Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

3 reviews

mel_j's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-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

2.75

A bit too dark for me, but wonderfully written. Very lyrical, very poetic. It's a bleak, sad book with an inportant message. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Rape

Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, Adult/minor relationship, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal cruelty

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

michaelion's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense 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

3.5

At first, I didn't get it. Then, I was starting to get it. Then, by the end, I thought I didn't get it. But apparently I got it the whole time, it's just that the time this book was written for is very different from the time of today. Things have changed a lot, but in many ways after reading this they haven't changed at all. I don't think I liked this book very much, but in some ways I did. I like Morrison's writing style and use of language. Something about it felt very familiar, very eerie, which made it unknown and familiar again. The things she wanted to say, to me, with the hindsight of 52 years in my 22 year old life, have been said again and again and I found myself asking "What was the point?" Which is never a good thing to have to ask. Not every book needs a lesson or a moral or a point. I know what the point was, I've seen it since I was as young as 3 years old, when my parents taught me black was beautiful and thus I never wished to be white, and I understood what race was, meant, and symbolized before I could write my own name down with a steady hand. I realize that the point was made 52 years ago when it was published, or 42 years ago, having been seen with the fresh eyes of a new decade, or even 32 years ago with the fresh eyes of a new generation. By the time I was born the book was probably just a memory of the shadow of an era. So now, personally, I don't like this book, but I do. I respect it. I'm sure had I been 22 when it was published in 1970 I would've loved this book. But again, things have changed and also things haven't. I see that it was important for the time, and it still kind of is, but now reading it I felt the sour feeling in my stomach I do reading and watching media from the decades that have come between then and now: it just felt like black trauma. Too much of it. I'm just tired. Been tired of it since before I was a teenager. Good book. Don't know if I would recommend it, but I certainly will reread.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Rape, Gaslighting, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Classism, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Miscarriage, Sexual content, Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Animal death, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Racism, Violence, and Xenophobia

Minor: Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Blood, Fatphobia, Abandonment, and Ableism