Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

63 reviews

francesca89it's review against another edition

sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Gun violence and Toxic relationship

tracey1981's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny inspiring reflective sad tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death

Minor: Violence and Gun violence

laura_huey's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gun violence, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Terminal illness, and Death

Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Body shaming, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Medical content, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Minor: Child death, Death of parent, and Dysphoria

caribbeangirlreading's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, and Racism

leilaliw's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny inspiring 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Racial slurs, and Racism

Moderate: Death and Gun violence

Minor: Rape and Slavery

miaaa_lenaaa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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

Janie and Tea Cakes love story reigns supreme

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Slavery, and Terminal illness

hnnh_bug's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Violence, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Sexism, Racism, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Infidelity, Grief, and Death

cepbreed's review against another edition

emotional slow-paced

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

3.0

It wasn’t phenomenal, expected of a rushed AP Lit read I finished 5 minutes before a timed essay. I would say

when she shot her third husband, that was a girlboss moment.

I got a 93 on the essay though

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Death, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, Bullying, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, and Gun violence

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual content

jordanrh's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-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? Yes

3.5

I read this for AP Lit and it was actually pretty enjoyable. I highly recommend listening to an audiobook of this book, the dialect is extremely hard to read/comprehend. By listening to the audio it was a much easier to understand.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Racial slurs

Minor: Rape

chandle5's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Racial slurs, Domestic abuse, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Death and Gun violence