Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Native Son by Richard Wright

14 reviews

booksawyer's review against another edition

I respect this book and this author, but I really couldn’t get through this one. It was extremely slow paced, and when you spend that much time with an unlikeable narrator it kind of gets unbearable.

I’m usually someone who can separate the morality of a character from the enjoyment of a book - sometimes a morally questionable character is there to prove a point. But this was too much and I honestly couldn’t handle it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Gore, and Blood

njlb's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad 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? Yes

4.25

wow. an uncomfortable, confronting read but an amazingly well-crafted exploration of race relations in 1940s America

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Rape and Antisemitism

dustghosts'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? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Police brutality, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Gore, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

readingwithcoffee's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

Certainly worth a read given the impact of the book and author in black literature especially American and how obvious the book and Wright is in conversation with Camus but it’s a very heavy and depressing read that being in the mind of not even Bigger but Wright’s beliefs gave me a lot of despair about the world and the US in particular. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Murder, and Sexual harassment

sophiaroesler's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Police brutality, and Murder

Minor: Alcoholism and Blood

nonfictionfeminist's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Murder, and Classism

hleary's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Blood

Minor: Alcohol and Classism

lizawood's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Antisemitism

michaelion's review against another edition

challenging dark informative tense slow-paced

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

1.75

Dear StoryGraph, I implore you, please add a trigger tag specifically for misogynoir, because it's disgusting how much of it is in this book.

The choice to open the book with Bigger killing a rat, then terrorizing his sister to the point where she faints and he laughs about it is mild foreshadowing of what's to come. Also, unrelated to the opening scene, there's something poetic about everything black men fear about being caught doing with a white woman, they do to Black women. Justice4Bessie!

If you're planning on reading this, brace yourself. In my edition, there was an excerpt where Wright tells the readers of a book club that the first draft of this book was 576 pages. Which actually makes me like this book less, because it could've easily been 200 pages shorter and been a tighter, sharper, better story. It was a drag to get through reading. In the third section of the book alone, one character monologues for 23 pages with no breaks. After a certain point you simply have to start skimming. But, I promise, you're not missing much.

I gave this rating an extra .25 for Jan and Max. It sucks that the characters I like most were the not-like-the-others whites!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Racism, and Rape

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Racial slurs, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Gaslighting, and Classism

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Xenophobia, Blood, Antisemitism, and Alcohol

directorpurry's review against another edition

emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Classism

Moderate: Antisemitism

Minor: Misogyny