Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

Cumbres borrascosas by Emily Brontë

15 reviews

bashsbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Writing reviews for classics that I like is never easy - I always feel immense pressure to say something profound and original about a work that 1) I enjoyed and 2) so did everyone else. Of course, the trouble with such a well-liked book is that everything profound and original about it has already been said, more or less.

So let me say some basic and trite (but none the less true to how I feel) things about Wuthering Heights.
 
First and foremost, Brontë's toxic, passionate speeches from Heathcliff and Catherine (Sr.) about each other fuck severely. Catherine's "Nelly, I am Heathcliff" confession? Healthcliff's proclamation about the depth of Catherine's affection for him compared to Linton? The "You say I killed you - haunt me, then!" argument? All bangers. Go off, you absolute maniacs. 

Secondly, and speaking of the haunting by Catherine of Heathcliff, the thread of her ghost trying to get into Wuthering Heights throughout the tale is sewn into the story with just enough detail to be compelling without being overwrought - from the early scene Lockhood witnesses all the way to Heathcliff's death under the open window. I especially like the lack of concrete proof of the ghost and the skepticism of the storytellers themselves. 

And now, thirdly, the storytellers and the frame story in general have been fun to turn over in my head. From the beginning, I wondered, why are Lockwood and Nelly our narrators? I think there are dozens of valid answers to this question. Two of my favorites includeto create distance from the narrative to drop details & increase unreliability and to provide perspectives closer to the intended readers. I'm especially obsessed with Nelly Dean and the constant interjections of her opinions into her retelling. 

Something specific to the audiobook version that I listened to - the Spotify version read by Billie Fulford-Brown - is that it was read fantastically. Fulford-Brown clearly had a great handle on the text, reading all the dialogue with accurate emotion. She also gave the characters distinct voices without being over-the-top. Her performance made Brontë's mid-19th century prose much more accessible.

Anyway. There's a lot more I could say about Wuthering Heights - for example, Brontë's descriptions of the moors are a masterclass in thematic use of setting - but I'll cut myself off here, lest I write a whole paper. Let me end by saying it's fucked up that Kate Bush managed to successfully summarize and convey the main storyline of such a complex book in a 4.5-minute song after only watching the last ten minutes of a movie adaptation.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Cursing, Racism, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Confinement, Racial slurs, and Kidnapping

-Various illnesses are described in detail (some fatal and some not).

misuki's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Xenophobia

riverofhorton's review against another edition

This book is incredibly violent, with every kind of toxic relationship and abuse you can think of, with the kind of casual racism and misogyny that I have at this point come to expect from 19th Century fiction. That said, I may well return to this book at a later date, since there were a few scenes that I found to be quite thrilling, and I do find myself invested in the characters and their development. Right now just isn't the right time for me to be reading a book with this amount of violence.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

unavezmas's review against another edition

challenging dark

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Racism, and Xenophobia

meguniqueuser's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

1.0

Definitely not a love story, but perhaps an interesting revenge story. Every character in this book is deeply flawed and most are toxic. Heathcliff is over the top dramatic and very annoying.
There’s very little moral or theme to this story beyond revenge. Anyone who says that it is a great love story between Heathcliff and Catherine must be deluded or only know toxic relationships. If anything Edgar loves Catherine better and is more devoted as to give up his desires for hers.
The books seems to drag on and on, especially since the reader has already been told what is going to happen in the second half from the first few chapters of Lockwood visiting Heathcliff.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Sexual assault and Xenophobia

roreadsbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Moderate: Child abuse, Incest, Racial slurs, and Racism

Minor: Xenophobia

tammykuffo's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

Everyone is miserable 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Classism

friendlypoet's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Violence, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Racism, Xenophobia, and Classism

Minor: Animal cruelty

madelena_n's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia

solliereads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

This book is pure brilliance in my sincere opinion! It took me a while to get stuck into it, but once I managed to, I could immediately see why this had become a gothic classic and has been considered a masterpiece on Brontë's part. 

I think the biggest mistake you can make when reading Wuthering Heights is to misunderstand the story of Heathcliff and Catherine as a love story - it is a tale of love, but it certainly isn't a love story or a romance in any sense of the word. It feels like a warning, more than a romantic story, that one will live a miserable and miserly life if one lets themselves become bitterly consumed by passion and regret, and real tragedy lies in what could have been of them if Catherine had pushed aside her thoughts of "marrying beneath her", or even what Heathcliff could have made of himself if he had let Catherine go in peace from his mind and his memory. I also appreciate the fact that we never see to in depth into the minds of Catherine Earnshaw or Heathcliff themselves - they feel more so like the performers in a play, that everyone around them reacts to with their own narratives full of bias. It's honestly genius.

I've seen reviews that the writing style is longwinded and dull, and had prepared myself for it but I personally found it incredibly gripping and I think it's more of an issue somebody might have personally with the genre and literary style. It's really no less longwinded or dull than other classics that I've read and loved, such as Crime and Punishment or, by another Brontë sister, Jane Eyre. Overall, I absolutely recommend this novel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, and Xenophobia