Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

The House of Eve by Sadeqa Johnson

27 reviews

ruffian23's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad 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? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Classism, Grief, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Infertility, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Forced institutionalization, and Racism

Minor: Slavery and Rape

helenehannailona's review

emotional inspiring sad 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? No

5.0

This book explores female strength, motherhood and race - in the setting of the segregated US in the 1950s. Heartwarming, sad and profound, this book is an inspiring read. 
<Spoiler>And the way you see Eleanor‘s and Ruby‘s story slowly interlacing… the ending, when they finally meet, didn’t leave me, even after I closed the book. Do they know how they are connected? Will they know?

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy and Racism

Moderate: Miscarriage

Minor: Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Forced institutionalization, Grief, and Infertility

amcghig's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative sad medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Infertility, Pregnancy, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Racial slurs, Adult/minor relationship, Classism, Confinement, Miscarriage, Rape, Racism, Sexual assault, Abortion, and Suicide attempt

dr_readmore_17's review

challenging emotional informative 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

4.0

Emotional story of two black women and their journey/struggles with societal injustices perpetrated on women in the past. So touching and heartfelt. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Miscarriage, and Racism

Moderate: Abortion, Forced institutionalization, and Racial slurs

Minor: Suicide

serendipitysbooks's review

emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

3.5

 Set in the 1950s, The House of Eve is the intertwined stories of two Black women, Eleanor, a college student, and Ruby, a highschooler with big dreams, who both experience unplanned pregnancies. Their stories highlight themes like racism, colourism, class, poverty, infertility and accepted roles for women. I was already fairly familiar with the way homes for unmarried mothers operated - although this is the first book I can recall that looked so explicitly at the intersection of race and unmarried mothers - so that section of the book was less impactful for me than for other readers. The book was an undemanding read, with many of the plot points being easy to predict. I found the epilogue unnecessary and didn’t need the story to be wrapped up quite so neatly. A perfectly fine read; one which was ideally suited to the reading bandwidth I had at the time I picked it up. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Miscarriage, Classism, Emotional abuse, and Forced institutionalization

bookishbilingual's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring tense fast-paced

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Classism, Infertility, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Racism, and Sexual assault

smkelly1997's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-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

I was continuously drawn in throughout this book. It was hard to but down, heartbreaking, and yet an amazing read. I loved the intertwining and parallels between Ruby and Eleanor. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma, Sexism, Classism, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Child abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Grief, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Religious bigotry, Forced institutionalization, and Infertility

gelslitreviews's review

challenging emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Forced institutionalization

Minor: Sexual assault

kerrygetsliterary's review

challenging emotional inspiring 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

✨️ The House of Eve by Sadeqa Johnson ✨️

Ms. Johnson, excuse me, I think you dropped this ... 👑

I absolutely loved Yellow Wife and The House of Eve was no different. Sadeqa Johnson is 💯 an auto-buy author for me!

In the 1950s, we meet two main characters. Ruby, a 15-year-old in Philadelphia, striving for a full-ride scholarship to college and the first in her family to attend, and Eleanor in DC, who marries into an elite wealthy Black family who doesn't let just anyone in. Eventually, these two characters' stories come together in an unexpected way.

I loved both POVs and could not stop reading! If I had to take a break, I was thinking about when I could get back to reading it again. There are so many layers to these stories, these characters. You know when you receive a gift, and it's wrapped so nicely, and you open it, and it's another box to unwrap, and inside that box is another box, and another box, until you get to the final box with the gift? Reading The House of Eve is like that, except each unwrapping is another gift itself.

(Also, hi, it's me, I wrap gifts like that sometimes to trick the recipient 😂)

The characters were complete, whole characters with flaws. Many harboring secrets, many with unresolved trauma, and all fighting a battle of their own. The writing was excellent, raw, and beautiful. This book is unafraid to explore heavy, taboo topics and dark pasts that we choose to ignore.

This book will stay with me. I will be thinking about it for a long time.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

⚠️CWs: sexual assault of a child, classism, racism, alcoholism, infertility & miscarriage, pregnancy. Check StoryGraph for others mentioned.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Classism, Pregnancy, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexism, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Body shaming, and Infertility

torlee's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad fast-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? Yes

3.75

I wanted to like this book so much more than I did. I kept waiting for the two main characters’ lives to intersect

much earlier on than they do, and in a more impactful way than they do

. I had hopes that Eleanor would grow to want to learn more about “The House of Eve” and how she could better help the women who lived there. But alas, that is a modern day wish for a 1950s society when segregation was prevalent and races rarely mixed. Despite what I had hoped the story would become, it was an enjoyable read. I ended up buying a copy because my library hold ended two days earlier than the pace of my reading would allow me to finish by. So that speaks to wanting to keep reading so I could learn more about the characters. Overall, there is good character development and a consistent parallel storyline to follow. 

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Miscarriage, Forced institutionalization, Child death, Pregnancy, Racism, and Infertility