Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Their Eyes Were Watching God

this book is honestly very good. it was hard to get into because of how intense it was with the racism, colorism, and constant misogyny. i loved seeing how every person in janie’s life impacted everything around her and i loved the character development. i liked how you could see that janie was not meant for her time period, she was more of a modern person the way she’d rebel against everyone around her, seen from literally the first chapter. it was an interesting read and i 100% would read it again to pick up details i missed from the first time.

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jamieruwen's review against another edition

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emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Quite a beautiful story but also immeasurably sad. Janie grows into such a strong character who controls her own destiny, loves deeply, and doesn't apologise for it. All I want for her is to be happy. I fully understand that the fact that the characters speak AAVE on the page (where "that" would be spelled as "dat", for example), and that it a core aspect of why the book was revolutionary. However... for me personally as a white non-native English speaker it made it really hard to follow at times. So if you are not intimately familiar with AAVE I suggest you find yourself an audiobook!

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ilsota_77's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Honestly, I went into this book not knowing much about it since I had to read it for school but I truly enjoyed it. Zora's writing style is beautiful and the way she builds a strong main character. Zora shows us everything in Janie's (main character) life that led for her to become the woman she is and how our experiences affect our development.

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lostinthelibrary's review against another edition

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challenging sad 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? No

4.0

This classic has been sitting on my shelf for a while so I'm glad I finally got around to reading it. Although I was frustrated by a lot the decisions she made, Janie was a great character who was strong minded, adventurous, romantic and loving. You really want to root for her to get her happy ending. The men in her life are a whole other matter but you can understand what attracted her to each of them.

The real triumph of this book is in the writing. It is lyrical without being dense of flowery and it has such a rhythm to it that once you start reading you don't pause for breath. Most of the story is portrayed through dialogue and this is done masterfully. The opening chapter using gossiping ladies to set the story was just perfect.

Where it falls down slightly for me is in the pacing of the overall story. I felt that some parts were hammered home for a bit too long while other more exciting aspects of the plot were over in a flash. But really, this is not the type of book that you go in to for a twisty exciting plot and for what it wanted to achieve, it certainly delivered.

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abbyreadsbigbooks123's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated

5.0

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laura_huey's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

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

4.25

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is a challenging, reflective look at love, marriage, and self-identity in Florida throughout the early 20th century, and offers a confronting yet affectionate glimpse of the area's African-American community at the time.

Janie, the protagonist, has been raised by her grandmother, Nanny, and longs for a loving, equal marriage to bring her fulfilment in life. However, when Nanny catches her kissing a boy over the garden gate, she arranges what she believes will be a profitable marriage for Janie. We follow Janie throughout her life as she comes to understand what real love is, what constitutes a fulfilling life, and the sacrifices she'll make for someone she loves.

As a white Australian woman, I found this book to be a challenging read. It was beautifully written, and portions of Hurston's prose are almost poetic, but I found it took quite a while to get my head around the dialect that the novel is written in. Now that I know the story, I think I would benefit from rereading this book in the future. I'm also interested in viewing the film before revisiting the novel, as I think that may help me with the dialect also.

Overall an excellent read. I recommend approaching it with compassion for all the characters and not forming your opinions about them until the end. Everyone is complex and has layered motivations behind their choices, so it's important not to judge them too quickly.

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hnnh_bug's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.5

The book is a very difficult read. Not only for its subject matter, but all dialogue is written phonetically to help emulate the southern accents of the characters. Although it's a short book, be prepared to slow down because it's not one you can speed read through.

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