Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

45 reviews

zara89's review against another edition

challenging emotional 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? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Death

Moderate: Grief, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Rape, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

beate251's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

This is a book about secrets and forgiveness.

I have first encountered this story as an eight part Disney+ series. Now that I finally got round to reading the book it's based on I can see why some people have problems with the narrative. It feels a lot more disjointed than the series, with a constant back and forth and introduction of seemingly random characters who turn out to be someone we didn't expect. You'll just have to accept that there's a big cast, and we're following them all.

The book deals with a lot of difficult topics (my content warnings are probably longer than my review!) and it sometimes feels like it's too many, even though some, like the rape, are barely mentioned. The TV show fleshes the time in Edinburgh out a lot more.

The writing is beautiful but I would really recommend the Disney+ series - it makes the book a lot easier to read.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Physical abuse, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Murder, Racism, Classism, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Xenophobia, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Police brutality, Sexual assault, Biphobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Grief, Abandonment, Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Colonisation, Death of parent, and Homophobia

Minor: Rape, Alcoholism, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Pregnancy, Medical content, and Cancer

kyriannaj's review

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Bullying, Death of parent, and Hate crime

Moderate: Classism, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Slavery, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Addiction, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Alcohol, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Mental illness, Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Colonisation, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Police brutality, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Suicide

Minor: Cancer

reddeddy's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Toxic relationship, Biphobia, Sexism, Racism, Abandonment, Car accident, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Alcoholism, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Stalking, Alcohol, Bullying, Classism, Death, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, and Violence

Minor: Hate crime, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Slavery, Blood, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Cancer, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Deportation, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, and Xenophobia

bookwormcat's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Terminal illness, Racism, Death of parent, Rape, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Violence, Grief, Biphobia, Abandonment, and Sexual violence

erinoconnor's review

emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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? Yes

4.25

A story of generational trauma with love at the center. It’s delicious and painful and almost like peeking into vignetted moments in these characters lives. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Death of parent, Gun violence, Grief, Slavery, Racism, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, Colonisation, Sexual assault, Police brutality, Sexual violence, Rape, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Sexism, Alcoholism, Death, Cancer, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Suicide attempt, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Addiction, and Biphobia

thissagreads's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful reflective 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? Yes

4.75

This book was so good!!! I couldn’t put it down- the twists were nice- but I loved reading the mother Eleanor’s past, and loved that she told it through an 8 hour recording.

Eleanor’s real name is Covey but after fleeing the Caribbean island she was from, the book tells us how she became Eleanor, why she had to flee her island, and that they have an older sister (from rape unfortunately.

The perspective and storytelling was RICH and engaging. 

The audio was so wonderful to listen too, and if there’s ever going to be a part two, I will read it in a heartbeat! I do wish that the author

explored Eleanor/Covey’s reservation for her daughter Benny’s bisexuality. Her husband was pissed but I think it was because Benny was career and life lost, and adding queerness was too much for this man LOL but it would’ve been nice to get a better understanding as to why Eleanor/Covey was upset too. 

This is a must read because the multigenerational saga, with

Eleanor/Covey’s Chinese father who spoke patios

was such a great listen and read!!! The only reason I didn’t give this 5 stars, was because the ending felt rushed, especially after all the time and care that was put into Eleanor’s story. Plus, I felt like there could’ve been more on Byron and Benny after listening to their mother’s history

and it would’ve been nice to read about their older sister settling and getting to know Byron and Benny more.

HIGLY recommend this book, and then if you’re feeling like you want more of this story, watch the Hulu tv show haha

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape and Racism

Minor: Violence, Homophobia, and Domestic abuse

happyblkhippie's review against another edition

Ugh I really wanted to like and finish this but the story was all over the place. I didn't know who's was who, or what's going on. Are we in present or in the past. 

The story just moved too slow for me. I read 40% before dnf'g. I struggled to get through the part I did read. It was boring and confusing. I'm not one to "push through" and waste my time on a book I choose to voluntarily read if I don't like it. I typically only give books about 25% before moving on so I was very generous with this one. 

I think the story was probably heading in a good direction, but just took too long to get there. I also didn't care for the writing style. It was too many characters that didn't add to the story and not enough important information to move the story forward. I listened to this on Audible and didn't care for the narrator either. Overall an interesting storyline but poor execution in my opinion. I would give it a 3.25 stars. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Abandonment, Classism, and Grief

Moderate: Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Animal cruelty, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Racism, Terminal illness, Emotional abuse, Murder, Sexism, and Mental illness

Minor: Addiction, Sexual harassment, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Xenophobia, Adult/minor relationship, and Violence

kquixotic's review

dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.75

This is a multi-generational story riddled with mysteries that becomes more complex with each chapter. It remains loyal to themes of water, food, and family throughout, and left me feeling resolved in the end, though the characters themselves continue to resolve all that is revealed and with which they must reconcile until the very last page. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault and Violence

Minor: Sexism, Police brutality, and Racism

nsusdorf's review against another edition

challenging mysterious sad tense slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence and Rape