Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

19 reviews

kers_tin's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Murder

nadia's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.5

This was a brilliant book! Definitely my favourite Toni Morrison so far out of the three I've read as part of my chronological journey through her fiction.

The writing was excellent and Morrison crafts such unique characters that you're always eager to see how they interact and what they do next. I'm also not normally one for magical realism, but it worked for me in this book. I just went with it and let Toni Morrison lead the way.

There were so many different facets to this book, which you might think could lead to a novel that felt disjointed, but Morrison expertly tied it all together and nothing felt out of place!

There were some parts that I struggled to keep on top of everything — namely names, relationships between people and places — but I didn't find myself getting frustrated by that as I am wont to do in such cases!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Racism, Grief, and Death of parent

lanid's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Abortion, and Murder

shoshin's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.0

Toni Morrison writes about deeply wounded people. This is her first book that I've read that I've liked. I'm not sure why. I think she doesn't always give herself time to fully develop her characters in the shorter books, and I've only read her shorter books. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent

Minor: Abandonment

samchase112's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

You wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down.

Toni Morrison is a freaking genius. This book has so many details, is it ever possible to get tired of figuring it all out? If you want a review of this book, I suggest checking out the 1000-million scholarly articles written about each minuscule word and space and character. Dive deep, so you can fly.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Incest, Sexism, and Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Violence, Abortion, and Abandonment

Minor: Racism

chalkletters's review against another edition

challenging dark sad 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? It's complicated

3.0

One of my university modules was on Toni Morrison, so I read quite a few of her novels over the course of a single semester, which has meant that — apart from Beloved, which I read first — they’ve kind of blurred into an amorphous mass in my memory. I wanted to revisit them, more slowly, so that I’d have a more distinct understanding of which book was which. With Song of Solomon, all I really remembered was that it had something to do with flying and that I liked it better than some of the others.

What stood out to me the most about Song of Solomon was how complete it felt — it’s hard to know how to break it down into characters and plot and setting for a review. Even though I couldn’t pinpoint the structure of the story, it flowed naturally from one thing to another, even the events that might feel weird in another novel.

The characters are particularly strong, to the extent that I’m surprised I didn’t remember more about them. Milkman and Pilate are the primary focus, but Guitar and Corinthians and Macon are all interesting in their own way. Guitar’s subplot with the Seven Days is compelling by itself, let alone when it weaves into the main narrative.

Toni Morrison’s language isn’t difficult — it fits that adage that good prose should be transparent, letting you see the action without getting in your way. There weren’t any lines that stood out to me as particularly beautiful, but perhaps I was just too swept away in experiencing the story as it came.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Slavery, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Pregnancy

infantcrayon's review against another edition

dark reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Moderate: Gun violence and Violence

Minor: Rape

ps2's review against another edition

hopeful reflective relaxing medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence and Incest

lizgo's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Grief

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Gun violence, Terminal illness, and Medical content