Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Native Son by Richard Wright

9 reviews

eengland's review

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Not an easy read, but well done on all aspects. First half is B R U T A L. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Rape, Gore, Sexual violence, Racism, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Blood

loverofwisdomandmen's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective tense slow-paced

4.25

Bro. I still need to do my deep dive for ap literature about this but UGH this was a PAGE TURNER.  Richard Wright had me on the edge of my seat- asking my study hall teacher whether or not human bones would burn in a furnace 😭 .  Just a very good piece of literature although I can’t disagree with the feminist criticisms of how one dimensional some of the women were depicted compared to the men- but that’s a whole nother can of worms- this is a gem of realist societal criticism . 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Racism, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Blood, Antisemitism, Murder, Addiction, Death, Gore, and Violence

sophiaroesler's review

challenging dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Murder, Misogyny, Racism, and Rape

Minor: Blood and Alcoholism

laurbubbles's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Gore, Murder, Blood, Racism, Racial slurs, and Rape

Moderate: Alcoholism and Alcohol

hleary's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Racism, and Death

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, and Rape

Minor: Classism and Alcohol

michaelion's review

challenging dark informative tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.75

Dear StoryGraph, I implore you, please add a trigger tag specifically for misogynoir, because it's disgusting how much of it is in this book.

The choice to open the book with Bigger killing a rat, then terrorizing his sister to the point where she faints and he laughs about it is mild foreshadowing of what's to come. Also, unrelated to the opening scene, there's something poetic about everything black men fear about being caught doing with a white woman, they do to Black women. Justice4Bessie!

If you're planning on reading this, brace yourself. In my edition, there was an excerpt where Wright tells the readers of a book club that the first draft of this book was 576 pages. Which actually makes me like this book less, because it could've easily been 200 pages shorter and been a tighter, sharper, better story. It was a drag to get through reading. In the third section of the book alone, one character monologues for 23 pages with no breaks. After a certain point you simply have to start skimming. But, I promise, you're not missing much.

I gave this rating an extra .25 for Jan and Max. It sucks that the characters I like most were the not-like-the-others whites!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, and Racism

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Sexual assault, Murder, Toxic relationship, Violence, Racial slurs, Sexism, Classism, and Death

Minor: Addiction, Animal death, Xenophobia, Alcohol, Body horror, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Animal cruelty, and Blood

directorpurry's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Racism, Blood, Classism, Sexual violence, Rape, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Antisemitism

Minor: Misogyny

ginadapooh's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, and Violence

hawkrose18's review

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

CAWPILE: 4.71

So I am pretty sure that I am not supposed to like the main character, but I really didn't like Bigger. I really didn't like how he was justifying his horrid actions to himself, and I understand why it was that way, but I just didn't like it. I know that Bigger was an uneducated Black man in the 1930s so his actions and thoughts made sense, but Bigger just got on my nerves so much and I don't know if that was the intention or not. I did like some of the lines in here and the commentary was pretty decent in my opinion, but I just was kind of grossed out by the thoughts and actions that Bigger had about/towards women because most of them were unnecessary in my opinion. I'm not an own voices reviewer and I did have to read this book for school so take that into account when reading this review. I don't think that this book is necessarily meant for me, but in the long run I am glad that I did read it, I just wish I liked it as much as I was expecting myself to like it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Sexism, Racism, Racial slurs, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Murder, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Death, Cursing, and Blood