Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Beloved by Toni Morrison

172 reviews

bigteo'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? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

The only reason I’m not giving this five stars is because I’m really strict to reserve it for books that won’t leave my mind for weeks or months afterwards. That being said, I think this is a really important book and something a lot of people should read provided they can stomach the dark themes.

Above all, this is a book about trauma. It’s obvious that every single part of the characters’ present lives are dictated by the trauma of slavery. It’s so much more than a ghost story. That part is almost irrelevant to the book. I feel like that’s important to say since I myself went into the book with the expectation of the “ghost” part to be a lot more present. It’s not a thriller ghost story. The horror doesn’t come from the paranormal, it comes from real life events that real life people had to suffer through, which is far more horrifying. 

The writing style is amazing. It reads like a train of thought, which can get confusing at times, but that’s probably all on me. I didn’t really like the main characters, except Denver. I feel like that’s something a lot of people will say. For example, it’s obvious that Sethe is deeply flawed and that her decision (spoilers, I won’t say) is morally bad. Does that mean she deserves to be cut off from the society and effectively punished for 18 years? Denver certainly doesn’t. I just felt really bad for Denver and how she was held back from things like education because of the family’s bad omen that Sethe brought upon them. The characters being perhaps a bit unlikeable is only because of deep flaws that serves for an extremely interesting read. They all felt like real people.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Pregnancy, Death, Racism, Racial slurs, Hate crime, Child death, Sexual content, Slavery, and Cursing

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Sexual assault, and Alcoholism

Minor: War

realesttorturedpoet's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Racial slurs, Sexual harassment, Hate crime, Gun violence, Child death, Sexual violence, Death, Slavery, Violence, Child abuse, Confinement, Racism, and Torture

st_ella_r's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Slavery, Child death, Racial slurs, Murder, Blood, Pregnancy, Confinement, and Racism

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

morenowagain's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Blood, Rape, Racism, Child death, Death of parent, Sexual content, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Murder, Gun violence, Death, Violence, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Child abuse, Racial slurs, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Animal cruelty

blep's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Um. Holy shit? No wonder Toni Morrison got a Nobel prize. This is a master at work

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Racial slurs, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Murder, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Slavery, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Racism, Trafficking, and Child death

alcmusso's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexual violence, Mental illness, Rape, Gore, Colonisation, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Death, Sexual assault, Child death, Deportation, Slavery, and Blood

sailorpunk's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Child death, Emotional abuse, Racism, Slavery, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Violence, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

emilyreads15's review against another edition

challenging slow-paced

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

2.0

Had to read this book for AP Lit and let’s just say it was certainly something. For starters I didn’t like the author’s writing style at all. It was unique but confusing, had it been written a different way I think I would’ve understood more. I wouldn’t necessarily say that it was difficult to understand this book’s plot, that was pretty simple once discussed and thought over more. The real difficulty lies within the overall meaning and purpose, if someone asked me right now why the author wrote this I wouldn’t have an answer because I truly have no clue. I suppose I would say that she wrote it so that people who read it would have a better understanding of the horrors of slavery and the sacrifices those impacted had to make to survive. But even I’m not totally sure of that.

I think I would’ve liked this a lot more had she not included Magical Realism. That’s the part that really got me confused the most when it came to understanding the overall meaning. I wish it would’ve been left to realism without the magic (ghosts, afterlife, etc). Like I just truly don’t rlly get it. I also wish there would have been more defined answers throughout the book but I suppose I understand why the author didn’t include that.

This is one of those books that you could talk for hours about what it means and never truly know. The unfortunate thing is other than the historical aspects, I didn’t enjoy reading this at all. I feel asleep multiple times while reading, nothing ever really kept me engaged. I didn’t like the story and I didn’t really like the plot (whatever that was meant to be). It just felt really dragged out.

This novel did discuss many interesting and less talked about aspects of slavery (some of which were quite disturbing and made me want to puke. I’m shocked they are allowed to teach this at my school). Anyways I would recommend it for that as it was educational and eye-opening. But overall I just didn’t enjoy this book at all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Slavery

Moderate: Child death and Death

ssummar's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Sexual harassment, Violence, Classism, Confinement, Death of parent, Infidelity, Rape, Grief, Hate crime, Sexual violence, Torture, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Child death, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, and Slavery

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Child abuse, Eating disorder, and War

jeggert10's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child death, Death, Grief, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Toxic relationship, War, Murder, Sexual assault, Slavery, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, and Sexual content

Moderate: Sexual violence and Cursing

Minor: Kidnapping, Suicidal thoughts, Abortion, Alcohol, Chronic illness, and Excrement