Hi friends! It has been brought to my attention (I’m ashamed that someone had to bring this to my attention and I didn’t know better already) that my more negative review of The Bluest Eye hurt feelings and was dismissive of those who relate to it. That was not my intention, and I am truly sorry. It was unfair for me to say that I didn’t like this book just because it made me uncomfortable. It is a brilliant book precisely BECAUSE of how unflinching and challenging it is. As a white woman, I need to be more cognizant of my privilege and recognize when I have an opportunity to learn and grow, instead of just facing away because something is hard. In the future, I will do my best to be more aware of the effect my reviews can have. I’m afraid that I dissuaded people from reading this book - please, read it. It is important to challenge your perspective and experience, especially when it’s hard. Especially when the voices have historically been oppressed. I truly want to learn and grow and do better. I’m going to keep trying to read books that challenge me, even when it’s hard and sad to face that this was someone’s reality. If you have advice on how I can do better, I’ll take it! Slide into my DMs!

I hope y’all will give me the grace of being patient with me as I learn how to review with fairness and honesty without being dismissive or hurtful. My original review is below.

(Original review)
The Bluest Eye was my first ever Toni Morrison. It was incredibly disturbing to me and I’m not sure I’d recommend it to everyone. It’s about a poor black 12-year-old girl, Pecola Breedlove, who you learn at the beginning is pregnant with her father’s baby.

The narrative is well structured and switches between the perspective of Claudia, a neighbor girl who, along with her sister, is sort of friendly with Pecola, and background information on the people in Pecola’s life. Pecola, with her dark skin and features, is considered “ugly”, and prays everyday for blue eyes that she thinks will make her beautiful.

The writing is lovely, as is to be expected. I just really struggled to stomach this story. Pecola’s life is miserable, full of trauma and abuse. The story is heartbreaking. I definitely understand why this book is important, but while I do enjoy a good tragedy, this story was too horrible for me. I know it was fiction, and I know Morrison was making a lot of points about beauty standards and racism, but I still ended up being distressed by the plot. I felt sick to my stomach for the whole second half of the book, and the ending left me feeling just gross and upset. It was just brutal the whole time, with no hope, and the graphic abuse (of both children and animals) was too much for me to handle. 2.5 stars because the writing is superb, but be warned if you read this one - the subject matter is extremely heavy.