Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

102 reviews

bmessierlegendre's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad 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

4.0

Magnifique roman graphique, les illustrations sont à tomber par terre! L’histoire est d’ailleurs tout aussi prenante, malgré qu’elle a mal vieilli sous certains aspects (i.e. le seul personnage féminin et son rôle dans l’histoire). J’ai même versé une larme à la fin.

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rybass08's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

This is a good read but also a truly hard and painful experience. As you go through the book you have to ask yourself these deep grievances and what you think was right. Why did he stay with him. Was what George did at the end what needed to be done. Was it truly merciful to Lennie? 

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meabird's review against another edition

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slow-paced

3.25

Though this book does not hold up for me since reading it the first time forever ago, the second to last page will forever be a knife to my heart

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sareidle's review against another edition

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

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camortiz26's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad fast-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

4.5


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aritacb's review against another edition

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

2.5

Surprisingly, this wasn’t boring like I assumed it would be. I can’t lie and say that I didn’t like the story but for this to be such a small book, a huge chunk of it contained racist, abeist, and sexist language. This is book to be taken with a grain of salt because the setting and time it was written obviously had a huge influence on the book.

Steinbeck’s storytelling and use of imagery really drew me in but I hated how the characters who were minorities (autistic man, crippled black man, woman, disabled elderly man) who were in some way dehumanized by the other characters - all of whom were physically capable, neurotypical white men. There were moments that Steinbeck brought humanity to the dehumanized characters but to me it just wasn’t fleshed out enough. The main themes of the book could have hit home more if the story had been longer - maybe more indepth backstories to the different characters, how they are viewed by others and more insight to their individual struggles. Those things were touched on but felt so brief for it to have made more of an impact. The humanization of those characters wasn’t emphasized enough, so the derogatory remarks seem more prevalent. Thus, people who hate this book see it as purely discriminatory.

I get why this won a prize; the storytelling was engaging and the plot was poignant but I’m
not crazy on how American literature like this one slings around slurs or depicts specific people groups. I do feel like this book could have been more subversive for it’s time though if Steinbeck had approached the characters differently. Without the rampant use of discriminatory language or the way he conveyed some of the characters (especially Lennie), they could have been understood instead of viewed as inferior. 

This is good if you’re trying to read more classics and don’t want anything daunting in verbiage or length. To say this is enjoyable is subjective though because of the controversial content.

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theabee's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25


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diegor's review against another edition

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

4.75

If you can, go into this book knowing nothing about it like I did. It's going to be a blast. Highly recommended.

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breemortensenxox's review against another edition

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

4.0


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kearneth's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

I do understand why some people would love this (I guess), I truly hated the experience of reading this novel. I found the characters to feel performative and hollow, and I truly was not able to get anything beneficial out of reading this novel.

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