rei_reads's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Drug abuse, Murder, Gun violence, Violence, Racial slurs, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Blood, and Drug use
Moderate: Alcoholism, Physical abuse, Alcohol, Child abuse, Vomit, Addiction, and War
Minor: Domestic abuse, Adult/minor relationship, and Pregnancy
kitty03's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Grief, Racial slurs, Racism, Murder, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, and Emotional abuse
amlheureux's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism
meroth07's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Blood, Emotional abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Racism, Hate crime, Racial slurs, and Violence
daralexandria's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Racial slurs, Gun violence, Alcoholism, Addiction, Child death, Hate crime, Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Racism
808jake_'s review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Gun violence, Drug abuse, and Drug use
adriannarivard's review
- 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
Graphic: Racism, Racial slurs, and Violence
kcrkcr's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Spoiler
killing black childrenSpoiler
Sort of rubbed me the wrong way that they had to make Auggie this exceptional upstanding kid from an extremely pleasant family to solicit pity for his death? I understand the contrast that was made, but the hand-holding and back-patting was excessive. His parents only existed to react to the white characters, and somehow we were still supposed to feel bad for Mary Pat. Ugh.Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism
A lot use of the n-wordserendipitysbooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Small Mercies is set in South Boston during the tumultuous years of the busing crisis, an attempt to desegregate public schools by bussing students. In those times of heightened racial tensions a young Black man is found dead on a train platform in a white area, and a young white woman who is implicated in his death disappears. There is a lot more depth to the plot that that and a surprising amount of nuance. Lehane does a couple of things particularly well in this book. The first is his depiction of Southey, the predominant white, Irish Catholic working class neighbourhood, at the centre of the novel. He highlights the good - the strong sense of community - and the bad - organised crime, drugs and racism. The latter is particularly confronting, especially the sheer number of racial slurs the characters spew out. The second is his characterisation, especially of Mary Pat, mother of missing teen Jules. She’s a scrappy tough broad and certainly personifies the expression “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” if the woman scorned is an avenging mother. But Mary Pat is also memorable for a subtler reason and that is her changing position with regards to race. At the start of the novel she is clearly as racist as her neighbours, strongly objects to the desegregation of schools, and unthinkingly accepts and repeats racial stereotypes. But over the course of the novel she begins to acknowledge the falseness of racial stereotypes, the harm caused by racism, and her role in raising a racist daughter and contributing to Jules’s actions. In times of stress, pressure or when challenged she falls back to her racist ways. Still it is really interesting to see this evolution develop.
Graphic: Drug abuse, Gun violence, Violence, Racism, and Racial slurs
scarlatte16's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Violence, Racial slurs, Racism, and Gun violence