Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

6 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

turnip11's review

emotional reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual violence, Fatphobia, Addiction, Suicidal thoughts, Adult/minor relationship, Car accident, Death, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Grief, Alcohol, Body shaming, Child abuse, Classism, Death of parent, Sexual assault, and Sexism

savvylit's review

emotional inspiring reflective fast-paced

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

4.5

The House on Mango Street is a beautifully-written, joyful, and often heartbreaking series of stories. Each of the Mango Street characters is portrayed in an empathetic and fully-fleshed way. None more so than our delightful narrator Esperanza. Cisneros perfectly captures the confusion, frustration, and wonder of youth and distills it all into Esperanza. Each vignette is an immersive memory from Esperanza's childhood. The memory-like quality of the stories then creates an overarching sense that you, the reader, have also grown up with Esperanza and her neighbors on Mango Street.

Ultimately, my greatest takeaway from reading The House on Mango Street was that Sandra Cisneros is an absolutely fantastic writer. Let me leave you with just a few of her gorgeous sentences so that you can see what I mean:

"I am a red balloon, a balloon tied to an anchor."

“She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow.”

"Their strength is secret. They send ferocious roots beneath the ground. They grow up and they grow down and grab the earth between their hairy toes and bite the sky with violent teeth and never quit their anger. This is how they keep."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Racism, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Grief and Chronic illness

Minor: Suicide

ooo's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Child death, Fatphobia, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Sexism, and Rape

littleboatadrift's review

reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Physical abuse

Minor: Child abuse, Death, Grief, Physical abuse, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, and Sexual assault

_fallinglight_'s review against another edition

reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Evocative, relatable, and heartbreaking writing that comes alive to swallow your entire being. My body tensed and ached and filled with sorrow while and after reading the “Red Clowns” vignette. That one just bummed me out. The whole book is so sad even with the hopeful ending note. I remember we read selected vignettes in school, not the whole book but I had forgotten them, and honestly, I hated school back then so I didn't appreciate many of the required reading. But now, this book settled into my very soul. I could feel the desperation and shame, the sadness and the hope much better, more intuitively than when I was 14.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Grief, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic friendship