Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

74 reviews

jthomson7's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Racism and Violence

srjennings's review against another edition

adventurous challenging funny hopeful 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

5.0

A really great book.  Kept me up late because I couldn't put it down! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Violence

Moderate: Racism and Xenophobia

meganpbell's review against another edition

emotional hopeful mysterious 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

3.75

While there’s much to love about this book—its strong sense of place, its vast, lovable, diverse, and very human cast of characters, and its central message about community amid difference—religion, race, ability, class—I found it too structurally scattered to enjoy uninterruptedly and the author’s descriptions of women’s bodies (the number of times boobs and angelic singing occur smh) distracting to put it lightly.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Forced institutionalization, Racism, and Ableism

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Religious bigotry, Violence, and Grief

Minor: Infertility, Death, Death of parent, and Medical content

emandherbooks42's review against another edition

challenging emotional slow-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? N/A

3.5

The audiobook is performed beautifully. However, I struggled with the pace in several places where things got overly expositional. There are some lovely characters, and I wish some of the women had been given more satisfying endings. The author definitely had a tell > show style-so much so that it feels like listening to a sermon. There was also a seemingly random (and unnecessary) act of sexual violence against a child. I don’t see how it added anything to the plot, and therefore I found it gratuitous. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Violence, Racial slurs, Antisemitism, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Medical trauma

Minor: Child abuse

kimveach's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring 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? Yes

3.5

This was an excellent book. I just didn't enjoy it. It felt slow and meandering at first. It eventually picked up the pace, and the various storylines came together for a thrilling ending. However, I spent most of the book wishing I had finished it. Once again, I must remember that just because a book is on a best-seller list doesn't mean I'll like it. I can appreciate this novel and even enjoyed parts of it, but I would have preferred this story as a mini-series to watch instead of reading.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Chronic illness, Classism, Blood, Grief, Infidelity, Medical content, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Violence, Antisemitism, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Vomit, Alcohol, Child death, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Murder, Racism, Sexual assault, Torture, Excrement, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Infertility, Racial slurs, and Sexual violence

purplepenning's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

In 1972, a construction crew finds a skeleton in the bottom of a well in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. But really, that's the end of the story. The real story takes place in the minority community of Chicken Hill in the 1930s, when Black and Jewish neighbors, estranged friends, quiet community protectors, well-intentioned hustlers, crooked public officials, morally diseased doctors, bankrolling mobsters, predatory monsters, and one deaf child intersect to reveal how an extraordinary community of communities came together to support and protect each other.     

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Racial slurs, and Antisemitism

Moderate: Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pedophilia, Rape, Religious bigotry, Violence, Chronic illness, Grief, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Alcohol, Classism, Mental illness, Excrement, Confinement, Medical content, and Terminal illness

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Death of parent, and Infertility

ska1224's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

the author writes a lot about women's breasts and butts for certain. distracted from the story

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Sexual violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Cursing, Excrement, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Violence, Racism, Sexual assault, Rape, Sexual harassment, Mental illness, Xenophobia, Sexism, Racial slurs, and Ableism

Moderate: Religious bigotry

Minor: Blood, Police brutality, Death of parent, Hate crime, Child abuse, Alcohol, Slavery, Fatphobia, Infertility, Murder, Body shaming, Death, Deportation, and Medical content

reading_ladies_blog's review against another edition

emotional sad 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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Violence, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Death, Grief, and Rape

pmhandley's review against another edition

dark hopeful sad slow-paced

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

3.5

James McBride can always write a tale. If you've read his other books, you'll recognize his usual habits - lots of absurd nicknames, heavy religious imagery, rather uncomfortable descriptions of the female characters. The plot was interesting even when I wasn't sure what direction things were going, and the characters have quippy enough dialogue that I was able to overlook that some of them weren't utilized nearly enough in the overall arc and fizzle out too early. The metaphor gets too clunky when McBride drops subtlety and veers into "kids and their screens these days" territory. Despite this, I always enjoy the cast of characters McBride creates, which nearly always make his stories worth reading in their own right.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Ableism, Forced institutionalization, Racism, Alcohol, Violence, Racial slurs, Death, and Antisemitism

Minor: Excrement

kurtgrl13's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Hate crime, and Racism

Moderate: Violence, Excrement, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Alcohol, Rape, and Forced institutionalization