Reviews tagging 'Rape'

The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers

196 reviews

ruffian23's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Classism, Grief, Hate crime, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Violence, Child abuse, Addiction, Child death, Sexual content, and Drug abuse

welkinvault's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad 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? It's complicated

3.5

This multigenerational tome was chosen purely as it was recommended by a book youtuber I follow.  I really wanted to like this, but it was though I was reading a different novel to them.  I started with this 30 hour audio but after a few hours bought the book too as I thought it was my fault that I found huge chunks of the novel long, flat and two dimensional (even though the narration was very good). 

The historical sections were interesting (although too much sexual violence reported almost in passing with little effort to show the impact on the survivors or the community).  The more contemporary main storyline of the very immature, precocious, Ailey and her romances was lengthly and not engaging.   As a coming of age story I found I was largely uninterested in her growth or her ridiculous reasonings for her prickly and almost combative realations with her school/undergraduate peers.  

That is until about the 550 page mark when the book started to tie together all the threads, Ailey finally gained some maturity and the emotional resonance that was missing from the first chunk of the novel was delivered (especially in the historical scenes).  At that point  I found I could not put the book down.  

The character of Root was fasciating, and I did want to know what happened to Nick, but for such a sprawling choppy work the author did a great job in tying up so many threads at the conclusion of the novel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual violence, Child death, Colonisation, Incest, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Slavery, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, and Rape

mayaraisedme's review against another edition

emotional sad tense medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Drug use, Child abuse, and Drug abuse

nlammata's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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: Slavery, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Pedophilia, and Addiction

missjonesreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I love a multi-generational family saga and this did not disappoint. I listened to this on Audible and I think the work of the narrators really elevated the story in a beautiful way. I grew to love this family and loved the way I learned about so many people in it. 

Buying a physical copy just so k can reread portions of it again 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Slavery, Pedophilia, and Rape

mlatibash's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

I can’t say anything that hasn’t already been said. What a triumph of a book. A classic American epic. Very dense, emotional, and complicated, but worth it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Racism, Drug abuse, Slavery, Sexual violence, Child abuse, and Death

syellico's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-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

3.5

This book is an undertaking. I read it with a group over 3 months as a slow and steady which I know affected my experience. Prolonging some of the absolutely horrible subject matter probably made it an even more difficult read than it is. 
In the end, I was just ready to be done and I probably missed some impact because of it. 
For me, it was just too long and I never was able to completely keep track of the multitude of characters. Major trigger warnings abound.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Classism, Confinement, Colonisation, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Addiction, Body horror, Blood, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Trafficking, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Incest, Infertility, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual harassment, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief

my_plant_library's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Racism, Death, Drug abuse, and Addiction

Moderate: Rape and Child abuse

sivanib's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Slavery

ryanbada's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative lighthearted 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Sexism, Rape, Sexual harassment, Pedophilia, Death, Drug use, Slavery, Sexual content, Addiction, and Death of parent

Moderate: Infidelity and Pregnancy

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Miscarriage