Reviews with content warning for Rape - The Color Purple

I loved the portrayal of religion and how Celies views on it changed throughout the book. That is probably one of the best ways to view god as god is. This was also an interesting book to read just a few months after reading "Things Fall Apart" from Chinua Achebe. The idea of african american missionaries hadn't even crossed my mind while reading the book so this one was interesting to see their perspective.

I think us here to wonder, myself. To wonder. To ast. And that in wondering bout the big things and asting bout the big things, you learn about the little ones, almost by accident. But you never know nothing more about the big things than you start out with. The more I wonder, he say, the more I love.

This one was from Mr. _____ (aka Albert). Might suck that i'm putting in his quote and not more of Celie's but i didnt have anything to mark the quotes before page 200 so this is the othe one I got. I don't know about the "redemption" of his,

but if Celie is ok with it in the end, it means she forgave him and understood.

It's interesting to note the fact that most men don't have names at first, probably because Celie doesn't really care.

This was also a quick book to read because of the format. I noticed this as well with the Perks of Being a Wallflower. I thought this book was outstanding. Not only is it a must read sapphic book, it's a must read book, period. Anyhow. I am excited to see the new adapaptation of this book next week in theaters.

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natraf_reads's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring 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

5.0

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carissa230's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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

4.5

This book was so real and raw. In the era and part of the country this is set in these were real issues that people faced. What happened behind closed doors was between those people. If you were abusing your spouse, or child, others didn't get involved. The pain that Celle faced to try and protect her family is heartbreaking.

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sexyspooker's review against another edition

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challenging dark hopeful inspiring reflective 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? It's complicated

4.25

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owls_rainbow's review against another edition

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emotional reflective 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

2.0

According to the amount of 5 star reviews on Goodreads this is a really popular book and to be honest I'm not totally sure why.

I hated the writing style. The way it was written was very tell rather than show. You can show that someone is poor and ill-educated in ways other than near illiterate writing. It made it hard for me to follow what was going on. Especially with all the references of Mr. — rather than using his actual surname.

The book seemed violent just for the sake of it. That opening chapter felt like trauma porn. You can indicate that she is a young person going through rape a lot less graphically. It wasn't necessary and it didn't add anything to the story. Then there were the beatings. We know that in those days men often hit their wives but did we need so many references to it? Also Sofia's excessive violence didn't make any sense.

I also didn't particularly care much about Nettie's letters, other than the fact that they were easier to read. She was an absent character for half the book and now we're supposed to care about all her ins and outs and missionary work. Sorry but not me.

I did like that Celie grew throughout the book and eventually started her own business and had her happy ending.

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