Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor

21 reviews

midnightmarauder's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

The Women of Brewster Place highlights the stories of many different women who come together unintentionally due to their shared grief over the things they've gone through in their lives.

There's Mattie Michael: a woman who had a baby out of wedlock and thought she could raise him well on love alone. He ends up

killing a man in a bar, forcing Mattie to put up her house as collateral for his bail, and he jumps bail, leaving her high and dry.

Then Etta Mae Johnson: Mattie's best friend who has only ever known how to

use a man for all he's got, and when he can't give her anymore, he's gone.

She soon realizes that living this type of life causes her pain; no matter how hard she tries to ignore that fact.

Following, Kiswana: a radical woman who fully embraces her black heritage and moves to Brewster Place for the purpose of finding the community she feels she lacked growing up.

Cora Lee: a lover of babies since childhood, whose obsession gets a bit too large and causes her to

have eight children by the end of the book

.

And finally, Theresa and Lorraine: a lesbian couple who often fight about whether or not they're different from everyone else, solely on the count of their sexuality. 

All of these women come from backgrounds that are not nearly similar to each other. But, they all come to Brewster Place to run, essentially, from the issues of their past. It is seen as a clean slate from the beatings, trauma, and pain that they experienced in those times. 

Each story fits together like a puzzle piece as you read along, and I personally found myself captivated by these women's strengths. It gives a reminder that pain can often bring people together, and that isn't always in a bad way.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Lesbophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Physical abuse

Minor: Child death, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Abortion, and Death of parent

kathiii's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Rape, and Violence

renareads's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Grief, Abortion, Murder, and Lesbophobia

stayshomeandreads's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Rape, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Child death and Abortion

isobelk_18's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault

Moderate: Child death

northernzephyr's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Homophobia, Racism, and Rape

tina94's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Homophobia, Rape, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Alcohol

rlgreen91's review against another edition

emotional sad fast-paced

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

4.25

This was a very intriguing set of stories.  Even a day later, I'm still chewing over the different ways Naylor portrays facets of Black womanhood, and I'm sure my book club will give me even more to think about.

I'll hide this to avoid spoilers,

but one thing I was surprised about was my reaction to the residents' week after Lorraine's attack and Ben's death.  Initially, I thought "Yeah, you should feel bad because you started all of this," and that isn't surprising.  But almost immediately afterwards I felt this sense of disdain, which was what surprised me. It almost felt immoral that the rest of the book (which granted, wasn't much) focused on their feelings.  Like why should we focus on your guilt and unease when your deliberate shunning and homophobia started all of this in the first place?  Why is this about you?  Even in Mattie's dream, they were still excluding Theresa - there's no mention of anyone even trying to reach out to here.

  It was frustrating to read, but I was surprised at how quickly that frustration bubbled up; maybe after 2 years of pandemic life I'm just tired of people's bullshit.

Overall, this was a wonderfully written piece, and I'm looking forward to reading Linden Hills next.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Homophobia, Grief, and Classism

Minor: Domestic abuse and Abortion

atamano's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

• 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Physical abuse, Rape, Violence, and Lesbophobia

Moderate: Alcoholism, Blood, and Abandonment

ayzil's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia and Rape

Moderate: Child death and Abortion