Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

5 reviews

stevia333k's review against another edition

dark sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

I'm not rating this because I feel like the era this book is from ended within the past 10 year. I feel like I'm late to the scene. I didn't read this as part of a class when that's been the common way of interacting with this book.

This book is very much of the baby boomer generation (I had to use an inflation calculator), the setting is a single year circa 1977-1984. I'm not sure how much is historically accurate. There's obsolete parts.

This had been on my to read list since I was a little kid. I finally got an audiobook copy from my library today & it was only 2h19m long. Circa 2014 i was reading chapters of this book out of order because i approached it as an anthology similar to "chicken noodle souo for the [fill in the blank] soul". Also my reading speed back then sucked. 

Um, let's just say there's a massive rape culture, massive domestic violence, and there's at least 1 murder. Also suicidality. There's a part in the book where the girls are parroting transphobic biological essentialism, but to be fair that part of the story kind of calls out the academics who do that as people with power making just-so stories in order to maintain how they outrank others (hence calling this sort of queerphobia as naive).

I feel like this book was presented way back in my day how "braiding sweetgrass" is these days. I'm not sure how to feel about that. The book "settlers" by j sakai was contemporary to this book. IDK why this book became the popular book for including Latinx/hispanic people in academia.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Xenophobia, Animal death, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Grief, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Alcohol, Body shaming, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Murder, Car accident, Classism, and Excrement

dlsmk's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful 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? No

2.75

Trigger warning for a lot of things in this my sweet. 

Included below are the trigger warnings not given as options in the click boxes. 

Moderately mentioned; teen pregnancy, emotional abuse, assault

Lightly sprinkled; poverty

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Child abuse

Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Chronic illness, and Pregnancy

Minor: Bullying, Racism, Suicide, and Classism

_bobatea_'s review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Terminal illness, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Classism, Toxic friendship, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Bullying, Child death, Abandonment, Physical abuse, and Xenophobia

classicpseudonym's review

reflective medium-paced

• 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? It's complicated

5.0

you see, i don't normally write an actual review for books i read for class, but wow. i absolutely loved this book. best book i've ever read for class, hands down. esperanza's narration style clearly displays her maturity and growth throughout the vignettes, and the figurative language and imagery cisneros incorporates throughout each vignette is beautifully done. though some people may think all the figurative language was too complicated, i love how this book was dissectable, and there were so many symbols and implied meanings to make sense of, adding another layer to the story and shedding light on esperanza's thoughts and her perceptions of the people around her. additionally, the side/background characters added meaning to the story, as we see people in many different stages of life who all influence each other in some way. lastly, the themes of the book were prevalent when it was first published, and they're still very relevant now. issues like gender norms, societal standards, ambition and being tied down, racial injustice, immigration, and more are addressed in a way that doesn't feel forced, which gives readers the chance to think about and talk about these important issues. 

anyway, i highly, highly recommend this book. please read it. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Death

spookybitch's review

emotional funny inspiring reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying

Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Rape, Classism, Domestic abuse, Death, Child abuse, and Pedophilia

Minor: Child death