Reviews with content warning for Slavery - Beloved

😭😭😭😭
was unsure how i felt about this book for a lot of me reading it but i think the ending really pulled it all together. as someone who usually reads books for escapism, defs hard to read books like this that are full of trauma and heavy themes, but v important to consume as a privileged white person especially so

the ending for me really drove home how like,,,, inconsequential everything that the characters did and that happened was. i feel like most books end with a note of "even if not much changed, it affected the lives of some people, and they will remember it forever, and isnt that beautiful" and this book instead was like. there are horrors upon horrors upon horrors. and maybe their circumstances improved. but there were still horrors upon horrors upon horrors after that. and it didnt change anything. it didnt warm peoples hearts or keep a flame going or get turned into tall tales, whether good or bad. there were horrors upon horrors and then people forgot. they forgot about it until they couldnt remember these people at all or what they had done or even remember that there was something there before that they had remembered. heartbreaking 😭😭 but also, its a very realistic book. that's just kind of how it is. like that's truly just how the world works, beyond our romanticised tales of it. i also loved the theme especially at the end of the land containing stories, the evidence of those stories is also erased after time, like everything is, but i love the idea that when you look upon land there are layers of histories and stories and experiences and memories layed upon it. i think thats a really beautiful way of looking at it.

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mooseinlowlight's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

I had a little bit of a hard time getting into this book and recognizing how the story was being told, but once I did I started to really appreciate what I was reading.

This book is really heavy and, I think, does a great job at showing the mental and physical repercussions of something like slavery on a people.

I really liked how the POVs would change and I definitely liked when we saw the world through Beloveds eyes. The way Toni Morrison wove the timelines/perspectives together, adding more context to important moments, really added a lot of weight as well.

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isa8books's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

5.0

so devastatingly beautiful

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afroza's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense 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

3.5

I know this is supposed to be a Great Book. I wanted to like it a lot. And some parts, I do. But, I’m really thrown off by some of the choices Morrison makes in terms of what is emphasized or brought up again and again. I’m a bit too perturbed by some of those more obscene moments that it takes me out. I didn’t care for how the situation resolved- it came off rushed and, because there was so much of the build-up to the magical occult moments, underwhelming and frustrating. Only Denver is one I can sympathize. I did learn a lot, however, but I’m not raving about this book to others, nor will I likely read it again in the future.

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bookgurl488's review

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense 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

5.0

This book was a dark and painful journey that somehow ended on a hopeful note.

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ebj5's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

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tylerarianna's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective slow-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

4.0

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helenaps99's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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

3.25

A very powerful classic. The narrative moved a bit slowly in the first half but it picked up in the second half and finished really beautifully. I liked the rotation of the POV between different main and minor characters, it provided well-rounded storytelling and showed the biases and short sights of characters like Paul D and Stamp Paid. Sethe’s POV, of course, was the most powerful, I loved her character and what she represented as a woman, a mother, and a former/fugitive slave. I wish I had read this and was able to discuss it in school, there are probably a ton of little nuances that I missed that give greater weight and clarity to the story.

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