Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

13 reviews

denverhawkeye's review

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A large part of the story is told by letters between the two sisters 

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readtomea97's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful reflective sad 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

5.0


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sweetheart_ok's review

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dark emotional funny inspiring reflective sad tense 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

5.0

As we follow Celie, we have a full view of life as the underdog, the person taken for granted, the overlooked and unloved. However, it becomes evident that this is the one person who is needed most, because this person is the mirror for everyone else. Questions of religion, gender, sexuality, and race are weaved into the journey just as they are in real life. The characters are real, vulnerable, strong, and human. A must read gor those who like to dig into the real (ugly) truth of human nature.

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dragon_s_hoard's review

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Amazing character writing, this book is hard hitting and poignant. 
The epistolary style works well, but the fact that the plot is a “slice-of-life-over-a-lifetime” made it a little bit meandering for me. 

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autumnwhite's review

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challenging dark 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? It's complicated

3.75


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sarah3liza's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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? No

5.0


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avocadotoastbee's review

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challenging emotional reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

I am speechless. The Color Purple is incredible. I couldn't put the book down. Alice Walker is a genius. The emotions I felt while reading it ranged from deep sadness and shock to gratitude and relief.
It brings attention to so many incredibly important issues: sexual violence, poverty, inequality, and so much more. At the same time, it beautifully shows how women can stick together, grow with our pain, and still love and be loved after all our traumatic experiences.
The deep love Celie and Nettie have for each other as sisters reminded me of my sibling and me.
I'm so glad the story had a happy ending, I couldn't have handled anything else.
The Color Purple by Alice Walker is such an important classic and definitely a must-read!

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toffishay's review against another edition

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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? No

4.75

I almost don't even know what to say. I couldn't put this book down once I started and I doubt that it'll leave me for a while. The story of pain and struggle and love and family. Celie is such a powerful voice and she has so much life and love in her, even when she thinks it's all been beaten out of her. Even when it's tough to read, you have to know more about Celie. You are compelled to hear more from her.

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marissasa's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful 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

4.75

I went into this book not knowing much other than that it has a queer woman's storyline and that it was turned into a movie and a musical, with a movie of the musical coming next year. I didn't expect the story to hit this hard with the layers of trauma, racism, sexism, domestic violence, and sexual assault that the main character Celie goes through. It took me longer to read this book than others of the same length just because of the dark topics and way Celie candidly recounts the abuse she's faced, but it was a very rewarding read because of the themes of perseverance, never losing hope, and staying true to yourself. It is very touching to see how Celie first writes her letters to God because her faith is placed all on religion to end her suffering or at least hear her story, but once she is separated from her sister Nettie she begins to write to her instead and places all her hopes in seeing her again some day. The language Alice Walker uses really gives a strong identity to the characters and helps to show the differences in the way each person carries themselves, particularly giving strong characterization to the women in both the main and supporting casts. I loved that this story gave so much nuance and complexity to the Black women, in a time period where they were historically undermined, taken for granted, and directly harmed. I loved seeing them have a voice and show resistance to the ways they were treated both to the men and the white people in their lives, and I thought the portrayal of Celie's sexuality and self-discovery was done with so much care and respect. This book is such an important one and I'm glad it has all the massive recognition, awards, and adaptations it does to appreciate its cultural relevancy and literary significance.

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sarah984's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective 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

2.0

I can see why people like this book and I did enjoy the community formed by the various women for survival even when they didn't like one another very much. However I felt that most of the characters weren't very deep and a lot of things seemed to be forgiven way too easily. There is a sort of "plot twist" in the mid point which seemed to have no purpose aside from making another character seem more "valuable" to Celie.

Additionally, while looking up information about the book while reading I discovered very recent and bizarre antisemitic comments that Alice Walker has made and I can't recommend reading a book by a living author who is out there recommending David Icke and Alex Jones.

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