Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

45 reviews

makayla_muir's review against another edition

emotional sad 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

3.75

I am left feeling noticeably, but not significantly, underwhelmed. As I was reading, I was frequently irked by the sense that I was waiting for the really profound and intense and moving moment of the work, teetering on the edge of it. I think Toni Morrison herself explains the effect of the novel perfectly in the afterward: "...many readers remain touched but not moved." 

Why this is or what exactly caused me to feel this way, I'm still pondering as I write this. Is it because Pecola's request and yearning for blue eyes feel so pushed into the background of the novel, outshone almost by other shocking, gut wrenching, abhorrent moments? Sure, it was disabling to see how societies prejudices and self-loathing fuelled culture could manifest itself in such a way into a child. This makes me think of the blonde-haired, white-skinned, blue-eyed dolls Pecola received for Christmas each year and tore apart or her hatred for Shirley Temple. I loved the remarkably unique and nuanced way we were let into Pecola's mind here. But again, I felt an overall lack of tragedy or pain. Maybe this does come down to the fact that I can only ever sympathise, distantly fathom, Pecola's situation. Maybe the pain and shock and tragedy can really only ever strike those who can actually understand it, who have lived through it. In saying that, I do believe that a sense of Pecola's self-loathing, loss and confusion of identity, unworthiness, can be found in all of us, especially in young women. I think this is where Morrison shines -showing the things that all humans have wished for or are wishing for or will eventually wish for. That is,  capturing the silly, ever-changing idea of beauty, fitting in with everyone else, feeling worthy or good enough, wishing you had something someone else has. It's true that we have all thought that if we could change just one thing about ourselves -the size of our bellies, the shape of our noses, the colour of our eyes- everything else wrong with our lives will be better, we'll be happy and content, we'll believe ourselves to be worthy of love. So, despite the emotion of this book not necessarily fully hitting home with me, I do believe this to be a very sombre and unforgiving story of what it means to be human. A necessary read and one that has given me an insight like no other into the inner workings of internalized racism, how this comes to be, and the subtle yet drastic influences this can have on the singular and the many.

I could keep adding notes onto here for hours.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Antisemitism

gkgkgk's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Excrement, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Alcoholism, Abandonment, and Alcohol

shoshin's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I read this book for two reading challenges: one covering women who have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, the other for reading banned books.

I can see why this book has been banned, and while I'm very much against banning books, this one would need careful and thoughtful discussion with teens who read it. I was especially disturbed by

the sympathetic way Morrison portrayed Charlie, who raped and impregnated his 11-year-old daughter and was portrayed a merely being swept up in the moment because his daughter reminded him of his wife when they first met

. On the whole, I wasn't all that impressed with the book. Morrison has an afterword in which she expresses her own dissatisfaction with how it was received vs what her goals were in writing it. Knowing her goals, I see what she was trying to do, but ultimately agree with her later-in-life assessment that she missed the mark. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

Minor: Child death and Miscarriage

jme14's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.75

Toni Morrison is officially in my top two authors of all time (next to Steinbeck, I can't choose between them). Morrison is a master at manipulating the form to tell her stories as they are supposed to be told. There are no rules: the story is out of order, the characters are unrelentingly disturbing and disturbed, and the language blunt. She is the master of empathy. She conjures such vile actors, then turns your rage into uncomfortable sadness, transferring that rage from the individual to the setting. I don't know how she can do it, but she's done it twice (in her labeled masterpiece "Beloved" and now in this). Her work is deeply disturbing, but there's no other way to convey these themes in a way as affecting as this. She is a true master and deserving in her place among the greatest authors of all time. 

I don't think this is QUITE as good as "Beloved" due to her clearly more unrefined style. This feels more restrained with its magical realism and slightly less comprehensive with its characters, but that is some extreme nit-picking. Seriously, read this book. I'm so excited (and emotionally nervous) to read the rest of her work. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Incest, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Excrement, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

s1etal's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Miscarriage, and Toxic relationship

rsngphoenix's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Incest, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

thedarkfox's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious tense

• 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Racism, and Rape

Moderate: Toxic relationship

annibear_bookworm's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

4ndrea_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Dysphoria

hannahebert's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

Phenomenal. 

Morrison is an exceptional writer. Reading her foreword and afterword critiquing her novel made me all the more keen to read her later works. 

This really is a must read novel and one I’ll return to reread again in the near future. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest and Racism

Moderate: Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, and Toxic friendship