Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

76 reviews

cindypepper's review against another edition

funny hopeful inspiring 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

4.5

Loved this!

The premise of the book made it seem like it would be a mystery, but to call it that reduces the worldbuilding of the Black and Jewish neighborhood of Chicken Hill. <i>Heaven & Earth Grocery Store</i> is part slice-of-life but altogether a story about the ways that we, as a community, help each other out. It does take a while to juggle all the different characters and names of Chicken Hill (and the larger Pottstown area), to the point where I wasn't sure if this was going to be a whodunnit (it isn't). It was a lot to get my bearings as a reader and suss out the constellation of connections, but James McBride is actually very airtight with the details and the character studies and he makes sure that no detail is made unnecessary! Even the tangents are important! I found myself referencing seemingly minute details from previous chapters. This novel rewards the most astute of readers.

And paying attention isn't a chore here; the characters are vibrant and deftly drawn. (Shout out to the socialist girlie Chona!!!) Once the characters settle in, the book really picks up momentum and hits the ground running. It's a fascinating story of community crossing lines of race and class to protect a child who is failed by the so-called safeguards of society.

It's a triumphant story of solidarity, but McBride's humor and snappiness keep the storyline clear-eyed. By the latter chapters of the book, I had kinda forgotten about the skeleton, not because it was unimportant, but because I was so invested in the fates of the characters that the skeleton was more of a secondary thought. That said, the end is absolutely satisfying up to the very last page. If you want warm storytelling, rich worldbuilding, and something that's uplifting but not naively feel-good-y, I'd highly recommend!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Racial slurs

There are

two scenes of sexual assault

.

juperson's review against another edition

dark 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? No

0.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism

Moderate: Sexual assault, Rape, Sexual violence, and Adult/minor relationship

amybartoli29's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Ableism, Sexual violence, Antisemitism, Racism, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Violence and Alcohol

Minor: Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Pedophilia

beamae's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

3.0

I entered thinking this was going to be a murder mystery book. For those thinking that it is…it’s not. I feel like I would have enjoyed this book more knowing that it wasn’t actually a murder mystery. Not even sure why this book has that in the description cause it’s very misleading. 

With that said, this book is a beautiful story that has a wonderful way of showing how minorities support each other and how they are pitted against one another as well. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Misogyny, and Xenophobia

burnourhistory's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Racism, Violence, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Chronic illness, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Murder, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, Classism, and Death

natesalsbury's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional slow-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? It's complicated

3.0

I had trouble with this book. I thought it was well-written with a lot of detail. And it started strong: the first chapter begins with a flash-forward of a body being discovered, leading me to believe the mysterious murder would be central to the story, à la Where the Crawdads Sing. This was not the case- the "mystery" of the body is primarily referenced in the first chapter and the last two, with little impact on the story.

At points, there was too much detail. Introducing a new character required multiple paragraphs (or even pages) of backstory- and there were A LOT of characters. I could not keep track of all of the characters, several with primarily used nicknames; however, on occasion a real name was used and I forgot who that character was and had to go back for context clues. There were also so many points-of-view which made it hard to keep up with. I wasn't sure who the main character was supposed to be, if any.

The plot seemed very convoluted. I wasn't sure why any of these characters specific stories were told until the very end when it was explicitly laid out "This character did this, which meant this character could do this and, as a result, this happened." So it did tie together in the end, but took so long to get there.

This story primarily took place in the late 1920s with the first and last chapters taking place in 1972. At least twice - in random spots - modern day 2000s events were mentioned, specifically referring to school shootings despite almost no gun violence in the book, so I wasn't entirely sure why it was mentioned at all.

Content Warning: Explicit SA.

The first instance happened about midway through the novel and felt semi-important to the story, but was hard to read. The second instance happened near the end and did not feel important to the story; the context of the scenario made some sense, but so would other acts of violence/assault that would have been less traumatic to read.

Overall, I am glad I read this, but would not jump at the opportunity to read it again. Maybe somewhere down the road I will read it with a different perspective (and knowing what's going to happen) and find a way to appreciate it more, but that day will not come anytime soon.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Chronic illness, and Racism

aggie2010's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Forced institutionalization, Death, Racism, Sexual violence, Violence, Excrement, Ableism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Rape, Sexual assault, Antisemitism, Mental illness, and Murder

cassidy's review against another edition

mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

It was a little hard to keep track of the number of characters because there were a lot of different characters/plot lines that ultimately all connected. By the time I got to the end I forgot the premise of the book and how the mystery was solved. I found the portrayal of 1920s/30s America very interesting and it was interesting to me to learn about Jewish immigrant culture too. 
Ultimately there were parts of the book that were quite despicable and challenging to read. The parts of the book that took the perspective of doc or plitzka were just gross. Big tw for white supremacy and then also for sexual violence. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Sexual violence, Racism, Sexual assault, Rape, and Racial slurs

clarkg's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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? Yes

5.0

"The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store" is a beautiful, lyrical tale of community and solidarity. McBride has created a rich world full of brilliant, dynamic characters whose fates entwine in surprising places. I appreciated many things about this book--the language, the care given to crafting the story's Black and Jewish communities, the breadth and depth of disability representation (though not without flaw), and its callbacks to a larger conversation about the possibilities and limits of justice on stolen land. If I had to describe "The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store" in a single word, it would be "abundant".

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Violence, Rape, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Medical trauma, Ableism, Child death, Death, and Excrement

Moderate: Classism, Antisemitism, Colonisation, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Infertility, Death of parent, Mental illness, Misogyny, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Xenophobia

Minor: Slavery, Infidelity, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

axmed's review against another edition

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Racism, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Sexual violence, Misogyny, Child abuse, Slavery, and Sexism

please add anti-Black racism or antiblackness as an option, cuz racism alone doesn't cut it, cuz it is too broad.