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4.08 AVERAGE
4.08 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is a book filled to the brim with emotion and the personal history of its characters, themselves examples of all those stories of the suffering people who time forgot. Some of the pages truly feel as haunted as Sethe feels by what happened. This was an emotional experience that touched me at times unlike any other book.
But there were a few other times, mostly towards the end, where the message and symbolism was completely lost on me. That might have been a shortcoming of mine but it hindered my enjoyment. The highpoint was those 4 chapters in Part II of the thoughts of Sethe, Denver, and Beloved, while the low was most of Part III. I'm not saying it's a bad ending, it wasn't and what Beloved and Sethe end up doing to each other just felt so right and like a natural progression of the story. It just all flew by so past that it surprised me.
Nonetheless, this is an amazing book and I understand the hype around it completely. I can both see why people would adore it and give it 5-stars, but also understand why some people can't vibe with it as well due to it's highly emotional and symbolic prose.
Those last few pages of Paul D and Sethe gave me hope for the future though, despite everything, and I think that's beautiful.
But there were a few other times, mostly towards the end, where the message and symbolism was completely lost on me. That might have been a shortcoming of mine but it hindered my enjoyment. The highpoint was those 4 chapters in Part II of the thoughts of Sethe, Denver, and Beloved, while the low was most of Part III. I'm not saying it's a bad ending, it wasn't and what Beloved and Sethe end up doing to each other just felt so right and like a natural progression of the story. It just all flew by so past that it surprised me.
Nonetheless, this is an amazing book and I understand the hype around it completely. I can both see why people would adore it and give it 5-stars, but also understand why some people can't vibe with it as well due to it's highly emotional and symbolic prose.
Those last few pages of Paul D and Sethe gave me hope for the future though, despite everything, and I think that's beautiful.
challenging
dark
emotional
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
A haunting, powerful novel. Full of slavery's venom.
My first Toni Morrison book, and wow … an incredible introduction. Morrison’s writing is powerful, unflinching, melodic, and evokes all at once a kind of enduring hope that one never has to give up on deciding who they are, despite all that they face in a world that takes upon itself to decide it.
A book on survival, primarily, Beloved tells us what women, especially black women, already know of the world: Men are animals, and when women cannibalize themselves to be saved from becoming their prey, it is she who is considered monstrous. Sethe’s character might just be one of the most easily understood – if you can suspend, for a moment, the belief that there are things that “should be done in one way, and not the other.” Suspend a moral high ground and re-discover what it means to not even know freedom enough to want it for its sake. This is a story, not of the future, but of the past – and how far it travels when one cannot lay it to rest, cannot let it go for fear that everything else will go with it.
I recommend checking trigger warnings for this book, but also want to remind that these are realities that existed and in some parts of the world, continue to exist and to be disturbed by them is the point – and only the first step, really, of determining a place for yourself in the world that involves unlearning systems of violence, oppression, and discrimination.
A book on survival, primarily, Beloved tells us what women, especially black women, already know of the world: Men are animals, and when women cannibalize themselves to be saved from becoming their prey, it is she who is considered monstrous. Sethe’s character might just be one of the most easily understood – if you can suspend, for a moment, the belief that there are things that “should be done in one way, and not the other.” Suspend a moral high ground and re-discover what it means to not even know freedom enough to want it for its sake. This is a story, not of the future, but of the past – and how far it travels when one cannot lay it to rest, cannot let it go for fear that everything else will go with it.
I recommend checking trigger warnings for this book, but also want to remind that these are realities that existed and in some parts of the world, continue to exist and to be disturbed by them is the point – and only the first step, really, of determining a place for yourself in the world that involves unlearning systems of violence, oppression, and discrimination.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The writing is absolutely beautiful. The themes and symbols are so engraved into the story and characters.
Diferentemente das ficções brasileiras (das que pelo menos conheço) Toni Morrison narra as dificuldades da escravidão, mas une o sobrenatural, o aterrorizador, talvez fantástico, criando uma aura de medo e terror. Em certos momentos fiquei confuso com o tempo da narração, já que voltava ao tempo da Doce Lar, outro com Baby Suggs, e outros. Um excelente romance de qualquer forma.
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes