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keen's review against another edition
- 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
4.75
Graphic: Racism, Violence, and Racial slurs
Moderate: Police brutality, Rape, and Incest
Minor: Medical content, Sexual assault, and Slavery
waybeyondblue's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
Graphic: Racism, Murder, Rape, Ableism, and Police brutality
Moderate: Religious bigotry, Racial slurs, Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, Slavery, Violence, Sexual content, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Blood
needlebrook's review against another edition
- 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
The beginning of the book is intriguing but can get to be a bit of a slog after the first handful of chapters(was considering abandoning this book during the dreamlike narration from Trueblood. Very glad I decided against it.)
But, after the narrator arrives in Harlem and starts to adapt to his surroundings, the book quickly picks up the pace and seemingly goes at break-neck pace for the rest of it.
All in all, I won't be forgetting this book very easily.
Graphic: Racism, Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Murder, and Police brutality
Moderate: Hate crime and Slavery
Minor: Classism and Racial slurs
haileyeh's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Violence, Incest, Gun violence, Murder, Medical trauma, Racism, Death, and Police brutality
Moderate: Rape, Hate crime, Alcohol, Blood, and Racial slurs
Minor: Slavery, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, and Infidelity
crackedcoffin's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism
Moderate: Rape, Incest, and Slavery
vaikeliblikas's review
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Incest, Racism, Racial slurs, and Police brutality
Moderate: Hate crime
Minor: Slavery
sherbertwells's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
“I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids—and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me” (3)
“I faced them knowing hat the madman in a foreign costume was real and yet unreal, knowing that he wanted my life, that he held me responsible for all the nights and days and all the suffering and for all that which I was incapable of controlling, and I no hero, but short and dark with only a certain eloquence and a bottomless capacity for being a fool to mark me from the rest; saw them, recognized them at last as those whom I had failed and of whom I was now, just now, a leader, through leading them, running ahead of them, only in the stripping away of my illusionment”
“Who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?” (572)
P.S. Incidentally, this is the third in a trilogy of “favorite books where a character has a glass eye,” along with Fun Home by Alison Bechdel and A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. I don’t know why this is, but it sure is a great symbol!
Graphic: Racism, Racial slurs, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Incest
Moderate: Sexual content, Police brutality, and Infidelity
Minor: Genocide, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Drug use