Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

40 reviews

atamano's review against another edition

emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Racism, Sexism, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Classism

Moderate: Gun violence, Grief, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Domestic abuse, Violence, Blood, and Abandonment

melba1975's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative sad tense 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

4.5

Their Eyes Were Watching God belongs in every library. Listening to this classic, read by Ruby Dee, is even more of a treat. I really felt like I was WITH the characters as the tale unfolded. The FMC, Jamie is lovable, yet strong from the beginning. When she’s sitting with her grandmother, legs dangling over the chair after a rather tense moment, the reader can’t help but love her. 

From there she continues to grow, enduring through many trials. She repeatedly finds her voice and her own inner strength, despite the many odds stacked against her and the trying times of the 1930s. There are parts of this book that are downright challenging to read; however, redemption always shines through in the end. The main thing I can say in conclusion is that I wish I’d read this title sooner. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Terminal illness, and Classism

ekgranstro's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Classism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Slavery, Death of parent, and Alcohol

mchampl01's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

Written incredibly well, Hurston is brilliant at painting a picture with words. I particularly enjoyed the visualization of the vultures. The way she writes paints detailed pictures, especially with connotation to guide the reader's feelings.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Body shaming, Terminal illness, and Alcohol

themdash's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

lizsim's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness and Murder

hoopoebird's review

adventurous informative reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Grief, Gaslighting, and Classism

insectcondo's review

challenging emotional reflective 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexism, and Violence

Moderate: Terminal illness

Minor: Slavery

hannahcstocks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Dementia, Grief, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Dysphoria, and Classism

lyatheenaka's review against another edition

hopeful informative 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? Yes

5.0

my response paper on the book:
 

Cages and Lovelier Cages 

     Everyone’s journey to liberation looks different, especially when you do not know that is what you truly want. Janie spends this novel being swept off her feet; not by men, but by lifestyles, by false promises and desires, none of which will fulfill her. All predetermined and laid out for her bow her head into. Tea Cake was far from the ideal man but what he gave her was a taste of liberation, of choice. 

     When we first meet Janie, she thinks she wants love. She dreams of the flowers and the trees and the pollen blooming together. She was confident that she could find that in marriage, despite her feelings going into it. “Husbands and wives always loved each other, and that was what marriage meant” (Hurston 21). That was not what marriage means and she quickly learned that. She never found love there, but she did find a cage. It was in the shape of plows, sowing needles, and thankless labor. Janie never wanted to slave her days away for a man she never loved. She soon ran from that cage. 

     Joe Starks extended his hand, in it laid a different cage, a much prettier one. This one was gilded, in the shape of opulence and high status. The cage had a label on it, in careful loopy script, Mrs. Mayor Starks. She was promised a life with little physical labor and where she would be exalted for her beauty. “A pretty doll-baby lak you is made to sit on de front porch and rock and fan yo’self and eat p’taters dat other folks plant just special for you” (Hurston 29). And nothing else. That is where the problem lies. Being pampered is fine until the loneliness sets in.  When the pedestal you were put on is so high that you cannot talk to anyone, what is the point of the pedestal. This realization came slower to Janie and was that much harder to accept, but when the time came, she left it all behind without looking back. 

     Tea Cake was not perfect. It is very easy to fall into Janie’s view of him and make him an angel in our minds. She loved him with every part of her being, even deifying him in the end. But he is none of the sort. He hit her, he took her money, partook in rather strange activities and was overconfident. In fact, I would not say the storm killed him, but his own hubris. Tea Cake gave Janie something different, he gave her freedom. He gave her no cage, but a place by his side. She made decisions, gave her insight, was heard for once. She was liberated, despite Tea Cake’s faults, because her autonomy is fully realized. Are we sure, though? Being in true love is not the same as being liberated. Love can be a powerful binding force for a woman, and much lovelier and comfortable cage but a cage all the same. 

     That liberation was tested lethally when it was him or her. If she had picked his life over hers, we would know that she was never truly free. Love held her back from being a free woman. But she picked herself. She did not let love blind her and she took a life to keep hers. No cages, not anymore. 

     Janie knows what a cage looks like. She loved Tea Cake and would do anything for him, but she knew that she must live. Dying for a dead man might be a choice but it is not liberation. It is just another tool to keep a woman tied down, and Janie knows what it feels like. She breaks through and lives. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Racism, and Terminal illness

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and Slavery