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averyarden's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Grief, Violence, Vomit, Child abuse, Racism, Child death, Death of parent, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Domestic abuse, Addiction, and Hate crime
Moderate: Rape
Minor: Sexual content
anniesher23's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Death, Violence, Rape, Drug abuse, Addiction, Racial slurs, Cancer, Racism, and Child abuse
megwilli's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Drug abuse, Racism, Drug use, and Child abuse
Moderate: Rape
mladd28's review against another edition
- 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
3.5
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Murder, Rape, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Animal death, Blood, Cancer, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Terminal illness, Vomit, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Torture, and Violence
booksnooksandcooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Beautifully written and the magical realism is both transformative and also bone-chilling. I struggled a bit with the characters and development, but Ward presents the family in such a heart breaking way that the reader weeps alongside them.
I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to read magical realism.
Graphic: Violence, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Murder, Racism, Slavery, Terminal illness, Cancer, Child abuse, Rape, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Hate crime, and Racial slurs
Moderate: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, and Child death
nannahnannah's review against another edition
2.0
Representation:
- most of the characters in the story are black
Jojo and his young sister, Kayla, live with their grandparents, Mam and Pop (and sometimes their mother, Leonie) in Mississippi along the Gulf Coast. Mam is dying of cancer, Leonie struggles with drug addiction and visions of her dead brother, and Pop is left trying to raise Jojo, who in turn raises Kayla. When Jojo and Kayla’s father is released from the same prison Pop had once been in, Leonie goes to pick him up along with a friend and the kids. The trip reveals the horrors of life on the penitentiary, the abuse of power, but also the strength of family bonds.
I’m going to be honest (though you probably got this from my rating): I didn’t enjoy this book very much. I have the feeling this isn’t a book to be enjoyed in any case, but I almost wish I had quit reading every time I got the impulse to stop. Not because I don’t believe what’s talked about isn’t important, but because the book is misery added upon misery and because the book has no main drive. I’m not even sure what the central story problem is; is it the ghosts and their need for resolution? Then what are we doing mostly in Jojo and Leonie’s PoVs for, dealing with their immediate road trip problems rather than the ghosts and their stories?
The child abuse also made it very, very difficult for me to read this, as a survivor of abuse myself. Especially being in the abusive mother’s PoV and reading her excuses. Reading her justify her behavior. Especially reading how, at the end, Jojo himself has inclinations where he feels like lashing out at his little sister as well. Where he sympathizes with his mother. I basically had an emotional breakdown at that point (once again wishing books had content warnings inside the covers before the actual novel somewhere so this wouldn't happen …).
I know this is a pretty incomplete review. Maybe I’ll be able to write more about it later. I know this book has a lot of awards and even more five-star reviews and enthusiastic fans, but it was too much for me. Too much vomit, description of that vomit, and too much going nowhere with no drive.
Graphic: Child abuse, Racism, Slavery, and Violence
Moderate: Ableism, Rape, Racial slurs, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Fatphobia and Cancer
also: antiblackness, age gap in relationship (mentioned), lynching, emetophobiaantimony27's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Slavery, Murder, and Rape
greatexpectations77's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Animal death, Racial slurs, Racism, Blood, Cancer, Confinement, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Police brutality, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Classism, Vomit, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, and Rape
Moderate: Hate crime, Physical abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Mental illness, Sexual content, Addiction, Gun violence, and Murder
Minor: Abortion, Domestic abuse, and Abandonment
maedae4's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
As soon as the story starts I can feel that it's looking at gender, and I loved the progression of that throughout. Jojo is working hard, at 13, to be the kind of man that Pop would want him to be. He longs to be as stoic, as straight-spined. Partly because, with his absent parents, he knows that he's going to be the man of the house, and the pressure to provide for Kayla is already very real. But it's hard, because he's a boy who needs nurturance, and he has a real softness to him. His and Pop's understanding of what it means to interact and love each other as men makes the love between them so palpable and yet so unspoken. They have to express it through silences, through slight touches, through distant care and watchfulness. By the end, I think that Jojo's understanding of what it means to be a man morphs a bit as he connects, as a man, to his Pop and supports him through very difficult memories and experiences. There's room for that warmth between them, and Jojo's vast ability as a caretaker and protector equips him to support his loved ones differently than he perhaps thought possible.
Meanwhile, Leonie, in her late twenties, isn't and never has been anything like her mother. She's ambivalent, shifting between a lifelong desire to strike out on her own and be a different person and a lifelong regret that she's not more like her mom, who's nurturing, sensitive, spiritual, wise, and sensually connected to the land. Leonie, on the other hand, is impetuous, self-centered, and impatient. She is unable to see past her sense of unfairness in her life, her anger at the state of things, and her anger at having grown up in a stifling, grief-stricken household. She's also ambivalent about her family--she doesn't want her children and then she just wants them to be easy and agreeable, wants them to respect and love her. She's horrified that Jojo and Kayla raise and comfort each other and that neither of them see her as a parent, horrified that her father is disappointed in her, and all of this adds to her mistreatment of her kids and her reliance on drugs. These character traits don't make Leonie any less of a woman. They just make less of a mother and more of a bad, permanent babysitter.
The family is haunted by the specter of death and danger. Mam is dying slowly and painfully, her spells unable to save her; Pop is haunted by the fact that the only way he could save Richie was to kill him with love in his heart before a white mob got to him; Leonie is haunted by Given's ghost and by the destruction of his potential and the covenant of their friendship. Parchman is a site of racist violence and the perpetuation of slavery. And the real ghosts in the story force me to reconcile with the horrifying possibility that black people who die so violently and suddenly are condemned to live in purgatory on earth, offering more incentive to protect them from such fates. (Jesmyn Ward's rendition of the spirit world is perfectly fluid and dreamlike, bending in ways that protected me from asking overly logical questions.)
Anyway, because I read a library book, I was unable to annotate. Instead, I took many many photos of beautiful passages. I'm not sure I've ever cried so much while reading a book before, and I'm feeling grateful for the chance to have read it.
Graphic: Racism, Rape, and Hate crime
distancebetweenhunterandprey's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Racial slurs, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Murder, Drug use, Drug abuse, Police brutality, and Addiction
Moderate: Death
Minor: Rape