Reviews tagging 'Violence'

12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northup

34 reviews

taylor1997's review against another edition

5.0

dark sad tense medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping

Moderate: Child abuse

ruffian23's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping

eoviattb's review against another edition

4.75

emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

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This is an incredible read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

anxiousplanter's review against another edition

challenging dark inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping

mikarala's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark informative reflective sad fast-paced

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It's hard to rate something that's not only a classic, not only a nonfiction memoir of someone's life story, but also centered on such a tragically difficult and important topic. I don't know if I can say this was a book I enjoyed reading, although I do think it was well-written as well as insightful. Northup not only conveys the events that happened to him, but includes thoughtful meditations on the moral implications of slavery and the seemingly contradictory dichtomy of slaveowners that Northup believed to be good people at heart that were incredibly affecting. The descriptions of the brutality towards slaves in this novel also made me physical sick sometimes when I remembered that all of the events in the story were real.

As a novel, it lacks a certain sense of narrative in my opinion, going from event to event and describing a lot of the daily life of slaves, but again, I realize this a nonfiction memoir and not a story. Hence my difficulty with rating it. In any case, I do think this should be mandatory reading for students in North America, and I am very glad I read it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping

mblanke's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment

erinrlreader1994's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

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Wow, just wow. Quite a heart wrenching account of a man striped of his freedom and sold into slavery. Very sad but good to read! Would recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence

Moderate: Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery

Minor: Violence

nellkristen's review against another edition

4.25

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Injury/Injury detail

mandi4886's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, Dementia, Death of parent, Alcohol

skysummer's review against another edition

4.25

dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Violence