Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

16 reviews

trisha_clay's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Violence, War, Grief, and Racism

thewordsdevourer's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny sad 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

2.75

well, this was a different experience from towles' previous effort. the lincoln highway is a book thats both big and (tries to be) bighearted, but the nearly-600 pgs puzzlingly fail to create any kind of emotional impact for me aside from the occasional urge to strangle some of the characters.

like, i get what it tries to do, but it doesnt rly end up working for me. the writing and narrative voices can be enjoyable - god knows how many times i chuckled or snorted from the periodically deadpanned narration and dialogue; the characters are fleshed out, making them understandable as ppl despite how ??? they can be, and billy's def my fav character for how endearing yet wise he is. at the same time, however, i find a few of them bland (esp emmett, befuddingly), and others simply rage-inducing (looking at u, the damn pastor and duchess). the book also often reads like a game of cat-and-mouse, just a long, winding trail chase that hops from one thing to another, one w/ an ending thats unfortunately a lil underwhelming at that.

my biggest issue w/ the novel is prolly its ability to evoke any emotions - the good ones anyway - from me, despite how long, adventurous, character filled it is, esp considering the amount of scenes that could be impactful, but ultimately fail to. overall, this unfortunately doesnt live up to my expectations despite its lofty potential.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment and Racism

Moderate: War, Forced institutionalization, Suicide, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Death, and Sexism

silver_valkyrie_reads's review against another edition

reflective sad 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

2.5

This was moderately enjoyable through the story, though I still would have considered giving up on it a few times if I hadn't been reading it for book club. It was slow, and only about half the characters were likeable, though admittedly even the unlikable ones had a few great moments. 

The ending ruined whatever enjoyment I got out of the rest of the book, and made me go "what was the point of all that". I didn't feel most of the characters had any kind of resolution or interesting arc, and the end was depressing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Death, and Suicide

Moderate: Confinement and Racism

Minor: Infidelity and Sexual content

xbernadette's review against another edition

adventurous tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Violence

Moderate: Drug abuse, Suicide, and Abandonment

Minor: War, Murder, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Religious bigotry, and Alcoholism

maggiefaye's review against another edition

adventurous challenging tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Racism, Mental illness, Violence, and Death of parent

readbycarina's review against another edition

adventurous emotional slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Death of parent, and Violence

Moderate: Stalking and Racism

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, War, and Grief

kmw2017's review against another edition

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

5.0

Another masterpiece from Amor Towles.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death of parent, Death, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Toxic friendship

katherine_alexis's review

adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

Moderate: Abandonment and Racism

Minor: War

book_annelid's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

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

2.75

Disappointed! I love Amor Towles other books but this was not it. I found the dispensing of life advice from 18 year old convicts and an 8 year old who’s never left his home town to be trite. The writing was beautiful but the plot seemed to have no direction whatsoever. Characters seemed at once flat and also to be acting out of character. Sally’s character was so cliche. Reading it she seemed like a woman written by an out of touch man. She really bugged me. Does this book even pass the Bechtel test? Also a bit overly “ra ra America”. While Amors other books give you a feeling (the way true art does) and hide universal truths in a beautiful, enjoyable storyline, this book felt like a was being bludgeoned over the head with a message, characters and plot be damned. 

Spoiler

Wtf was that ending! It was such a cliche “twist”, the everyone-dies-at-the-end has been done a million times. I found other musings to be cliche as well. For example, Maurice being not white enough and not black enough. The ending was just so unnecessary and pointless. It would’ve been less annoying had Dutches been left in the boat when it ended. Either way an unsatisfactory ending. Terrible! It was fine for the first 3/4 but after that it just went downhill. If the first 3/4 had continued could’ve been a 3.5 or 3.75 and with a good ending maybe a 4. But the bad rushed ending made me annoyed with the whole rest of the book and confused what all that setup was even for.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Murder, Bullying, Death, Suicide, and Abandonment

Moderate: Racism

alisonvh's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

4.5

I’m not sure how I feel about the ending of this book, but the whole book is so well written and the characters so well fleshed out that I can’t help but love it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Violence, Death of parent, Drug use, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal death, Racism, Grief, Gun violence, Terminal illness, Cancer, and Fire/Fire injury