Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

293 reviews

hapikohw's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

It was an honor to experience my first Toni Morrison novel through a public (virtual) reading done by all Black women authors, feminists and radicals.

Pecola Breedlove, there are many of you. Many failed. May we fail many others no more.

Toni Morrison, may you rest in peace and power. You completed everything you hoped to in your foreword.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Body shaming, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Blood, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Grief, Hate crime, Pedophilia, Classism, Sexual assault, Abandonment, Incest, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Alcoholism, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Violence, Cursing, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Ableism

shansreadsbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Incest, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Physical abuse, and Sexual assault

jazlem's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Beautifully written, the third toni morrison book I have read and she never disappoints. It was difficult to read some of the darker/more triggering scenes at points, but I loved this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Incest, Sexual harassment, Racism, Racial slurs, and Violence

biobeetle's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual violence, Violence, Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, Rape, Sexual assault, Racial slurs, Misogyny, and Child abuse

Moderate: Pregnancy and Death

thomasina's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Animal death, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Animal cruelty, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Racism, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

soyb3an's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Incest, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Racism, Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Child death, Pregnancy, Body shaming, and Sexual violence

heathernependa's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This was so uncomfortable and unnerving to read. There was so much emotion that it conjured up in me. I had a lump in my throat for so much of this book I thought I would throw up. I highly recommend this and consider it required reading BUT definitely tread with CAUTION.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Pedophilia, and Racism

hfjarmer's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

2.75

*The Bluest Eye* is a novel which, supposedly, follows Pecola Breedlove, a self-proclaimed “ugly” black girl, who grows up in a home with her abusive father and a mother who admittedly does not love her, despite her best efforts. All Pecola wants in the whole world are the “beautiful blue eyes” of a white woman. She believes wholeheartedly that blue eyes would cure her of ugliness, and make her somehow “clean”. This brings us to the central theme of Morrison’s novel - internalized racism and the injurious effects of a society which centers and reveres whiteness as good, clean, and beautiful. My favorite character in this novel was Claudia who, at the young age of 9, has already recognized the problematic centering of whiteness and so takes it upon herself to rebel against the idea that white equals beauty by knowing for a fact she is beautiful herself just as she is. We see this again when Claudia is discussing Pecola’s

pregnancy with Frieda, saying “More strongly than my fondness for Pecola, I felt a need for someone to want the black baby to live—just to counteract the universal love of white baby dolls, Shirley Temples, and Maureen Peals.”

Honestly, I am devastated to say I did not really like this book. I enjoyed Morrison’s poetic writing style which flowed together well in spite of the disjointed nature of the narrative itself. By dissecting the novel so the reader has to put the pieces together for themselves, Morrison takes away the reader’s ability to really connect with the characters. This is something Morrison herself points out in the afterward of her novel. I spent so much time trying to understand who was being talked about and why we are talking about them that I was unable to enjoy the story of it all. For a novel about Pecola Breedlove, we know nearly nothing about her, and are never given the opportunity to hear from her directly. While this could be seen as an example of a young woman robbed of her voice, I just think it was a poor narrative decision and I found it overall to be frustrating. 

I have heard many wonderful things about Toni Morrison and I certainly don’t doubt them, but this one simply didn’t work for me. I will read another book by Morrison though, rest assured.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Incest, Rape, Domestic abuse, and Racial slurs

minayana's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.25

This is a great novel with really poignant prose. The plot is really tragic, as are all the characters. The POV switches often, with the POV of Claudia being the only recurring one. Morrison explores the ways that black children are taught self loathing and hate, and how the definition of “beauty” is often intertwined with race. There is especially a spotlight on the treatment of black women in society, one of the topics being how black men will turn to abusing black women due to feeling demasculinized by white men. The author gives all the characters backstories to show how they became the people they are in the present day. I know some people didn’t like that she humanized the bad characters, but I think it’s important to recognize that the terrible things that happen in this novel are distinctly human. 

This book is a hard read, and it did a bit too much towards the end for me personally. I don’t think there was a reason to show the rape of Pecola considering we already know from the very beginning of the book that it happens. I also really didn’t understand the point of the POV of “Soaphead” except to be gratuitously disturbing. 

This book covers so many extremely important topics and themes, and I would definitely recommend, but PLEASE check the trigger warnings before reading! 

A few other things I had issues with. The way fat characters are treated and described are pretty fatphobic, but I’m not surprised considering the time it was published. There’s also a character who doesn’t enjoy sex with her husband, and finds comfort in her cat. There’s really weird descriptions of her experiencing “pleasure” from her cat sitting on her lap and stuff like that ??? Weird and once again, gratuitous.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Racism, Animal cruelty, Rape, Sexual assault, Classism, Domestic abuse, Incest, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Animal death, and Pedophilia

aduran037's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Abandonment, Addiction, Racial slurs, Miscarriage, Child abuse, Rape, Slavery, Domestic abuse, Incest, Classism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Racism, and Sexual assault