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A review by lindsaysofia_25
Blood: The Stuff of Life by Lawrence Hill
reflective
slow-paced
2.5
I have no idea how Hill managed to use such pretty writing to create such an astoundingly mediocre book. I'm not even convinced it's about anything. Sure, it's ostensibly about blood, but what does that really mean?
So many topics are discussed, none of them given time or nuance. Blood is the only through line. I think a book with that structure could absolutely be done well, but this did not do that. I would like to read one of Hill's novels because I do see a lot of good writing and I can tell that he is a novelist, but I have absolutely no qualms giving this book such a low rating.
I found that there wasn't a point in splitting the book into chapters because each new topic discussed was just as closely related to the others within a chapter as it was to the topics discussed in the rest of the book, and the chapters tended to become repetitive. I feel like Hill expected this book to be read chapter by chapter with long breaks in between because a few things were brought up in multiple chapters and defined in almost exactly the same way, as if to someone who had never heard of them before, every time.
I also found that some things were just way too gory for a book that gives absolutely no warning about that type of content. Some descriptions given about various appearances of blood in history are definitely going to haunt my nightmares. Maybe that's on me for not looking for trigger warnings, but I feel like it wasn't unreasonable to go into it not expecting that kind of detail from a book required for a high school English class.
So many topics are discussed, none of them given time or nuance. Blood is the only through line. I think a book with that structure could absolutely be done well, but this did not do that. I would like to read one of Hill's novels because I do see a lot of good writing and I can tell that he is a novelist, but I have absolutely no qualms giving this book such a low rating.
I found that there wasn't a point in splitting the book into chapters because each new topic discussed was just as closely related to the others within a chapter as it was to the topics discussed in the rest of the book, and the chapters tended to become repetitive. I feel like Hill expected this book to be read chapter by chapter with long breaks in between because a few things were brought up in multiple chapters and defined in almost exactly the same way, as if to someone who had never heard of them before, every time.
I also found that some things were just way too gory for a book that gives absolutely no warning about that type of content. Some descriptions given about various appearances of blood in history are definitely going to haunt my nightmares. Maybe that's on me for not looking for trigger warnings, but I feel like it wasn't unreasonable to go into it not expecting that kind of detail from a book required for a high school English class.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death
Minor: Murder, Rape, Islamophobia, and Slavery