Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

17 reviews

morenowagain's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abortion, Police brutality, Misogyny, Murder, Slavery, Suicide, Racism, Alcohol, Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Gun violence, Incest, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Racial slurs, and Stalking

dizzzybrook's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gun violence, Violence, Death, Incest, and Suicide

lay_kone's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Death, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Suicide, Slavery, and Abortion

kari_g's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

5 stars implies that I recommend it, and I really don’t. If you aren’t gonna tough it out, then it isn’t worth your time, but if you make it to the end, it’s truly life changing. I am better for having read this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Incest, Toxic relationship, Blood, Suicide, Death, Terminal illness, Cursing, Sexual content, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, Violence, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Animal death, Classism, Gun violence, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Vomit, Infertility, Rape, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Grief, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Slavery, Terminal illness, and Stalking

Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Religious bigotry, Body shaming, Confinement, Alcoholism, Excrement, and Infidelity

zeldazonks's review

challenging emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

Took me a little bit to get into it and then I devoured most of it in one sitting because Toni Morrison's writing is just so good. Incredible book. Felt a bit more accessible than Beloved and was less emotionally devastating, but still just so good. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexism, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Gun violence, Grief, Death, Addiction, Murder, Incest, Animal death, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Racism, and Racial slurs

gellyreads'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

3.75

So, I had to restart this book to understand it. I didn’t enjoy Milkman nor did I enjoy the ending of this novel. The only thing I really loved was Pilate. She was everything in this novel and the majority of part 2. Guitar was also fun. I feel like I wouldn’t be rating this so high if I hadn’t just finished The Bluest Eye and felt so left behind by it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Incest, Racial slurs, Gun violence, and Violence

moranguinhos's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Slavery, and Racism

purplehulk713's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense 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

4.25

Stirring. Toni Morrison certainly knew how to construct wholly unique worlds with realistic racial values and constructs but also her own fictional, ”local” almost, patterns of living that give true character to her novels like Song of Solomon. I felt bad having to rush through it for school, especially since it was a book that we would not discuss for very long, though there a semester’s worth of material to unpack. Though there are definitely hateable characters like Macon Dead II, Milkman’s father, he is characterized so well over the course of the book that you come to empathize with him if not like him for all that he has experienced in his life. Names are incredibly relevant—Milkman, for example, whose name is not his given name, but as he is colloquially known, most likely because since he was born in whatever shape or form, anyone could see that he only sought life for what it could give him, sucking it dry as if it were a milk cow. This is why he forsakes Hagar, whose name literally means “forsaken”, and this is truly so relevant to her character because

she becomes so dependent on his approval of and desire for her that her ultimate realization that she will never have it kills her.

Even the book’s name is so relevant—an allusion to a biblical book of Jewish erotic love poetry, describing a depth of passion for another person without which neither one of them could live. Milkman never truly has this in his life, not with his family, with any of his girlfriends, or with his difficult-to-describe relationship with Guitar. It’s the sense of flight which he seeks the whole novel. The final mysteries including the origins of the Dead family, Shalimar, and the children’s song was so tantalizing both to read and to analyze. My favorite character was Pilate—I found her character most compelling for what I felt was her sincerity despite her position of sentencing (another emphasis on the relevance of names). I only did not give this book five stars because it does not totally click with me, you know? Maybe if I were to read it again. But anyway, will surrender to the air and take flight?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gore, Racism, Pregnancy, Murder, Alcohol, Blood, Incest, Racial slurs, Toxic friendship, Gun violence, Hate crime, Pedophilia, and Sexual content

kers_tin's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Toxic friendship, Incest, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Hate crime, Murder, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Racism, Rape, and Suicide attempt

nadia's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.5

This was a brilliant book! Definitely my favourite Toni Morrison so far out of the three I've read as part of my chronological journey through her fiction.

The writing was excellent and Morrison crafts such unique characters that you're always eager to see how they interact and what they do next. I'm also not normally one for magical realism, but it worked for me in this book. I just went with it and let Toni Morrison lead the way.

There were so many different facets to this book, which you might think could lead to a novel that felt disjointed, but Morrison expertly tied it all together and nothing felt out of place!

There were some parts that I struggled to keep on top of everything — namely names, relationships between people and places — but I didn't find myself getting frustrated by that as I am wont to do in such cases!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, and Death