Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

10 reviews

kaffzillah's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Alcohol, Infidelity, Addiction, Colonisation, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Alcoholism, Adult/minor relationship, Cultural appropriation, Sexism, Slavery, Mental illness, Misogyny, Abandonment, Child abuse, Death, Sexual assault, Rape, Drug abuse, Sexual violence, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Incest, Sexual content, Cursing, Racial slurs, Racism, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, and Murder

wmulhol's review

dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, and Rape

charley0796's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

5.0

A powerful exploration of racism, religion, lgbt erasure and sexism through the eyes of a young black lady called Celie and her sister. You follow her from her arranged marriage, separation and her bisexual relationship with Shug. You read about the growth of all characters involved in the stories as they age. From Celie finding her independence to her sister recovering from being cast out by her family. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Violence, and Rape

Moderate: Pregnancy, Drug abuse, and Child abuse

Minor: Drug abuse and Infertility

znvisser's review against another edition

challenging 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

4.0

The Color Purple has been one of my mom’s favourite movies for years, so it’s about time I watch it (and then the upcoming release too of course); but then I couldn’t without first reading the book. So I sourced a pretty Penguin edition and finally got started. 

This story does a lot of things and it does all of them really well. It’s full of complicated people, relationships and lives; of women gaining strength and wisdom with their years and some men trying (and some not); of exploration of faith and building community; and of (post-)colonial criticism slicing through it all. 

In advance, I was weary of its form - through letters, but it worked out surprisingly well. And I'm also becoming more and more of a sucker for stories in which the real love story is platonic. This is such a rich story, and I can’t wait to see how it translates into films. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Rape, Domestic abuse, Incest, Misogyny, Child abuse, and Colonisation

Moderate: Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Hate crime, Infertility, Addiction, Pregnancy, Infidelity, Alcohol, Body shaming, Death, and Drug abuse

ayoitsarii's review

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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Murder, Violence, Racism, Racial slurs, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, and Drug abuse

bashsbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? No

5.0

I can see why this book is such a classic - and why it's so frequently banned. I was pleasantly surprised at how open Celie's letters were about her love and lust for Shug Avery, and how upfront all the black characters were about all the various ways racism manifested in their lives & white people made things that much harder for them. It felt like a manifesto for black queer women, in fiction form. I loved that the ending, after so much hardship was ultimately hopeful. I'm not usually a huge fan of epistolary novels in general, but the format worked well for this story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Infidelity, Racism, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Violence, Domestic abuse, Grief, Racial slurs, Xenophobia, Incest, Police brutality, Rape, Child abuse, Classism, Colonisation, and Alcohol

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Religious bigotry, Slavery, and Cultural appropriation

Minor: Death of parent, Drug abuse, Pregnancy, and Drug use

sandsing7's review

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-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? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Infertility, Grief, Violence, Cursing, Incest, Abandonment, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Colonisation, Sexual violence, Body shaming, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Drug abuse, and Racial slurs

queersubtext's review

challenging dark reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Violence, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Death, Drug abuse, Grief, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Hate crime

queserasara's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Incest, Infidelity, Infertility, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Violence

lalu's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective sad

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

gelesen in 2021

When 14 years old, Celie begins writing letters to God. About being raped by her father, the death of her mother, herself getting married to a widower, falling in love with a female singer - and about the life as person of colour in the southern USA in the first half of the 20th century.

Written in an emotional but at the same time very direct and matter-of-fact way in the southern dialect, one can not avoid asking oneself how many people must have lived through parts of this fictional story. And still do.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Racism, Emotional abuse, Rape, and Sexism

Moderate: Grief and Homophobia

Minor: Slavery, Addiction, Pregnancy, Eating disorder, Infertility, Chronic illness, and Drug abuse