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peeled_grape's reviews
143 reviews
Beloved by Toni Morrison
5.0
Ambitiously human and admirably honest. I had to set this book down after several sections to let them sink in all the way. This one was gutting in ways I didn't expect. It is stunning and clever and moving. I think I am mostly speechless.
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
2.0
Y'all, I got 200 pages into this book and never felt like it started. It's theoretically great, and I like the idea of it -- lots of paradoxes to chew on, it's extremely clever -- but in practice, it's not good. I appreciate what it's trying to do, but I couldn't focus on this book enough to finish it. It makes its point in the first chapter and then does it again and again and again. So repetitious. Like, I get it. I get it! Can we move on now!
Black Jesus and Other Superheroes: Stories by Venita Blackburn
2.0
I can tell this writing is super high quality, but it was hard for me to get through. I had to focus very hard to not space out while reading parts of this (though, admittedly, I have a short attention span, and this is likely more of a me problem than anything else). The stories I did get through were great. They all blend into each other a little, and I found it hard to separate them when I was done. I can tell Blackburn knows what she's doing, but it wasn't for me.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
3.0
For me, this was almost comically depressing. I kept thinking of that John Mulaney skit with the “God can’t hear you” joke. It didn’t rip my heart out the way I wanted it to, and that may have been why—I just wasn’t sucked in to the horror of the world. I applaud this for keeping my attention as well as it did—it was colorless and bleak and there is no plot. I could not figure out why I couldn’t put it down for long. I am in love with all of the dialogue, and I both love and hate the way this is written.
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
5.0
I have a soft spot for satires, and this is the best one I've read. I love its Tralfamadorian subplot and the ways Vonnegut has made it relevant to the main plot. I love the leaps through time. I love how observant it is, which you can see on a micro level. In all, it is beautiful, and deeply satisfying. It manages to avoid any sort of preachiness, which is hard to do in a satire, without compromising its critique. Sometimes, satires also lose its story while trying to make a point, which also isn't an issue with Vonnegut. It is honest and moving and deceptively simple. This has made it into my all-time favorites list.