Reviews with content warning for Sexism - To Kill a Mockingbird

Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

56 reviews

elinthenilsson's review

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3.5

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senny's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

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juju109's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective 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

5.0

Now, that’s a good book. Boy oh boy, where do I even start. I expected something dry and dull, but I was mistaken. Narrative structure is outstanding, I was hooked from the start. There’s enough material to pull you in and make you bond with the characters without getting into the thick of it too fast, which is already impressive. It tackles intense topics with sense and sensibility, shows the flawed nature of human kind through the story while remaining incredibly nuanced and hopeful through the characters of Atticus Finch, Scout and Jem. I rarely enjoy a book or movie with children in it because I find that they are almost always poorly written: they’re supposed to be regular kids but they’re written as absolute geniuses, and that gets on my nerves. But Harper Lee managed to write believable children, and that to me is quite the accomplishment. All characters have their own personality, some are deeply unlikeable but they’re still treated as whole human beings and that’s rare. I think Atticus Finch is a character I won’t forget. Now surely, the book elevates him and it would have benefitted from the perspective of Black people, and of course many novels center on white people with Black folks only in the background or in the place of victims. I acknowledge that and I’d like to hear the opinions of Black people who’ve read this book. As far as I’m concerned, it is a story that needed to be told in 1960 - had it been written in 2020, that would be a different story. I deeply enjoyed the Southern atmosphere, by which I mean the slang and idioms plus the rendering of speech (final -t dropped, "yawl" which we write "y’all" these days, "them" almost always shortened to "'em", and so on) as well as descriptions of the weather and of the town (the people in the town, the Finches’ neighbors, school-life, social events). It’s a very interesting look at Alabama in the 30s. Less enjoyable part of the Southern atmosphere but informative and most likely very on the nose, is the treatment of Black people by white folks. Coming back to the structure, I found it really compelling to have Boo Radley come out (of his house) at the end, it wrapped up the story so beautifully. What started as kind of a horror story to children becomes this strong novel on racism and ends like a horrific tale again. Finally, I like what I’ve read on Harper Lee as a person and what she did of her immense success, that she didn’t publish anything else (except one novel late in her life and she may have been forced to). Overall I really loved this book and I’m so glad to have read it. I would most definitely read it again.

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grayscale08's review

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

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

3.75

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jonathananas's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

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isabellehoule's review

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challenging dark informative sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Every American must read this book before they turn 18 years old. It is a classic and for good reason. I think that everyone should be reading this in 9th grade, every single person. It is such an important part of our history that we cannot let be forgotten. The key to undoing our racism lies in the past.

When reading this book everyone should think deeply about it.
Some things to question:
How does the experience for black men in America today compare to the experience of black men in America in the 1930s especially in regards to the criminal justice system?
How does Mayella use her white privilege to weaponize the oppression that she faces because she is a woman? Would you consider what she did to be a good example of white woman's tears and how harmful it is?

While reading this book is important, I think it is MORE important to read books about black experiences written by black authors as well as books about black people that have themes other than racism. If you read and liked this book and want to learn about and how to help take down racism my advice to you is to diversify your reading list with characters and authors of color (especially black ones).

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shiv123's review

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challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

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charlotte_aurora_'s review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective 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

4.5

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jemappellecat's review

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

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camz's review against another edition

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challenging sad 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

4.0

2- 4

La verdad no sé si me gustó o estoy terriblemente decepcionada.

Este libro es conocido por tratar el racismo pero para mi es ante todo un coming-of -age que usa el racismo para explorar diferencias entre niños y adultos; y cómo procesamos información y vemos el mundo. Esta parte creo que fue escrita de manera adecuada, y si bien es una representación de una niñez prácticamente extinta, tiene un sentimientos universal que podemos reconocer.

El racismo por otro lado, es tratado la mayoría del tiempo con un tono santurrón de “poner la otra mejilla” y de “combatir el racismo con amabilidad y cortesía”, que fue insoportable de leer, sobre todo considerando que las charlas moralistas vienen de blancos.

Lo dejo en 4 estrellas porque para mi es un coming-of-age pero me queda el sentimiento que yo no le vi lo que todos parecen ver en este libro, sobre todo no entiendo el amor que genera el personaje de Atticus.

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