Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Beloved by Toni Morrison

10 reviews

kelly_e's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.25

Title: Beloved
Author: Toni Morrison
Series: Beloved Trilogy #1
Genre: Classic
Rating: 4.25
Pub Date: September 16, 1987

T H R E E • W O R D S

Complex • Haunting • Brilliant

📖 S Y N O P S I S

Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe's new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved.

Sethe works at beating back the past, but it makes itself heard and felt incessantly in her memory and in the lives of those around her. When a mysterious teenage girl arrives, calling herself Beloved, Sethe’s terrible secret explodes into the present.

💭 T H O U G H T S

While scouring lists of challenged books to find something I hadn't yet read, Beloved stood out among the rest. While I have heard so many amazing and wonderful things about Morrison as a person, as well as her work, I had never read anything. I knew to be prepared for an unsettling and stunning story, but I don't think anything could have ever prepared me properly.

Morrison's storytelling is just phenomenal - combining history with a magical touch - the writing style is just so unique. Her prose is simply stunning. There were many times when I had to pause to re-read what I'd just read because it was so beautiful. Her descriptions of the imagery and use of metaphors are so poignant. The characters she creates are flawed and real. At it's core, this is a portrayal of mother/daughter relationships and generational trauma. Sethe is reliving her past, questioning her decisions. Her story evokes so much emotion.

What kept this from being a five-star read is the ending - I was left feeling underwhelmed. There's so much build up - heartache, trauma, life, - within the pages and it kind of just felt like it ended. Maybe that's because it's a trilogy, and I would get more of what I was wanting in those books, but it just didn't leave me satisfied considering everything else the rest of the book delivers.

I tandem read the audio, read by the author, along with a physical copy. I don't think I would have enjoyed the experience as much if I had done one or the other. Morrison's voice carries a level of emotion above the words on the page. I believe tandem reading is what allowed me to get the full grasp of the story, and I would highly recommend it to anyone considering picking it up.

Beloved was an uncomfortable read that required sharp focus and attention. One of those books that I wanted to slow down and savour, yet just wanted to keep going. Several times I had to set it aside in order to digest the heaviness - a certain reminder of how awful these years were. It's one of those important and impactful stories, told by one of of the greatest story tellers.

📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• classic enthusiasts
• readers looking for something impactful
• fans of beautiful writing

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"Something that is loved is never lost."

"Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined."

"There is no bad luck in the world but whitefolks."

"I don't care what she is. Grown don't mean a thing to a mother. A child is a child. They get bigger, older, but grown? What's that supposed to mean? In my heart it don't mean a thing." 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Confinement, Abandonment, Slavery, Grief, Violence, Blood, Racism, Racial slurs, Gun violence, Hate crime, Death, Child death, Murder, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Rape, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, and Misogyny

Moderate: Child abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Body horror, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Miscarriage, Death of parent, and Classism

Minor: Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Mental illness

alicyagrace's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Slavery, Rape, and Murder

mossgoblins's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Rape, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Racism, Sexual violence, Cursing, Alcohol, Grief, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Slavery, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, and Sexual assault

razorfangz's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

Read this for class and really loved it. It's a very difficult read both due to the subject matter and how it's written, but very worth it if you can stomach it. The prose is beautiful and does a perfect job of being reflective and tense. Sethe is a very tragic protagonist and while the decisions she makes are horrifying, you fully understand how and why she came to be this way and know that at the end of the day she doesn't deserve it. Being vague of course, but read it for yourself. Again, if you can handle the subject matter, give it a chance.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual violence, Body horror, Death, Grief, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Slavery, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Death of parent, and Animal cruelty

This one is a Lot. It is upfront and brutal about its themes and can be very uncomfortable (which is the point).

balfies's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Murder, Death of parent, Pedophilia, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Trafficking, Suicidal thoughts, Incest, Domestic abuse, Colonisation, Slavery, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Child death, Death, Torture, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Sexism, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Hate crime, Grief, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Child abuse, Blood, Animal cruelty, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Gore, Genocide, Animal death, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Abandonment

orlagal's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Ableism, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Violence, Toxic relationship, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Slavery, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Rape, Racism, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, and Murder

fiveredhens's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

favorite quotes:

She shook her head from side to side, resigned to her rebellious brain. Why was there nothing it refused? No misery, no regret, no hateful picture too rotten to accept? Like a greedy child it snatched up everything. Just once, could it say, No thank you? I just ate and can’t hold another bite?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Slavery, and Violence

