Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

Horse by Geraldine Brooks

58 reviews

besidemyshelf's review against another edition

adventurous informative medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Racism, and Slavery

hatrita715's review

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

Moderate: Police brutality and Racism

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

mamasuereads's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

I appreciated the research the author did and I enjoyed learning about the race horse, art history, and the work done behind the scenes at the Smithsonian institutes.  This story was very sad to me and I don't enjoy reading about the past mistreatment of animals and humans knowing that it still exists.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexism, Grief, Slavery, Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Police brutality

kgdailey929's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Police brutality, Slavery, and War

tinkrbe1l3's review

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

An excellent audiobook - multiple narrators that works perfectly with the sprawling timeline and character POVs. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism and Slavery

Minor: Police brutality

hollyluia's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Police brutality

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

thebelovedreadingnook's review

challenging dark sad slow-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Police brutality, and Racial slurs

dkmorello's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

In anticipation of leading a book discussion at the local library, I delved a third time into this excellent book, this time on kindle. A multilayered story, Horse focuses ostensibly on thoroughbred horse racing in the 1800s, but its real focus is on race, injustice, slavery and the horrible notion that human beings are bought, sold and denied the financial reward of decades of training and grooming horses for wealthy landowners.

Audiobook 121123. Second read of Horse in preparation for a book club in February. Still gripping. The racism stands out even more acutely. The spine of the story, Black Jarrett, remains compelling.

Geraldine Brooks weaves a hell of a tale. In this book she follows two entwined stories: The main story embraces a thoroughbred foal, known as Lexington, and his enslaved Black groom, Jarrett. The modern story in 2020s brings in Jess, a Smithsonian scientist, and Theo, a historian researching the hidden influence and expertise of Black trainers and grooms in the 19th century. The laws of the 19th century prohibited Black grooms and trainers from owning or riding the horses of White landowners (even though they did — and with great skill), and the landowners exploited those rules to ignore the contribution of the Black trainers, grooms and riders. Slavery and racism thread through the story — including a shocking and gratuitous murder — as does the practice of majestically painting landowners’ thoroughbreds alongside the nameless Blacks who trained, groomed and raced them. The author’s distaste for the racism and White nationalism unleashed and fanned in USA since 2016 is barely contained. UPDATE: I’ve thought about this book so often since I finished it, I raised the rating to five stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Police brutality, and Slavery