Reviews with content warning for Animal death - To Kill a Mockingbird

Representation: Black and biracial (half Black and half white) characters
Score: Two points out of ten.

I didn't enjoy To Kill a Mockingbird at any point in the book. I saw this one circling my recommendations, making me want to read it. When I discovered my library had this, I immediately wanted to pick it up. Soon enough, it was time to read it, and I initially thought it would be enjoyable, but it wasn't.

Spoilers ahead. I've warned you.

It starts with the first people I see, Scout and Jem Finch, recounting their lives in a small town named Maycomb. Nothing much happens in the opening pages (actually the first 150 pages,) until a court case occurs involving a Black person being accused of assaulting a white person. To say To Kill a Mockingbird was disappointing only scratches the surface of how abhorrent it is. To Kill a Mockingbird portrays a white saviour narrative as the white lawyer, Atticus Finch, swoops in and solves racism for the Black character, Tom. That has to be one of the most unrealistic rendering of racism I've seen.

To Kill a Mockingbird ignores the fact that Black people and other minorities stood up for themselves to stop injustice and instead sends a message that only white people can stop racism for them. I would've liked the characters if they didn't play the white saviour. All I see is racism from the white perspective, and never hear from any of the Black characters. The last 100 pages weren't much better as all the characters in this fictional composition reflect on what happened, but not before one of them delivers a speech on colourblindness and how race doesn't matter and they are all only people.

To summarise, this piece of fiction from the author initially seemed promising, but when I closed its final page, I felt disgusted. You can read other books concerning discrimination like The Hate U Give instead of this.

Content Warnings

mulders's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative 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? No

4.5

Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.

Reviewing a classic always feels silly and a little presumptive— what could I possibly have to say about a book that's been made required reading in every other school in America? Of course it's well written, and sharp in its assessments, and deliberate in its portrayals. So I will forgo the redundant appraisal of the book's effectiveness in its political goals and go straight to the heart of it: its main character, Scout. What spoke to me most was not the story itself, (however well done, and it was), but the way it was told. Harper Lee has an unbelievable gift for writing children. Despite growing up decades and continents apart, Scout's narration felt so familiar, so precise, so real; it captured the logic and dreams of childhood expertly, and made the events of the book feel tangible. As our little hero navigates the ever shifting world of adults, politics and secrets and double-talk, so do we have to read between the lines to harvest from this book everything it has to offer. I would have loved to read this as a kid to have a point of comparison, but even having only read it as an adult, I could tell just how well done this was. Every detail was exactly as it should have been, and I am in awe of the attention a work this intricate must have required, and received.

There are a few points I feel the book deserves praise for, other than the obvious, the main one being Scout's worries about growing up and joining the world of ladies. So strange and separate to her from the world of her father and brother, the two people she holds dearest and looks up to most, this struggle and its portrayal really struck me: the feeling of betrayal at being referred to as a "girl", therefore othered, the depiction of impending womanhood as "starched walls of a pink cotton penitentiary closing in” from which she wishes to run away. The push and pull of wanting to be taken seriously and be respected, on the one hand by Jem and her peers, and on the other, her aunt and the town's women: how is she meant to all at once be not-a-girl, and a lady? "Preserving polite fiction at the expense of human life,” is how Atticus described it, and to this day, he could not have been more right.

Her respective relationships with Jem and Atticus gripped my heart from their introduction and have not loosened their hold even now. The closest I came to tears while reading this book (which happened multiple times, including during that fated trial) was at those simple displays of Atticus's fatherly love, so quiet in their fierceness. Jem and Scout's relationship too feels wonderfully special, how he'll refer to them as "Scount'n'me", one unit, how through his coming of age and search for adulthood and independence he always returns to help and protect his little sister, and she in turn is more loyal to him than to anyone. I felt affection, sympathy and understanding for even Jem's biggest mistakes as if I were Scout herself, and revered and admired Atticus as if I were one of his own children. That is just how solid Harper Lee's writing is— whatever she said, I felt.

This extends even to Scout's relationship with Dill, a character which takes inspiration from Truman Capote, Lee's childhood friend and one of the only authors I know to share her particular writing talents. I could not get enough of this insight into a figure I so adore, and Lee did not disappoint. There will never be a more charming and fitting description of his nature than the one she gave: "He could read two books to my one, but he preferred the magic of his own inventions. He could add and subtract faster than lightning, but he preferred his own twilight world, a world where babies slept, waiting to be gathered like morning lilies.” God, these beautiful minds.

The bottom line is, To Kill A Mockingbird is a truly, in every sense of the words, good book. I'm glad I read it, and I guess I owe my thanks to Pretty Little Liars for inspiring me to.

Content Warnings

annapox's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

Content Warnings

deliriah's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective 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

4.25

Content Warnings

vibingjaren's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective 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

A beautifully written book. I was assigned to read it for my English class, and I was amazed to how much I ended up liking it. The beginning was a little slow, but after it got really good. I especially love the writing of Boo Radley and Scout.

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themadbloodstone's review against another edition

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

5.0

This is another reread for me and it is still as good and adorable and powerful as I remember. The themes still hold up to this day and Scout Finch is an iconic female character.

Content Warnings

sassmistress's review against another edition

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emotional reflective tense

5.0

Wow. I really dropped the ball not reading this one until now. I'm sure it's much more impactful as a parent, though. Gripping, emotional ride from start to finish. Such perfect detail I had to keep reminding myself that it's a work of fiction.

Favorite fictional father so far! Just wow. And the slow unfolding of events as understood by a child overhearing things and not fully grasping the implications of situations is just perfection.

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Addiction, Chronic illness, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Classism, Domestic abuse, Rape, Violence, Racism, Physical abuse, and Police brutality

Moderate: Incest, Animal death, Sexism, Death of parent, Misogyny, Ableism, Confinement, Drug use, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Slavery, Stalking, and Terminal illness

Minor: Bullying, Infidelity, Suicide, and War

This book is for adults. It centers around a rape trial in which a black man is (falsely) accused of assaulting a white woman in a heavily segregated Alabama town.

It's deeply immersive, in a culture where racism is woven into the culture and impossible to avoid. The KKK and the "War Between the States" are part of recent cultural memory. Black defendants are always convicted no matter what. Lynching and mob violence are a very near threat.

Expectedly, the n-word abounds, among other racial slurs. Other language is not infrequent, including he**, g-d-, b****, wh*re, d**n, sl*t, etc. Lord's name in vain quite a few times.

Lots of death--not gory, but as close as it gets without actually witnessing it. Old age, and talk of the body being carried out of the home. Death penalty discussed often. A man dies:

the defendant, by 18ish bullet wounds, while trying to escape a prison camp.

Another man is killed while

trying to murder children, via stabbing by an unexpected rescuer. One child receives a horribly broken arm and is knocked out.

A rabid dog is shot.

Domestic violence:

the accusing white woman was actually beaten heavily by her father when he discovered she was making advances on the black man.

Morphine addiction is discussed and withdrawals are shown.

Both respectable and "unrespectable" poverty are shown.

Schoolyard bullying and fights, neighborhood verbal abuse and gossip about many culturally relevant "deficiencies" like unladylikeness, mental illness, intellectual disability, not being sufficiently racist, etc.

Lots of portrayals of Christianity. Some are good, including the nearest relationships to the MC, but many are not. A neighbor reports that a different sort of baptist told her she was going to hell, MC loses "confidence in pulpit gospel" when thinking on what a good person the neighbor is. "Foot-washers think women are a sin by definition. They take the Bible literally, you know." The ladies' missionary society talks about global cultures with pity and exaggeration, often conflating spiritual issues with cultural differences. A white employer tells her black housekeeper she's not being a good Christian when she is visibly affected by a serious injustice in the local community and nearly fired her for it. Etc, many more.

Other spiritual content: Kids spook each other with talk of spirits on dirt roads. "Dill was a villain's villain: he could get into any character part assigned him, and appear tall if height was part of the devilry required. "

Besides the rape trial and moderately explicit testimony, which includes brief mention of domestic SA, there's other, more minor sexual content. Incest in local families is mentioned very specifically a few times. There's a quick joke about infidelity. Kids lie and say they were playing strip poker, which gets them into trouble (less because they played with matches instead of cards). There's a "swift" kid kiss, and a boy climbs into bed with a girl he keeps promising to marry some day, but it's platonic.

"I'll tan you" and many other such comments, severe corporal punishment for children being an expected part of the culture. Kids laugh when the teacher gives "quick little pats" on the hand when they realize it was meant to be a "whipping".

gloria_zeee's review

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dark emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Read for school, now one of my favorite books

Content Warnings

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