Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

Coleman Hill by Kim Coleman Foote

10 reviews

ukponge's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Slavery, Misogyny, Mental illness, Addiction, Grief, Emotional abuse, Violence, Rape, Racial slurs, Alcohol, Child abuse, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Murder, Alcoholism, and Animal death

farwareads's review

challenging dark tense medium-paced

4.5

F*ck Gra' Coleman
All my homies hate Gra' Coleman!!

In the author's note, the author says she learned more about her great-grandmother's past that helped her to empathize with her, but I did not feel that way. Her constant and rampant abuse of everyone around her, but especially Bertha, was impossible to justify. 

I loved this book and thought it was so well written and was really inspired by the biomythography concept. I do wish we heard more from Bertha and her siblings towards the end of the book. I really liked Nell and wanted to know where she ended up. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Grief, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, and Cursing

hesticht's review

dark sad slow-paced

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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Alcoholism, and Domestic abuse

ash_royse's review

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Child abuse, Alcoholism, Racism, Domestic abuse, Racial slurs, and Pregnancy

haleyreads32's review

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Racism

craftyanty's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Miscarriage

_sarah_reads_'s review

challenging emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Domestic abuse, Rape, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Alcoholism, Racism, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

natalieba's review

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Miscarriage

Moderate: Infidelity, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship

serendipitysbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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? Yes

4.25

 Coleman Hill is a thoroughly absorbing American multigenerational family saga. The author describes it as a biomythography, a combination of her family stories, photographs and other artefacts, interviews, government and legal documents and, most importantly, imagination. In 1916 in the early days of the Great Migration Lucy Grimes and Celia Coleman meet on a train heading north. They are seeking a better life, one that offers them opportunities free from the restrictions and threats of the Jim Crow South. The novel follows the intertwined lives of these two women, their children and grandchildren in Vauxhall, New Jersey for 70 years. For many years the two are close but a relationship between the son of one and the daughter of another drives a wedge between their two families.

The novel’s opening recounts the reality of life in the South and the stories people hear of a much better life in the North. However, it isn’t long before the gap between the promise and the lived experience become obvious. This book is a tough sometimes brutal read. Moving north has not provided protection from poverty, hardship or racism. Abuse, heavy alcohol use, neglect and violence blight the families and it is hard seeing the cycle of abuse, the intergenerational trauma, play out with victims becoming perpetrators. And yet, despite everything, this novel is also a story of survival, of the strength of family bonds, and of love - even when it is inadequately and imperfectly expressed. Those who do bad things often think they are doing right, or are struggling to do the right thing and are gutted when they realise they haven’t.

I loved the storytelling. The novel unfolds from the perspective of nine different characters, which provides real depth and breadth. It’s a bit like listening to your relatives at a family get together with everybody adding their piece to a story, or correcting someone whose memory differs from their own. There’s even an interlude early on from the perspective of cotton which I thought was a clever way of providing context. The characters are richly and vibrantly realised and I was never in any danger of confusing characters
or not knowing whose perspective was being relayed. The book makes use of first, second and third perspectives and I enjoyed the variety, being sometimes drawn in to the story and other times taken back a little to see the bigger picture. Details of actual historical events are mentioned which help place the story in a wider context but these never dominate. This is first and foremost a family story.

I listened to the audio which is narrated by Bahni Turpin and Dion Graham and was fantastic. However it meant I missed out on seeing the photos which I understand are included in the print version.

Many thanks to @netgalley and @dreamscape_media for the advance listening copy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Alcoholism, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Dementia

annamay1021's review

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

This was my first biomythography. Parts of the story were rich and sad and emotional, but overall it was hard for me to keep up with all of the characters despite the family tree. Some sections were in 2nd person, and unless someone spoke to that person by name, you were unsure of who the section was about. 

Thank you to the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Alcoholism, and Child abuse

Moderate: Slavery, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Minor: Mental illness and Dementia