Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

61 reviews

mia7's review

reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Racial slurs

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Physical abuse, Rape, and Death of parent

ilsota_77's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, and Grief

Minor: Rape and Sexual assault

abbyreadsbigbooks123's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Sexual assault

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

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

Minor: Child death, Death of parent, and Dysphoria

elyssajoh's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing and Racial slurs

Moderate: Death, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, and Sexual content

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

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

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

howie_e's review against another edition

emotional inspiring medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

ashleycmms's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Blood, and Medical content

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Child death and Infertility