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lisa_setepenre 's review for:

Beloved by Toni Morrison
5.0

When I was reading this, I kept thinking that it was good, but nothing that really made me sit up and take notice. Then I got to part 3, and okay, wow.

It's hard to categorise this book. I've shelved it as horror, as the whole basis of the plot is one you'd find in a horror story, but it doesn't fit there. The real horror of Beloved is not a ghost or ghoulie or any other supernatural happenings, but the very-human institution of slavery.

Technically, the book's a bit of a mess. There's no distinction between past/present in the book, so you suddenly flashback and then flash forward within a chapter without any cues. For three chapters, it's suddenly in first person perspective rather than the third. But it's incredible.