Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

Beloved by Toni Morrison

202 reviews

niamaybereading's review

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Racial slurs, Violence, Racism, and Rape

ezplonk's review

challenging dark emotional sad 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

4.0

Deeply profound.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Racism, Racial slurs, Slavery, Death, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Rape

Minor: War

kristinebraley's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-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 book was beautifully written and narrated by the author. The story was brutal and difficult and that was part of the beauty, especially following the story arc of the character called Denver. There were many lovable characters, hate-able as well.  The magical realism was masterfully written. I will most likely have to read this with my own eyes in order to grasp a few of the more esoteric scenes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Physical abuse, Grief, Sexual violence, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Slavery, Torture, Infidelity, and Racism

viporras's review

dark reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Death, Abandonment, Child abuse, Child death, Gun violence, Infertility, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Miscarriage, Blood, Confinement, Kidnapping, War, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Hate crime, Self harm, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Vomit, Alcoholism, Sexism, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Rape, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, and Sexual harassment

bluecanarylite's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-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

Beautiful, powerful, haunting.  Not an easy read but worthwhile.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Miscarriage, Slavery, Racism, Pregnancy, Suicide attempt, Pedophilia, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Violence, Trafficking, Torture, and Hate crime

happysoullovesyou's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

I loved it when I had to read it. I honestly don’t know if I can ever reread that book willingly I again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Racism, Slavery, Grief, Murder, Racial slurs, Violence, and Gore

Moderate: Rape

artemisg's review

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

4.5

Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another.

Once you settle into the way this is written it is absolutely gorgous and heartbreaking and atmospheric. There are several different timelines with no introduction and several different points of view - complete with narrative changes (from third- to first-person POV with no preamble). Once you have a moderate handle on that, you can appreciate the absolute beauty of the writing style. Every word is used with such purpose, and he sentence structures and so intentional and beautiful.

They were not holding hands, but their shadows were.

This book follows Sethe, a resident of 124 Bluestone Road. The house holds her and her daughter, Denver, and the ghost of another daughter who dies in infancy. Paul D, a man from Sethe’s past as a slave, joins the house. Then, a a mysterious woman with unlined hands and dark, dark eyes turns up. She calls herself Beloved, the word engraved on the gravestone of Sethe’s dead daughter. Us readers, and the characters, try to decipher where Beloved came from, and if she is the spirit of the dead daughter or not. We fall in and out of love and fear with her. We also follow the lives of Sethe and Paul D when they were slaves at a farm called Sweet Home (it is anything but either of those things) before they escaped. It is brutal and vile and violent and hard to read. All of this is hard to read while being beautiful and smooth.

Clever, but schoolteacher beat him anyway to show him that definitions belonged to the definers - not the defined.

This book is am accomplishment and I am glad to have read it, and understood it as much as I could. Gorgeous prose, a heartwrenching story that I know is based in history, with lovingly crafted characters.

“Me and you, we got more yesterday than anybody. We need some kind of tomorrow.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Torture, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, and Racism

Moderate: Sexual violence

brittkbooks's review

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Child death, Racial slurs, and Violence

Moderate: Mental illness, Pregnancy, Grief, and Murder

katariinatoivanen's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Racism, Racial slurs, Rape, Physical abuse, Grief, Confinement, Misogyny, and Child death

Moderate: Death

kmshobbs's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

Beloved is a harrowing tale of what it is like to endure chattel slavery and love your children so much that you would do anything to prevent them from enduring it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Abandonment, Child death, Murder, Racial slurs, Rape, Racism, and Sexual assault