A review by afroheaux
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This was an incredibly tough read, and it was worth every single second. I saw so much of myself in this book and it talked about the world in the most explicit of terms, exploring race, class, and gender in a way that I have not seen before.

I love Toni Morrison's style of prose, fusing poetry with narrative to show truth. The structure of the book was more so to showcase various lives of Black people and how those lives lived impact their actions. Pecola and her family are described by themselves and the world around them, but the narrative questions that label. What does it mean to be beautiful? What makes one desirable and one not and how does that affect their life outcomes? This book puts you into the skin of the forgotten, ruined, abandoned, and wicked. It can get ugly at times. That's the truth of it all, though. Morrison does not shy away from it one bit and it pays off in spades. I'm going to be thinking about this book for a long time.
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