Reviews tagging 'Infertility'

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

30 reviews

zoea08's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Antisemitism, Medical content, Xenophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Infertility, Excrement, Death, Rape, Ableism, and Violence

jt793's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Religious bigotry, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Cursing, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Racial slurs, Classism, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Death, Antisemitism, Rape, Racism, Pedophilia, and Hate crime

Minor: Infertility and Alcohol

dogoodwithbooks's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

This book was something else. While I don’t really read a whole lot of historical fiction and that I thought the pacing at first was pretty slow, I was captivated by McBride’s storytelling of the residents in Chicken Hill. Capturing the various points of intersectionality in terms of race, social class, and disability (just to name a few), McBride’s stories of the African American and Jewish residents who live in Pottstown’s Chicken Hill is both heartbreaking yet hopeful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Racial slurs, Forced institutionalization, Sexual assault, Antisemitism, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Child abuse, Medical content, Ableism, and Child death

Minor: Infertility, Death of parent, Excrement, and Abandonment

chewy__stuff's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, Antisemitism, Chronic illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Grief, Confinement, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Child death, Mental illness, Infertility, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Murder, Excrement, and Child abuse

Minor: Death of parent

bibliophilistine's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-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: Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Racial slurs, Ableism, Racism, Antisemitism, Child abuse, Sexual assault, and Pedophilia

Minor: Infertility, Death, and Violence

djbobthegirl's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-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? It's complicated

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Racial slurs, Death, Excrement, Medical content, Murder, Sexual assault, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Classism, Confinement, Grief, Mental illness, Ableism, Antisemitism, and Sexual violence

clarkg's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

"The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store" is a beautiful, lyrical tale of community and solidarity. McBride has created a rich world full of brilliant, dynamic characters whose fates entwine in surprising places. I appreciated many things about this book--the language, the care given to crafting the story's Black and Jewish communities, the breadth and depth of disability representation (though not without flaw), and its callbacks to a larger conversation about the possibilities and limits of justice on stolen land. If I had to describe "The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store" in a single word, it would be "abundant".

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Violence, Rape, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Medical trauma, Ableism, Child death, Death, and Excrement

Moderate: Classism, Antisemitism, Colonisation, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Infertility, Death of parent, Mental illness, Misogyny, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Xenophobia

Minor: Slavery, Infidelity, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

narbine's review against another edition

slow-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? Yes

3.25

It’s a fine book but the description was SO misleading

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Infertility, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, Ableism, Abandonment, Forced institutionalization, Antisemitism, and Racism

jennshelfishlife's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense 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? N/A

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Ableism, Antisemitism, Bullying, Classism, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Racism, Religious bigotry, and Medical trauma

Minor: Excrement and Infertility

oproy's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective 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

It took a while to get into it. However, the character development and the way everything coalesced in the end was beautiful. It’s a hard story to read and although I personally felt like I couldn’t see myself in any of the characters, it was so well-written that I felt I was living on the Hill with these families.  It also felt both subtle and yet direct with it’s purpose, unlike some other books I’ve read with similar themes which seem to want to hit you over the head with the ideas of racism and prosperity. 

Overall, the first 2/3 is character development followed by 1/3 of a drive by story. It is well-written and

the the ending is satisfying

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Rape, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Forced institutionalization, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Infertility