Reviews - The Temple of My Familiar

173 reviews for:

The Temple of My Familiar

Alice Walker

3.97 AVERAGE

shannonli1026's review against another edition

4.5

reflective relaxing 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: Yes

lilias's review against another edition

3.5

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I started off feeling kinda salty towards this book as I do when I don’t understand why the author seems to feel a certain way about one of her characters. I was that way all the way through War and Peace because I didn’t understand why Tolstoy seemed to dislike Sonya and adore Natasha. I remained salty throughout that book, but I warmed up to this one when Carlotta because more of a character than one trampled by her circumstances. I should have known Alice Walker would go right by her character.

This book is about everything. Practically every theme you can imagine is interwoven throughout the threads of the stories in this book. Characters who seem tied to certain places or people develop ties to others. It’s an excellent character study, though I must admit I only got attached to a few of the characters. As with life, some moments astounded me. And some bored me. But Alice Walker has created lifetimes and lineages within this book, and it’s a whole world to read.

erinbirnel's review against another edition

3.5

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

cheuksin's review against another edition

3.5

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Very different from The Colour Purple, with the most prominent differences being there are a lot more characters perspectives in this book.
Frankly despite the clear differences between perspectives, the whole book was still confusing as hell, even now I’m not sure if it was chronological or not. It’s was well written I’ll give it that, Alice Walker is still a good writer, but this definitely wasn’t my cup of tea.
To be honest I’m not really looking forward to the next book in the series, but as I loved The Colour Purple so much I’ll probably read it anyway.

Content Warnings

moniipeters's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous challenging emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Describing this book is as much of a challenge as reading it was. After my second attempt I was able to push through.
Although this is considered the sequel to The Color Purple, I initially found this completely different and almost unrelated at first. In some ways you could say the book doesn’t really have a plot, but you could also say it has many interconnected plots.
The narrative and writing style are often confusing and difficult to digest, but if you can push through this, you’ll find insightful commentary on womanism, intersectionality, race, class, colonization, colonialism, and so much more.
This book is really a book of stories told by everyday people. These stories are written in a way where you could’ve heard them from any and everybody and that’s what makes them so special and captivating. I believe the purpose was to show how interconnected we all are and to introduce new ideas and connections on a more spiritual level. I admire Alice Walkers ability to write in such a way that you can apply the wisdom to any period in time.
The Temple of My Familiar is a timeless classic that I hope to return to in the future.

Content Warnings

3littlewordz's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring mysterious 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: Yes

“‘To the extent that it is possible,...you must live in the world today as you wish everyone to live in the world to come. That can be your contribution. Otherwise, the world you want will never be formed. Why? Because you are waiting for others to do what you are not doing; and they are waiting for you, and so on. The planet goes from bad to worse.’”

Oh, this was nearly breathtaking! This is a very unique follow-up to The Color Purple, as it incorporated descendants from Miss. Celie. The family tree was woven into the story in such a fantastic way, across continents, lifetimes, and generations. I actually had to sketch out a family tree to figure out who was connected to who. Thoroughly enjoyed reading this. I did feel that inserting some of the characters (Mary Jane/Eleanora/Eleandra) introduced some stories that didn’t pay off, but overall, I’m so glad I read this and plan to read Possessing the Secret of Joy to finish out the series.