Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

The Street by Ann Petry

9 reviews

walkie_check's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Murder, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Classism, Death, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Sexism

Moderate: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Grief, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Suicide, Stalking, Violence, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Blood, Child death, and Trafficking

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Medical content, Bullying, War, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Rape, and Confinement

booksarefriends_notfood's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-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

3.5

I started this book for a class but found that I really enjoyed finishing it outside of the classroom setting. It offers great commentary on racism, survival, capitalism, and the darker side of the American Dream. This book had some very enlightening points about the oppression of POC and impoverished people, as well as how those two points correlate. It's a book that still holds relevance in our society today and is worth reading.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, and Trafficking

brittburkard's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexism, Racism, Physical abuse, Stalking, Sexual harassment, and Murder

Moderate: Racial slurs, Sexual harassment, and Abandonment

jwells's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense

In her introduction to my edition, Tayari Jones says that The Street has elements of pulp crime fiction. I'm not sure if she meant it as a compliment - possibly as a neutral observation - but it might help explain how this book can be so unrelentingly grim, but at the same time, so hard to put down. I got swept up in Petry's storytelling, so that every time I looked up from the book, I was surprised (and relieved) to see my own life around me instead of Lutie's. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexism, Racial slurs, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Violence and Animal cruelty

N-word used, when quoting racist white people

_inge_'s review against another edition

challenging tense 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? It's complicated

4.75

This book is both technically well written and packs an emotional punch as well. The number of ways that our main character Lutie is taken advantage of and being kept back is astounding. It makes the ending somewhat understandable - although also quite abrupt. But maybe that's just me being brainwashed in needing / expecting happy endings all around. Life doesn't always have happy endings. 

The men in this book are all utter crap, except Bub. Talk about preying on women and seeing them as objects to be manipulated and obtained at will. The women only seem to be able to survive in some sort of comfort when they lend themselves to play along in the games the men play, even if it means oppressing other women. It's eat or be eaten it seems.

Essential reading.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Murder and Sexual harassment

beccabarpel's review

reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

A clear, well-written slice of life of a single black mother in 1940s NYC. The mundane, oppressing realities of poverty and discrimination are shown without becoming trauma porn. Characters are fleshed out and the tragedy comes from the intersection and contradiction of each individual's desires. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Blood

sad ending

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense 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? Yes

4.5

This is heckin intense. I'll have to read it again. The most unsettling part is seeing how little things have changed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual harassment, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Sexual violence, Stalking, Animal cruelty, Blood, Emotional abuse, Racism, Domestic abuse, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Alcohol, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Classism, Death, and Bullying

Minor: Abandonment

I extremely do not recommend this book for anyone sensitive to stalking/assault. Parts are very hard to read.

bianca_topete's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad fast-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

This is such an impactful story that is emotional, reflective and sad but not dark. Its not a dark book in the sense where it makes you feel dread or horror. But as you read, your emotions are neutral through all because its the weird feeling of relatability. Ann Petry tells the story in a way that it is too realistic that you can't help but be numb about it. It would be like watching a film of your own life, you know those emotions and you can't help but have no reaction to them. It's a weird feeling that I felt whilst reading but I'm not saying it as a bad thing. I liked it, because it made the ending much painful and unexpected. The ending is what completes the story, how heartbreaking it is but also shows the reality of it all. All loose ends are not tied up but rather left there because that's how life is. You never really tie it all together. We follow other characters that are so raw that the characters don't feel like characters but rather humans. It's as if I'm a scientist studying people forced in a horrible situation, taking notes and not being able to do anything but reflect and spread the knowledge I learned. That is the whole story, a study of humans trapped in the most narrowest of trails. Great story! Changed my thinking and overall enjoyed it.  

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Racism, and Death

Minor: Bullying, Body shaming, Police brutality, and Animal cruelty

egmamaril's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

A Zola-esque character study. I wish someone would have told me to read Petry instead of Hemingway.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Racism, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Fatphobia

Minor: Infidelity