A review by hollyway
Beloved by Toni Morrison

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• 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

5.0

Trying and failing to find the words to describe this book and the experience of reading it. There is so much being explored here, approached in such a unique way, so distinctly Morrison. The way she paints love as a malevolent force is something I have never seen before and I can tell is going to stick with me. Of course this is both on the surface and at its core, a story about slavery, and is aptly galling and disturbing. This subject matter in fiction is often rife with worn-out tropes and platitudes, but Morrison easily avoids these by creating fully realised, idiosyncratic characters for us to follow. The universal exists in the specificity of these characters and their stories.

This is a novel with shifting points of view and non-linear storylines, two things that I usually avoid like the plague because they keep me at a distance from the characters and their experience. Morrison is one of the very few who can write in such a way and keep me not only engaged but enthralled and aching for the characters at every step, and I honestly don't know how she does it.

There are so many things to say about this novel; about oppression and subjugation, about freedom, about loneliness, about hauntings, about mothers and daughters - about love. More than I can articulate, which is why Toni Morrison did it for me. As unsettling as this was to read, I'm so glad to have read it.

Edit: back a few days later to bump this from 4 stars to 5 as I cannot stop thinking about this book jesus christ