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lowkeymarie's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Almost DNF'd this one a few times in the first couple hundred pages but I'm glad I stuck it out. Such a moving story with memorable characters and themes that are still infuriatingly relevant today.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death and Child death
Moderate: Police brutality, Pregnancy, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Murder, Racial slurs, and Classism
giuliana_ferrari's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
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
The Grapes of Wraith is defined as "one of the Great American Novels". As someone that was not born nor doesn't live in the United States, considering this read as a 5.0 truly gives away how amazing this book is. There is so much to reflect on: the symbolic motifs of human struggle, the way life goes on even when hope seems to have been all but gone, the development of a family that evolves into a unit as fractured and chaotic as the environment around them. It's a story of love, pain, family and exploitation. It's a clear criticism of how the system of the "greatest country of the world" is broken, and it was written 80 years ago! The way the struggles of a family unravels into the landscape of grief, hard work, and the fight for survival of thousands of individuals is truly astonishing. Steinbeck bounces back from a closer perspective on the Joads to a general read on the current scenario of 'Dust Bowl' migrants during the Great Depression, weaving thoughts, commentary, and warnings into the narrative. Truly one of those books that you feel sad that you won't ever have again the experience of reading it for the first time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Police brutality, Grief, and Racial slurs
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, and Child death
annapox's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
The story was good. The writing was so detailed as to become boring.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Violence, and Animal death
Moderate: Abandonment, Alcoholism, Blood, Child death, Death of parent, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Murder, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Racism, and Xenophobia
Minor: Cursing, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Racial slurs, Sexism, Sexual content, Vomit, and Domestic abuse
amehlia's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
“How can we live without our lives? How will we know it’s us without our past?”
I picked up Steinbeck’s Pulitzer-prize winning novel, The Grapes of Wrath, in a Waterstones in Surrey several years ago and just a few minutes after purchasing had the ending spoiled for me immediately. I didn’t pick it up to read for a long time, but I am so glad I did.
This novel is brilliant and heart-wrenching, it carries you on an immense journey through Dust Bowl America during the Great Depression, beautifully and tragically capturing the plight of the migrant labourers in California in both his extended chapters dedicated to the Joad family and also the alternate shorter chapters that do a fantastic job of contextualising their situation and setting the wider scene. Steinbeck does a fantastic job of hooking you in and committing the reader to the Joads and their story. It took me a long time to finish because I didn’t want the story to be over
The slow pace of this book meant it took a couple of chapters to get me hooked, but when it did I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I’m not sure what to do with myself now that I’ve finished it. Any book that has this sort of effect on a reader is, in my opinion, an epic novel. It makes for a bold social commentary not just in its own time, but is relevant today with negative attitudes towards migrants, and natural disasters and conflict displacing many more families that will undertake a journey similar to that of the Joads.
Overall, one of my new all-time favourites although I don’t think this will become a re-read. I’m not sure I can put myself through it again.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Death, Child death, Alcohol, Murder, Police brutality, and Pregnancy
Minor: Racial slurs, Miscarriage, Racism, Religious bigotry, and Sexism
noshelf_control's review against another edition
emotional
sad
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
4.75
Content Warnings
Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Death, Murder, and Police brutality
elisegjerdrum's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
sad
slow-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Child death
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