Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? by Crystal Smith Paul

23 reviews

sholtie's review

challenging emotional informative mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.5

Finally! A book that understands history is gossip! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Misogyny, Racism, Sexual content, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Death of parent, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Cancer

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cursing, Police brutality, Addiction, Colonisation, Drug use, Abortion, Classism, and Miscarriage

Minor: Infertility and Vomit

fkshg8465's review against another edition

emotional informative mysterious sad slow-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

Rounding up to a four. Not one my favorite ways of storytelling, but the ending gave me the payoff I was looking for. Lots of themes to sort through. Well worth the effort.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Cancer, Death of parent, Abandonment, Racism, Rape, and Slavery

annamay1021's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Alcohol, Abortion, Racism, Racial slurs, Slavery, Rape, Child abuse, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Grief, Hate crime, Death of parent, Infidelity, and Miscarriage

Minor: Child death

vel629vet's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

2.75

I haven’t had a book infuriate me in a long time. I’m always more frustrated with books when they have the potential to be amazing and they just fall by the wayside. The writing was so readable and quick which was a good thing, but the plot was too scattered. Some characters were so detailed and then they were just dismissed from the story in 2 sentences. Any twists that arose toward the end fell completely flat and had no emotional heft. I wished so much more for this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Racism

Moderate: Pregnancy and Racial slurs

Minor: Miscarriage, Slavery, and Child death

trystanlp's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective slow-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? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Racial slurs

Moderate: Rape and Slavery

sophs_mood_reading's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

A multi generational saga spanning from the segregated south, glitzy old Hollywood and the current celebrity life. Kitty Karr a white Hollywood legend has left her entire estate to three sisters who are young, wealthy in their own right and Black. 

As Elise one of the sisters digs through Kitty’s belongings she discovers a story that will change everything. 

We get the learn the truth through multiple points of view spanning many generations, locations and women. It’s a book where if you listen carefully you can easily pick up all the little clues and put together what’s what yourself but not in a way that feels to predictable. 

There is a lot of discussion surround race and what that meant in America at the time so it is no where near a fluffy historical fiction and really does get you thinking. 

The audiobook was good with different voice actors playing the different points of view, however, the voice actor for Elise fell short and it was often difficult to figure out what was dialogue and who was talking. 

This would be a great book for bookclubs. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Racial slurs

Moderate: Death of parent, Vomit, Miscarriage, Grief, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Infidelity, Rape, Child death, Slavery, and Police brutality

katiejohns's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective 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? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Pregnancy, Rape, Racial slurs, Death of parent, Slavery, and Sexual assault

mirandaphodge's review against another edition

challenging hopeful reflective 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? No

4.5

Just a beautiful book and so thoughtfully written. The interweaving of two stories, alongside the racism that still has not stopped to this day, made this one of my favorite books this year. I gasped at a few parts, and I did cry, but at the end… It gave me hope and I wished I could see

reparations happen like this in real life. But frankly, they need to be started by the white descendants of slave owners who have benefitted from what their ancestors did.

Obviously this book is very thought provoking! Please read it! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery and Racism

Moderate: Police brutality and Rape

mortiffa's review against another edition

mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

2.75

So, I have mixed feelings.

While I really enjoyed this story and thought this book had a lot of interesting things to say, I don't know if the way it was executed worked for me. The dual time lines weren't given the same weight or attention, and Kitty's story - while interesting - was the bulk of this novel. I would have loved to follow Elise and her sisters a lot more than we got the chance to. The movement between one timeline and the next was kind of choppy, on top of it.

I don't think the writing itself is bad; the prose is simple and concise, but not plain. I just don't think this novel is as organized as it should be, and the subject matter gets lost in the shuffle of everything. This could have easily been a 4 star read for me had more thought and organization been put into telling the story. It just doesn't feel like a finished draft to me.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Racism, Rape, and Classism

Minor: Slavery

daja's review against another edition

I feel like this story is kind of predictable and longer than it probably should have been. I’m less than a hundred pages in but I can tell that Kitty Karr is passing just by  the themes of the story so far. I don’t think the story is really going to delve into anything interesting besides the theme of passing in Hollywood. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Racism, Rape, and Slavery