Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher

4 reviews

rachelditty's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-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

4.5

This was amazing. I'm so glad I picked this up. Wow. I'm honestly really surprised more people haven't rated this higher. Knowing Chris Crutcher was a teacher and family therapist, I'm not shocked at all that he wrote about school-age kids having to deal with extremely real and scary topics. I think he did a great job of handling these kids and their stories. I cared about every single one of them, and TJ's voice was so real. That's a teenager. I want what's best for him. This was an incredible read. Would highly recommend. (The audiobook was a great listen.)

Quotes I liked:

"He looks ashamed. How messed up is that? You get treated like shit, then have to be ashamed that you're the kind of person people treat like shit." (30:38).

"And what kind of a fucked up world is this? You should have to be a lot more than decent to be a kid's hero." (2:51:37).

"It doesn't matter who you are. You could be a pretty little cheerleader who looks like she owns the world, or you could be that funky little guy on your swim team that Mike hates so much, or you can be me. Deal is, if you've been treated bad, you're gonna have to find a way to get over it." (4:42:57).

"'God mom,' I say. 'Sometimes there's just no place to put this.' 'Well,' she says, 'if there's no place to put it, maybe we don't need to put it anywhere.'" (6:31:03).
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frogqueen's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

  • oh boy 
  • well let me first say i liked the writing style and pacing! 
  • this book is ostensibly about a boy who assembles a swim team of misfits in order to stick it to the jocks at his school
  • and i did really enjoy the swim team parts of the book! loved seeing the members of the team bond and become friends (even if their "therapy sessions" felt a little degrassi-after-school-special at times)
  • but holy shit i was not expecting... literally everything else 
  • particularly the scenes of graphic racist child abuse! i don't know if i have ever had a harder time reading anything before in my life
  • at a certain point it just felt gratuitous
  • and the ending????? was just one jarring come-the-fuck-on moment after another and imo they did not contribute to the story beyond shock value
  • there were also a few female characters who were being abused by their male partners but the way this was framed by the author felt a little like "well. she's just going to keep going back to him what can ya do!" 
  • like not 100% victim-blamey but really really toeing the line
  • and i haven't even touched on the therapist that just lets tj waltz in on a session with a client! 
  • but anyway. there you have it.
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valsreadsss's review

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3.25

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spookystag's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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