Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

Über Menschen by Juli Zeh

10 reviews

lotta_8's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective tense medium-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

3.75

Mit Vorsicht zu genießen. Das Buch liest sich gemütlich und wie ein Freizeitroman, ist aber schwer mit Inhalten gefüllt, die nicht so leichtfertig gelesen und überlesen werden sollten, wie es das Buch erstmal vorzuschlagen scheint. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Car accident, Death of parent, and Pandemic/Epidemic

carlottalw's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Homophobia, Racial slurs, and Racism

itsredandread's review

emotional reflective 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Violence

_inge's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

So glad I finally got around to reading this. It’s absurdistic yet weirdly realistic (and modern) at the same time, which is right up my alley. And I managed to shape my thoughts on combatting racism a bit more. 

I’ve seen people criticising this book by saying Gothe gets away with too much and Dora doesn’t do anything to stop him. Whenever he rants about ‘foreigners needing to stay in their own country’ Dora tries expressing her disapproval, but you can tell she doesn’t quite know how to deal with it. Which is exactly the point of this entire book. It confronts us with our behaviour when faced with racism. Our neighbour might be an actual Nazi who’s done horrible things, we might feel sickened by racist murders happening today, but we still don’t dare to speak up. One passage in this book describes being ‘stunned by racism’. When someone says something racist, we tend to fall into silence. We come up with excuses for not speaking up; maybe there’s no use telling a racist that they’re being racist, surely a left-wing person couldn’t convince them to be less racist? But when we don’t say anything, we wish in hindsight that we would’ve told them off. We feel as if we’ve failed. Eventually, we just avoid racists altogether, as to not risk having an awkward conversation with this person, or feeling worse about ourselves again. I found this passage so relevant and so relatable. Is it the right way to act? Absolutely not. But I think most people act exactly this way. Juli Zeh was able to put this into words perfectly. 

The central message in this book is that we’re all human. A neo-Nazi, Covid-conspiracy theorist or left-wing person… at the end of the day, we aren’t just defined by these things alone. Making nazis more human did make me uncomfortable, but I do get the need to do this. If we really get to know people who we fundamentally disagree with, by going into conversations without judgement but instead with empathy and humanity, we might learn more about them and ourselves. If Gothe hadn’t met Dora, I think he genuinely would’ve done worse things. He’s obviously an awful person, which this book acknowledges constantly. But because he’s left alone he becomes even worse. I therefore don’t agree with people saying the book overall is too ‘feel-good’; I just think it’s a call for empathy and humanity, but without sacrificing your own beliefs.

This book is a brilliant exploration on how we deal with racists/nazis. It’s not always pretty or right, but it is realistic. If Dora had acted morally just at every turn, I wouldn’t have been encouraged to think about my own actions and the book as a whole wouldn’t have felt this realistic. Unfortunately, we often don’t know what to do when confronted with racism. I think literature is there to confront us with this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Pandemic/Epidemic

tims99's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, and Pandemic/Epidemic

elise_ise's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny 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

5.0

Perfekt. Das Buch ist hochaktuell, es stellt die gesellschaftliche Gegenwart ganz leicht, aber differenziert und ohne voreilige Schlüsse dar. Es trifft ins Schwarze, ohne konkrete Anforderungen an den Leser zu stellen, es regt einfach zum Denken an. 
Nebenbei ist das Buch wahnsinnig unterhaltsam, wunderschön geschrieben, ihre Beschreibungen lassen einen total eintauchen und verstehen, kein Detail ist überflüssig oder langweilig. Kein Charakter ist überflüssig, generell sind vor allem die Hauptcharaktere total gut gemacht, vielschichtig und liebenswert. 
Es gibt noch viele weitere Dinge an dem Buch, die super sind, aber meine literarischen Kenntnisse reichen nicht aus, um sie auszudrücken. Lies es einfach.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident

Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, and Terminal illness

hennie's review against another edition

fast-paced

1.0

erschreckend undifferenziert. nazis sind doch eigentlich ganz gute menschen, schließlich helfen sie ihren nachbarinnen und vernachlässigen ihre kinder nur ein bisschen. dora, die protagonistin, kann sehr gut darüber hinwegsehen, wenn gote linke, schwule und nichtweiße menschen verbal und physisch angreift, weil er doch krank ist und irgendwie ein gutes herz hat (anscheinend). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Racial slurs, Xenophobia, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Hate crime and Suicide

lenni_sc's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Antisemitism, Car accident, and Death of parent

nadjasolace's review against another edition

1.0

...please no more white woman bullshit

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Cancer, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Medical content, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Alcohol

marzipantorte's review against another edition

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

1.0

If you're going to write a story about how Nazis are also complex people YOU HAVE TO WRITE ABOUT PEOPLE AFFECTED BY RACISM!! I cannot believe this was written around the time of George Floyd's murder, she did not take the chance to learn that racism is a systemic thing, or to understand any non-white persons perspective. The main characters struggle with her friend being a Nazi was not made believable, the Nazi character was not believable either. There are two characters mentioned once that are not from germany and then the main character doesnt talk to them AT ALL. the only reason i finished this book (and skimmed the last 100 pages) is because the writing style was so good and it was a present. It had some good moments when the book talked about nature and living in the countryside and also some good moments regarding grief; but it scares me that people actually like this book unquestioned. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Xenophobia, Car accident, and Alcohol

Moderate: Cancer, Grief, and Abandonment