Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

70 reviews

grboph's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

This was quite the read. It was definitely one of the most heartbreaking stories I've ever read, and the characters were fully fleshed out and even the more insignificant ones played important roles. Morrison's writing is so beautiful and engaging that despite how heavy this book is, it made me want to read more of her books as soon as I can. I would recommend this book to just about anyone out there.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Cursing, Death, Infidelity, Sexism, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Bullying, Hate crime, Mental illness, Slavery, and Blood

estanis's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Abandonment, and Classism

jaiari12's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Classism

ruthypoo2's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This is the first book by Toni Morrison that I've read. Her writing is lovely and lyrical despite the story in this case being told primarily from the perspective of older children and dealing with some genuinely painful and ugly human behavior. Additionally, I listened to the audiobook as the narrator is Toni Morrison, and in this case, I felt it really enhanced the experience hearing a story in the voice of the author.

The Foreward of the book sets the tone by starting with the following, "There can't be anyone, I am sure, who doesn't know what it feels like to be disliked, even rejected, momentarily or for sustained periods of time. Perhaps the feeling is merely indifference, mild annoyance, but it may also be hurt. It may even be that some of us know what it is like to be actually hated - hated for things we have no control over and cannot change."

The primary individual in the story, the one with a common thread throughout, is eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove. She's a demure child already broken down by a harsh life of indifferent parents and the taunts of too many bullies, sometimes school children and sometimes family. The most common and reliable narrator in the book is eight-year-old Claudia MacTeer. She and her twelve-year-old sister, Frieda, are as true of friends to Pecola as anyone in her life will be. The story is set in a time right after the Great Depression, as the country is recovering. Claudia shares how her and Frieda's life is comfortable, and they live in a sometimes harsh, but happy and stable home. One day Pecola enters their life and from this point the reader learns about other characters with Claudia as the narrator or via third person narrative with inset narratives, resulting in differing people's experiences at differing points in time. These inset first person narratives give the reader more of the backstory, or formative years, for various characters in the story. I thought this was a great way to create an immersive experience for the reader.

This book deals with many heavy subjects, and chief among them is how young Pecola was dealt a very bad hand in life and ended up accepting as truth that her life was of little value because of the way she was talked to, talked about, treated, and mistreated. Pecola's idea of a perfect life was associated with whiteness and having blue eyes, so maybe if she had blue eyes, she could escape her painful life.

This book really feels like it's a story you're hearing from some intelligent but cautious children living in a complex world where they understand a lot more than you want to believe children that age should know. They're self-sufficient because they have to be and, in many ways, this makes them able to survive the hazards and ugly truth that comes into their lives. While there are really rough edges to this story, the resilience of child narrator Claudia helps make it easier to digest when some characters in the book do not get a happy ending.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

Minor: Alcoholism, Bullying, Death, Hate crime, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Excrement, Pregnancy, and Classism

sailtothemoon's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Pedophilia, and Racial slurs

Minor: Mental illness and Miscarriage

aleksanski's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Abortion, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Mental illness and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

kimib79's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

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

2.0

This is a look at the worst of humanity impacting the innocent.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Alcohol

lambchop12's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

Absolutely gorgeous writing and masterful direction from Toni Morrison’s debut novel. I don’t like to mark up books, but part of me wishes I did for this one because some sentences were just gorgeous to read. 

The dark moments are handled with grace imo - although, if I can have one complaint keeping this from being a 5 star book it’s the fact that the poetic flow of the book doesn’t let up even during these horrific moments, making them seem a little less horrific to a more subjective eye?

In the edition I had, Morrison talks in an afterword about how she doesn’t just want people to pity Pecola, she wants them to reexamine themselves and the world around them and I think that was clear to me. Pecola Breedlove is one of the saddest characters I have ever read about, but a world in which a little girl isn’t protected from pain just because of how she looks is far sadder.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Mental illness

Minor: Child death and Fatphobia

karihyuuga's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Incest, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Classism

tannisahermansyah's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.5

I absolutely loved this. I found the subject matter challenging but very reflective. I also found the prose a little challenging at times but I will get better at comprehension. It really makes you think about what beauty means and how you use it to construct your identity.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Incest, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Excrement, Grief, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Classism