Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

123 reviews

lp961's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Death of parent

Minor: Animal cruelty, Incest, Racism, and Classism

isayruusaybi's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Classism

Moderate: Death and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Racism and Death of parent

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).

hjb_128's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

asrasher's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad medium-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

4.0

intense, absurd, bizarre, but I ended the book with a resounding emotion of "damn, I get why people love this book." 

it takes you on a truly immense character journey spanning 3 generations and 50 years - and doesn't start coming together till the last chapter or so. 

overall, completely worthy of its legendary status. I felt like honestly it could have been longer/more fleshed out at the end, that's my only critique. The wrap up of the younger generations story and the breaking of the cycle of trauma felt possibly like something EB struggled to write, or express. Which to be fair, makes sense.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Incest

theliteraryteapot's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

This is a well loved classic and it definitely had great prose. Unfortunately, I found it quite boring and ended up listening to the audiobook on 2x speed. Also, *whispers* antistiganism, Emily.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, and Racism

jhump89's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Misogyny, Racism, and Violence

coralyn_x's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

5.0

This book ripped my heart out. So heart-breaking, so devastating. Heathcliff being a dark-skinned taken-in orphan is certainly a move. I loved his character although I hated him as a person. He has an immense amount of passion, although it's mostly transformed into utter hatred, bitterness and desire for revenge. 

I think that people miss the point of this book when they complain that it's pure suffering. Of course it's terrible! I feel like it's more about family trauma than love, sort of a study of the many forms of child abuse. Plus all the characters are stuck in the middle of nowhere, trapped in the never-ending cycle of trauma, of course they all act horrible. I mean, who wasn't abused in this book? Some would argue that Edgar Linton loved his daughter deeply but keeping your daughter secluded for the first 13 years of her life or so is definitely abusive if not highly problematic in my book. This girl literally never talked to anyone her age, of course she falls for the worst person in the vicinity.

I've read it in Czech and was surprised how easy it was to read. The words flowed very smoothly. Even though I love classics, I gotta say that's a rare quality.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Racism

katie0528's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-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

3.0

Everyone in this story is kind of awful. Even the great love story of the story is very toxic and between two people who bring out the worst in each other. After his great love, Catherine, betrays him, Heathcliff schemes and manipulates his way into destroying his own adopted family and that off his rival's.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent

Minor: Racism

whitelotusreads's review against another edition

dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

a gothic story about cycles of abuse with truly insufferable characters — love it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Racial slurs