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coolfoolmoon's Reviews (357)
I'm clawing at reasons not to give this 5 stars. The best books leave me speechless in my reviews, and this is one of them despite the fact I do have a lil sum sum to say. There's something about it that left me hovering just under 5 stars. M's section alone is worth 5 stars for sure, but for the others I was like oh this book is a 4.25, 4.5, and then M blew it out the park. I love books that leave me with an empty lingering feeling in the pit of my stomach. What an excellent writer. Such beautiful descriptions. I left this book hungry and enjoyed my meal. As a person with an unhealthy, complicated relationship with food, know that's quite a task. And then the story? W O W . I love when families ❤️ There's truly layers to this. And it was so hard renting this from my li rary it doesn't seem to stay on the shelves, FOR GOOD REASON !!! I WILL be buying it.
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship
Minor: Confinement, Drug use, Medical trauma, Abandonment
Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Confinement, Mental illness, Self harm, Grief, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Car accident
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Rape, Pandemic/Epidemic
Side note unrelated to my review mostly just related to my observing of Toni Morrison's books, so many of her female characters are ambivalent or numb towards sex. I wonder why that is.
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Medical trauma, War
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Violence, Police brutality, Classism
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment
Graphic: Mental illness, Self harm, Grief, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Addiction, Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Colonisation
Minor: Pedophilia, Sexual content
Graphic: Bullying, Abandonment
Moderate: Confinement, Deadnaming, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Ableism, Violence, Trafficking, Colonisation, War
Also I love when Black people!
Also also I love when Black people are inspired by other Black people overseas / in the diaspora. It's like Pan Africanism is alive and breathing.
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Racism, Grief, Colonisation
Moderate: Misogyny, Abortion, Cultural appropriation, Classism
Minor: Hate crime, Sexual content
I don't like reviews with quotes from the piece of media but I had to stop reading to make note of this masterpiece and let it simmer for a while: "And even though I taught my daughter the opposite, she still came out the same way! Maybe it is because she was born to me and she was born a girl. And I was born to my mother and I was born a girl. All of us are like stairs, one step after another, going up and down, but all going the same way."
Graphic: Child death, Eating disorder, Racism, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, War
Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Classism
Minor: Animal death, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Xenophobia, Blood, Abortion
I got emotional twice. Twice!!! That's a great feat. That really doesn't happen often. What beautiful writing too. There were several moments I had to gasp, pause the audiobook, pull back the book, and reread the line. My goodness. Wow. The ending lost me a little bit that's why it's not a 4.75 rating but still. Wow!
Graphic: Infidelity, Racism, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment
Moderate: Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Abortion, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Minor: Homophobia
One of my concerns reading this collection was whether or not it would include diverse poets, poets of color and immigrants, which is does very little. There are at least five Black poets starting from Phyllis Wheatley and ending with Gwendolyn Brooks, at least one Jewish poet, and a handful of poets who were immigrants, although the number dwindles once America is established as a country. I was worried about if racist, slaveholding poets would be included. The poetry collection isn't titled "Great Poems by Great American Women," so I can agree that's my fault for assuming. My thoughts on this is of course swayed by my position in time, because I'm sure when they put this book together they weren't thinking to include that because it was something so commonplace it went without saying, but I especially thought of it because of the brief biographies about the poets before the poems. Most of them include whether or not the woman was married or had children. The fact that that was included is a shining example of the position in time the editor lived in. Anyway, whether or not they were slaveholders is not included, in fact I'd say many of the women were from Northern states, but there are two poets included who's works I purposefully avoided because I learned of their beliefs a few months ago. Charlotte Perkins and her best friend / cousin(?) Grace Ellery Channing were proud eugenicists. The beliefs and actions these women took in their lives, I think, are more important than whether or not they were married and had children. At that point I wondered if other women had similar beliefs, which would sour my opinion of the poems I liked if I found that out. I don't know where this essay is going. I just feel like that information should've been presented. It also gives more context to the type of America those women lived in, even for the women born in the same year but in different places and different religious upbringings and whatnot. Not that this is a history book, but it is there without even trying.
Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Antisemitism, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Abandonment, Colonisation, Classism
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Injury/Injury detail