Moderate: Abandonment, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, and Terminal illness

Minor: Ableism, Alcohol, Animal death, Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, and War

kylieqrada'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

4.0

Another book that I am woefully inept to review. Toni Morrison's books are modern classics, but Beloved is... transcendent. I guess I will start by saying that I don't do ghost stories. I am at a point in my life where I know what freaks me out and I don't need to expose myself to those things. This is most certainly a ghost story (not a spoiler, it's in the synopsis). And the ghost is scary. She's not a nice ghost. No Caspers here. However, I didn't feel the need to put this book down or not read it before bed at any point. I wasn't scared by the ghost. The rest of the story on the other hand... It's almost as though Ms. Morrison was trying to contrast the horrors of slave life with the horrors of living with a violent poltergeist. And for Sethe and Denver, the horrors and consequences of slave life were so, so much worse. There were innumerable other themes and topics explored in this book, and the narrative style was very unique, in Ms. Morrison's classic way. It took me much longer than usual to read a book of this length, due to the incredible complexity of the work and the different facets to explore. I'm sure I'm missing so much, but what I did grasp, I will be thinking about and ruminating on for a long time.  

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, and Mental illness

sweetmusic22's review

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This was the first time I've ever read any of Toni Morrisson's work. I've always been told that her work is beautiful but challenging (mentally, emotionally, and physically). By the time I got to start reading the book, it had taken me a while before I could really grasp Beloved's themes. 

Pros: I loved the way that Toni incorporated poetry and metaphors in this book. Beloved is unlike any other story about racism and slavery that I've heard/read. One of my favorite parts of the book is when she talks about how her dead baby granddaughter haunts Beloved's character. For me, it opens up conversations about why it can be hard for people to escape their traumas. You learn from Beloved's experience what it's like to experience the pain and trauma of being a different skin color and experience what it's like to lose a child during childbirth. Beloved also opens up conversations about sexual assault and how it mentally affects people in a certain capacity. 

Cons: A lot of the subject matter is a lot to handle, and the story is very slow-paced, so I had to take a lot of my time with this book. It took me a whole year to actually finish Beloved. 

In conclusion, I gave this book 4.5 stars. I thought the book was so beautiful, powerful, and well-done. However, if you really want to read this book, you have to be prepared to take a lot of time with it. For me, I did 2 pages one day and then 3 pages the next. Then, I would do that as a routine with it until I was finished (today). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Child death, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, and Slavery

Moderate: Death

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

booksthatburn's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• 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

Beloved begins as a slow-burning and haunting story about living on after the worst days, slowing winding around how to tell those days without shattering again.

The story rotates narrators and jumps back and forth in time in a way that was a little confusing at first, but the narrators have distinct voices and there’s mostly just Now and one big past event for each narrator as far as jumping around in time is concerned, so it became pretty easy to keep track of where the story was. The lack of demarcation with each switch helped to build the feeling that the past isn’t really gone for any of them. The story is about reckoning with the past in different ways, and how they deal with it. It’s also a ghost story, a haunting of the past refusing to leave. As the story develops it begins depicting the past events which were just hinted at earlier, circling back to them from different perspectives and catching slightly different bits of time surrounding a few very pivotal moments. It had the effect of helping me to ease into a very traumatic story.

The middle third of the book (leading up to the end of part 1) is absolutely devastating, enough story threads are in place for it to slowly wind to a set of riveting and horrifying explanations. This book is also filled with care, for the characters and the readers. The most brutal events are told from the perspective of someone who has already survived them (or who we know is around later on, at least), and that makes the current events feel manageable even when they’re differently awful. There are multiple narrators but it usually wasn’t hard to figure out whose perspective was in each section because their narrative styles were different enough to be distinct while having enough in common for the changes in POV to not be jarring.

I like the ending, it feels like it meets the characters at a place that makes sense for everything they've been through, both before the book began and during the main timeline. They're not all the way better, not by a long shot, but they're working on it, each in their own way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Death

Moderate: Sexual assault, Slavery, Racial slurs, and Racism

Minor: Ableism, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

CW for ableism, animal abuse (not depicted), sexual assault (not depicted), slavery (backstory), child death, pregnancy, childbirth, racial slurs, racism, assault, death.