Reviews with content warning for Racism - The Awakening

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The Awakening, by Kate Chopin

12 reviews

grimmage's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-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

2.5

I didn't exactly mind this book, though I didn't have a great time reading it. I think that the message is crucial, especially for its time period, but it suffers from being too dense and prolonging short scenes across multiple pages. I feel like there are a lot of unnecessary moments and events that happen - all of which never exactly serve Edna's character development. The prose is also incredibly bulky (again, this was written in 1899, so it's expected). It mostly lost me about halfway through.

I think that the ending moments of the novel sort of cemented it as more so a depressing tale of a woman living in the 19th century who is a victim of her time rather than hopeful. This is fine, as long as that sort of storyline is your thing. For me, it felt a bit odd and ill-fitting - leaving a pretty bad taste in my mouth.

I guess my biggest criticism is that I simply just found it boring, but maybe I'm being influenced by this being an assigned reading.

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novelyon's review against another edition

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emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

3.0

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n1nareads's review against another edition

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dark sad medium-paced

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

3.25

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hellocath's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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thedisabledreader's review against another edition

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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? No

1.5

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linguini18's review against another edition

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reflective slow-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

2.5

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tinyjude's review against another edition

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emotional reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Beautifully written full of metaphorical and lyrical language. A deep story about the patriarcal society, women's sexuality and women's expectations according to society through the character of this woman who refused to be the traditional "mother-woman" and was torn apart by the literary critics at that time.

It makes you reflect a lot and value all the advances in women's rights over the last century, although it is important to mention that this only represents the perspective of middle-aged married white woman! (and you will find instances of colorism, racism and misogyny through the book)

Overall, it has been a long time since I enjoyed a book so much, especially for the descriptions of places and emotions. If you like character driven books and you are going through a hard time emotionally, this might be the one

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sophiibe's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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

2.0

while interesting, very much a book about wealthy white women’s liberation (+including lots of casual racism). starts off slow. clear + predicted story arcs.

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amurray's review against another edition

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emotional reflective relaxing slow-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

4.5

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jowmy4's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

I found this book really absorbing. It was very different from anything else I have read which was written in a similar time period, so I genuinely had no idea how it was going to end. The heroine's thought processes, emotions and actions seemed realistic, and it was easy to feel for her situation, which felt both quite modern and also of-its-time. I really liked the main romantic interest, and it was much easier to understand why the heroine liked him than it is for most novels with romance plots, but he felt like a real person rather than a 'hero'. There were several interesting side-characters as well.

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