Reviews

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

labunnywtf's review against another edition

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5.0

I thought I was safe reading this, as I'd already seen the movie. I just saw it this last year, when coworkers found out I'd never seen it they nearly caned me. But, I got my boo-hoo'ing out on the movie! And that thing is like 4 hours long, so how could the book possibly make me cry, right?

Frickin' ending. Stupid ending that makes me cry.

Amazing. So amazing. Told in letters makes the entire thing work even better than I imagined.

Read in one morning, in a span of about five hours. I refused to stop.

linaslzr's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring 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

maddie_1999's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective 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? It's complicated

4.5

chai_llanes's review

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challenging dark emotional informative inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

georginareadsabook's review

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dark emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.0

gwyman93's review

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful 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? It's complicated

5.0

elli_friend's review against another edition

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emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

3.75

katesant's review

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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

3.0


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petty_anthropology's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes

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rosie_reads_x's review

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4.0

The Color Purple is about two sisters, Celie and Nettie, growing up in rural Georgia in the US, in the early twentieth century. It’s written in a really interesting format by way of letters, initially between Celie and God, and then between the two girls.

The letters describe their lives as they are each sent off in a different direction. Whilst Celie gives birth to two children, is forced to give them up and is then married off to a local man, who’s pretty much only ever referred to in the whole book as Mister ____, Nettie becomes a missionary and travels to Africa to help a tribal community.

Neither of their lives are easy, there’s lots of abuse, racial segregation, and violence. But what is apparent is the hope that they continue to have throughout, despite all the hardship.

There’s lots of colourful characters which I really enjoyed. And lots of interesting story lines with each of them. If I have one criticism it’s that I lost interest a bit in the second half of the book. I think the story slowed down a lot when Nettie started writing back because the writing style in her chapters was very different and I wasn’t invested in the characters on her side as much.

Overall though it was a good read. And apparently there was a film made of it which was directed by Steven Spielberg and starred Oprah Winfrey and Whoopi Goldberg! Has anyone seen it? I’m intrigued as to how they told the story in a film when the whole book was written in letters!