Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Horse by Geraldine Brooks

24 reviews

alainab113's review

adventurous reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Racism, Violence, Animal death, Racial slurs, and Slavery

marioosa517's review

challenging emotional reflective medium-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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Racism, Police brutality, Slavery, Animal death, Gun violence, and Infidelity

Moderate: War, Sexual violence, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Xenophobia, Sexual content, Physical abuse, and Medical content

Minor: Islamophobia, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Cursing, and Car accident

chickaboogawah's review

challenging emotional informative inspiring medium-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? No

5.0

I loved this book by Geraldine Brooks. She is such a great author, and she skillfully wove the various storylines together. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Police brutality, Murder, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Trafficking, Colonisation, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Slavery, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Gore, Death, Death of parent, and Excrement

mitchelldavis1997's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Death of parent, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, and Blood

thing_a_ling's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative sad tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Death, Racism, and Rape

Moderate: Gun violence

Minor: Islamophobia

calamitydeeds's review

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Classism, Murder, Gun violence, Death, Racism, Abandonment, Blood, Colonisation, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Police brutality, Slavery, Violence, and War

menglert's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I usually love this kind of historical fiction/timeline switching/multiple POV parallelism, but this one didn't totally click for me. Some of the POV choices were a bit confusing, with some characters only having only one or two chapters. 

I think the core of this book was quite effective at examining themes of racism in America's past and present, so it could be worth the read for that. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Slavery, War, Racism, Police brutality, Grief, and Hate crime

Moderate: Gun violence, Grief, Hate crime, Emotional abuse, Murder, Police brutality, Racism, Racial slurs, Slavery, War, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Blood

megan_martha_reads's review

challenging informative sad medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

Opened my eyes to horse racing and the role of enslaved people in building that industry in the US. Beautifully written but heavy. As someone who does not have any interest in horses or racing still was sucked in.

Spent a lot of time after googling equestrian art. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Racial slurs, and Slavery

Moderate: Animal cruelty

Minor: Animal death

bendercath's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This book completely captivated me. So many passages just took my breath away. I don’t always love bouncing timelines but this one worked. However, the ending was

quite abrupt and shocking to me. I really hated that Theo was killed. What if the author had chosen a different ending … he could have been accused and maybe even beaten by an officer … but shot in cold blood while in a defenseless stance?  I found Jess’ fascination with skeletons to be so symbolic … like she was literally learning about creatures from the inside out. What if that would have been a metaphor for her understanding of  racism? Did the author intend to kill off any hope that Theo could contribute to Black scholarship? That part just did not compute. <\spoiler> reading about Jarrett … his intelligence, his love of horses, his expertise and insight into horses and humans … all of it was so beautiful. One cringey section was the romanticization of his time picking cotton in the fields. No way in hell should that have been portrayed so wistfully, as if he were somehow better after being subjected to such brutality.
I have read many articles and heard interviews about Geraldine Brooks being white and writing about Black characters and racism. I am sensitive to that and want to learn more about her perspective. This book definitely got me thinking a lot.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Slavery, Racism, and Gun violence

king_rune's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-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? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Gun violence