Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward

27 reviews

e_flah's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

2.5

I enjoyed the two separate threads of Men We Reaped -- Ward's look at her childhood and the period of time in her twenties where she navigates a lot of grief. The two threads didn't make one cohesive narrative for me, though. There was a disconnect between the point Ward was trying to make and what the narrative actually did. Ward makes some explicit points at how poverty and racism affect life outcomes but she doesn't tie the two together as neatly as she stated in the introduction. I would have liked Men We Reaped more as a straight-up memoir. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident and Death

Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Racial slurs, Racism, and Suicide

person attacked by a dog, alcohol abuse, drug use, suicidal ideation, death by suicide, violence, parental abandonment, death by overdose

ktdakotareads's review

reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Bullying, Car accident, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Violence

qcheeseburger's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Death

fionac326's review against another edition

emotional sad slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Drug use, Drug abuse, Grief, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

booksandcoffeerequired's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, and Suicide

Minor: Animal cruelty and Mental illness

aishathebibliophile's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

5.0

Jesmyn is a writer.  

I will come back to say more 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Death, Violence, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Police brutality, Mental illness, Gun violence, and Grief

poursandpages's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Men We Reaped is Jesmyn Ward’s memoir, & did it EVER punch me in the gut. She weaves her story in & out of the stories of 5 men in her life that died within a few years of each other.

The title comes from a Harriet Tubman quote that is presented to the reader before the book starts: “We saw the lightning and that was the guns. We heard the thunder and that was the big guns; and then we heard the rain falling and that was the blood falling; and when we came to get in the crops, it was dead men that we reaped."

F u c k.

This is Jesmyn’s story, but it’s not a unique one, & that’s the truly horrific part. I was REALLY forced to sit with my privilege with this one. In particular, I had a visceral reaction to the dog fighting scenes. Of course, we love our pets & animal abuse is AWFUL, but why wasn’t I having the same EXACT reaction to the deaths of 5 young Black men? Why am I so desensitized to this? Why are we ALL so desensitized? It’s horrifying, & is the biggest reminder that this work is NEVER over.

White people really need to digest this one. Sit with it. Sit with everything it brings up. It’s not going to be pretty. This work isn’t supposed to be.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Drug abuse, Addiction, Incest, Gun violence, Suicide, and Racism