, but I definitely expected more. To start off, the book switches from 3rd person to 1st person and I do not see where that was necessary. The whole plot was very not very interesting and just lead me to try and finish the book as quickly as I could, so I could be done. I do not like how Atticus was written in this book and ruins his character completely from the first book. Overall the concept was a good idea, but I can now understand why Harper Lee did not want to publish this and instead wrote and published ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ instead.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Slavery, Alcohol, Racial slurs, War, Bullying, and Racism
softanimal's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
2.0
I didn't know about the controversy surrounding the publication of the book until I had nearly finished it so I decided to go ahead and read the rest. I feel that generally speaking reading a book an author didn't want published is ill-considered and criticizing it is somewhat unfair. As such, here's the caveat that Harper Lee's desired for this not to be shared.
That said, this book was terrible. The writing is condescending to the reader, every character is condescending to the protagonist, and the protagonist is a hateful kind of condescending regarding all black people. There are good moments, some actually laugh out loud funny or heart-achingly tender. However, overall the book is absurdly and entirely devoted to the feelings of its white characters which though not unimportant in general obscures the violently anti-Black reality that is the undercurrent of both the lives of the characters and the narrative itself. This book somehow manages to simultaneously be about racism and totally focused on white people's feelings about just about everything but racism.
[Spoilers]
The worst part emotionally was having it ruin my admiration of Atticus Finch but in a way that was the best part, too. The point of the book (as it was annoyingly explained in the last few pages) is that your heroes are just people and people are fallable. Good point. But did Atticus have to have been a Klan member at one point???
That said, this book was terrible. The writing is condescending to the reader, every character is condescending to the protagonist, and the protagonist is a hateful kind of condescending regarding all black people. There are good moments, some actually laugh out loud funny or heart-achingly tender. However, overall the book is absurdly and entirely devoted to the feelings of its white characters which though not unimportant in general obscures the violently anti-Black reality that is the undercurrent of both the lives of the characters and the narrative itself. This book somehow manages to simultaneously be about racism and totally focused on white people's feelings about just about everything but racism.
[Spoilers]
The worst part emotionally was having it ruin my admiration of Atticus Finch but in a way that was the best part, too. The point of the book (as it was annoyingly explained in the last few pages) is that your heroes are just people and people are fallable. Good point. But did Atticus have to have been a Klan member at one point???
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Classism, and Bullying
Moderate: Death, Medical content, Car accident, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Police brutality, Torture, and Cursing
Minor: Alcohol
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