Reviews with content warning for Abandonment - Giovanni's Room

This took me soo many attempts to read but god, once I was on the way ..

The way it was all drawn out was beautiful. I wish I had the language for and practice at literary crit to delve into this the way I want to.

Before Giovanni's Room I was only familiar with Baldwin as a political thinker/speaker, and his way with words in that realm has always captured me. It's so interesting to find the same ring true here in such a different place, such a different way.

Content Warnings

miller8d's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

I like James Baldwin’s poetic language and poignant emotional description but

I found the ending of this book quite disappointing and I really wish there had been more plot to this book. It felt like nothing really happened in comparison to how much of the book was spent explaining— it was a lot of telling and not a lot of showing, which isn’t bad, it’s just not my preference. James Baldwin is incredible and brilliant and this book is historically significant, but I did not enjoy it very much.

Note: I pictured James Baldwin as Giovanni, and Hugh Dennis as Jacques.

Content Warnings

edgaranjapoe's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional sad 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

5.0

Content Warnings

yasmin_raev's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Content Warnings

biblioghoul's review

Go to review page

emotional 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

5.0

Content Warnings

laurendenton's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Content Warnings

imaginefishes's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

i don’t know what else i can say about this except it resonated hard. im gay

Content Warnings

andsoitgoes's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark sad tense slow-paced

3.0

I can see why this is a classic as the writing is artistic, and the emotions extracted by the subject matter are intense. However, the pace of the novel was not for me (very slow) and all of the characters seems a little more stereotypical than realistic. Not my cup of tea, but if you like emotionally intense books with an aura of mystery you'd probably like it. Please read trigger warnings before reading!

Content Warnings

More...