Reviews with content warning for Police brutality - Your Heart Is a Muscle the Size of a Fist

Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

Your Heart Is a Muscle the Size of a Fist by Sunil Yapa

9 reviews

orlagal's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

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sleepyredwolf's review

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emotional informative inspiring tense fast-paced

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

4.0

A heartfelt book, though I wish I could parse the politics and agenda of its author more. For some reason it took me a long time to complete this. I am ultimately glad it exists. I think it may have been more effective if it were about a fictional protest movement as opposed to a work of historical fiction about a real-life event. I say this because I find it odd to place the main character in such a central position - such as being the son of the chief of police - in a real-world event where you've blended together real and fictional events. But then again, I don't read a lot of historical fiction.

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cheye13's review against another edition

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challenging tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This is an amazing book. A very important read – though difficult – for any American. Not a five star because it didn't strike me personally; I didn't get anything from the story that's unique to me, that anyone else won't pick up on. Still an expertly crafted and vitally important book.

Yapa's nuance with each character and the world within the book is so impressive, and his use of language is flawless. He strikes an excellent balance between empathy and distance, using a stream of consciousness narration that lets the scenes of intense violence ebb and flow, interspersed with scenes of beauty.

I was way too young to remember anything of the WTO protests, but I could not divorce the book from vivid memories of the 2014 BLM protests. A wonderful book, and an unfortunately apt one for our current sociopolitical climate.

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emoryscott's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative inspiring reflective tense 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? No

5.0

This was a fantastic read. I had actually never even heard of the WTO protests, despite having education in international studies. I love the way the story developed through each of the characters’ perspectives.

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k8lynn's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring tense 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? No

4.0

beautifully written, i love how this author describes things. it's very compassionate and written in varying perspectives that give you an all-encompassing understanding of the protest these characters are attending. it takes place in 1999 Seattle, but it could easily fit with a more modern storytelling as well, ie. the Trump era. my only qualms with this book are it's slower paced than i would like and the events of one day are drawn out. it didn't pick up for me until i was around page 100, but i still enjoyed it nonetheless.

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