Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

172 reviews

larissakoedood's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Rape, Pedophilia, Animal death, Bullying, Death, Pregnancy, and Incest

raindropxox's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

5.0

This book was so well written. I loved the structure, written in seasons, and with the first paragraph coming through throughout the description of Pecola and her family. I loved that this book made me disgusted. So completely and utterly disgusted. The way Morrison wrote this story is horrifying and wonderful. She makes you feel completely uncomfortable and rips your heart and makes you feel such contempt for the world, but makes you want to do better. Toni Morrison has quickly become one of my favourite writers. Her writing is absolutely amazing here and this was her debut novel! I definitely recommend this book if you want to feel strongly and want to change the way you think about the world and yourself. But please note that the trigger warning list is probably longer than a giraffe’s leg!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Racism, and Incest

Moderate: Animal death

Minor: Child death

hapikohw's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-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

4.0

It was an honor to experience my first Toni Morrison novel through a public (virtual) reading done by all Black women authors, feminists and radicals.

Pecola Breedlove, there are many of you. Many failed. May we fail many others no more.

Toni Morrison, may you rest in peace and power. You completed everything you hoped to in your foreword.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Body shaming, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Blood, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Grief, Hate crime, Pedophilia, Classism, Sexual assault, Abandonment, Incest, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Alcoholism, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Violence, Cursing, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Ableism

sanctuary's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

Im going to think about this book for a very long time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Incest

Moderate: Pedophilia, Rape, and Animal death

Minor: Miscarriage and Death

thomasina's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Animal death, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Animal cruelty, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Racism, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

silver_lining_in_a_book's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.75

 

Love is never any better than the lover. Wicked people love wickedly, violent people love violently, weak people love weakly, stupid people love stupidly, but the love of a free man is never safe. There is no gift for the beloved. The lover alone possesses his gift of love. The loved one is shorn, neutralized, frozen in the glare of the lover’s inward eye.

I think the quote above speaks for itself. There is no wonder that Toni Morrison is so beloved amongst both book readers and those who do not tend to read quite as often. This book is so moving, striking and shocking. Being Morrison's debut novel, I get the sense that she has not yet come into herself as a writer, but the writing is gorgeous nonetheless and accomplishes exactly what the author sets off to achieve from the start (according to the author's note). For the time in which it is written, this book and its narrative are exceptionally innovative, the language is exciting and memorable, and the characters are multidimensional and complex.

Overall, I am disappointed that I did not read this sooner. Morrison is an absolute treasure! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Sexism, Sexual content, Racism, Death of parent, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Drug abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Addiction, Mental illness, Classism, Religious bigotry, Drug use, Child abuse, Bullying, Misogyny, Incest, Miscarriage, Gun violence, Sexual harassment, and Hate crime

ajay913's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Racism, and Incest

Moderate: Abandonment, Alcoholism, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Miscarriage, Mental illness, and Pregnancy

minayana's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.25

This is a great novel with really poignant prose. The plot is really tragic, as are all the characters. The POV switches often, with the POV of Claudia being the only recurring one. Morrison explores the ways that black children are taught self loathing and hate, and how the definition of “beauty” is often intertwined with race. There is especially a spotlight on the treatment of black women in society, one of the topics being how black men will turn to abusing black women due to feeling demasculinized by white men. The author gives all the characters backstories to show how they became the people they are in the present day. I know some people didn’t like that she humanized the bad characters, but I think it’s important to recognize that the terrible things that happen in this novel are distinctly human. 

This book is a hard read, and it did a bit too much towards the end for me personally. I don’t think there was a reason to show the rape of Pecola considering we already know from the very beginning of the book that it happens. I also really didn’t understand the point of the POV of “Soaphead” except to be gratuitously disturbing. 

This book covers so many extremely important topics and themes, and I would definitely recommend, but PLEASE check the trigger warnings before reading! 

A few other things I had issues with. The way fat characters are treated and described are pretty fatphobic, but I’m not surprised considering the time it was published. There’s also a character who doesn’t enjoy sex with her husband, and finds comfort in her cat. There’s really weird descriptions of her experiencing “pleasure” from her cat sitting on her lap and stuff like that ??? Weird and once again, gratuitous.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Racism, Animal cruelty, Rape, Sexual assault, Classism, Domestic abuse, Incest, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Animal death, and Pedophilia

aduran037's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Abandonment, Addiction, Racial slurs, Miscarriage, Child abuse, Rape, Slavery, Domestic abuse, Incest, Classism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Racism, and Sexual assault

snowiceblackfruit77's review against another edition

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Incest, Excrement, Grief, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Pregnancy, Violence, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Death, Racism, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Sexual assault, Body shaming, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment