Reviews with content warning for Police brutality - The God of Small Things

Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

113 reviews

anjiandrada's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious sad slow-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? N/A

5.0

One of the things I love about reading is the way authors use words to explain, to describe, to convey. I don't know how to do that myself so I devour their words, the imagery they paint, the feelings they invoke and everything else they do with words. This book is no exception.

It's funny coz I bought this book without any second thought. My brain just told me, oh that's something familiar..and cheap, let's buy that. Thanks brain.

I didn't know anything about it when I started reading it and so nothing prepared me for the feelings I felt during and after I read it. Was a lil bit confused with the timeline coz we go back and forth a LOT of the time, but of course the author meant it to be that way. My one braincell can't deconstruct why that's actually a good thing tho. But I'll say this book has unique storytelling (im saying that while not being very well read 😅)

A story about a pair of twins
Their bond
A tragedy that changed that bond, or did it?
There's a tragic love story
Injustices in society, the caste system
The nuances of that system
Do we hate baby kochamma? Is there redemption for people like her? Is it possible in another world for me to become like her? What if I grew up in the same system, culture, family like hers?

Read about an eerily familiar scenario (didn't see that coming, mini childhood traumas luh 🧐)

This a five.🫀🫀🫀🫀🫀

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cassreading's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

This book was an excruciatingly slow read for me. If you're looking for likeable characters or a suspenseful plot that makes the time fly by, this may not be a great pick for you.

But I really liked it. I loved it's exploration of colonialism and gender and selfhood, of Borders and Boundaries and the people who cross them. The prose is expansive, almost poetic at times. Roy plays with language, in ways that can feel aimless, driven by association, by a need to reveal the edges of letters and words and the limits of the meanings they are meant to convey.

It isn't 5 stars for arbitrary reasons, not due to any flaw in actual quality. I only rate a book 5 stars if I can't wait to re-read it, and I don't want to re-read this, maybe ever. Finishing this book feels like finishing an overly rich, Michelin star meal at a restaurant you can't afford to go to again.

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lcamp2780's review against another edition

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dark sad medium-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? No

4.5

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swampsquatch's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
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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rzh's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

i really really loved the way this was written, the use of language is so smart and well thought out - the return to the same phrases again and again made it feel like an epic poem or a biblical text or something. really amazing. the only downside is the fact that it is SO long - feels a bit laboured at times

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