sometimes_samantha_reads's Reviews (283)

I finally had the time to read this book and I'm so glad I did. The historical lens peppered with touching and relatable vignettes validated my experiences as someone "belonging to the subordinate caste" and I felt like Wilkerson did a great job appealing to readers' ethos. The epilogue was a well-worded call to action and I felt optimistic when I eventually closed the cover. My only hope is that, like the plumber at the end of the analysis, those belonging in the "dominant" case can swallow what pride or willful ignorance they may harbor and give this book a chance. Wilkerson wrote a wonderful book that can start so many great conversations if only more people were willing to have them.

I read this for my last semester of undergrad before student teaching. It was clear and concise and highlight common mistakes to avoid. I appreciated that mistakes were brought to my attention as well as ways to avoid and/or correct them. My only annoyance since this book was published in 2006 and it is now 2021 is that some of the terminology is outdated. Otherwise though, it was a good tool to help me on my way to becoming a good special educator.

Wow! I really loved this book! I bought it from my bookstore for about $8 as it was on sale and the cover was beautiful. I thought the synopsis was charming too. But then I was nervous when I came here and saw mixed reviews. I can certainly see how it's not for everyone. Both protagonists are frankly not very good people. They're unlikable and have weird quirks. But, it makes them feel SO real.

I know people like to have fictional characters have redemption arcs and for them to be loveable from the get-go because reading is an escape from reality, and this book is very close to real life with all it's imperfections. Sometimes things happen in a weird order and it's hard to follow, sometimes the characters make conversational blunders and it's legitimately awkward, but it's such a natural development o f events; it reeled me in.

There are so many secondary characters and they're all well developed with their own personalities, stories, and charm that I feel not a lot of secondary characters get the benefit of in novels like this. Again, everyone just felt like an actual person and it was so refreshing.

The only reason I'm inclined to rate this book a 4 I stead of a 5 is because some of the slang and references are already dated and it kind of brought me out of the story a little bit but it's such a minor detail. Also the ending was not quite what I had hoped but it's not a bad ending.

I don't normally reread books once I'm done with them but I can certainly see myself reading this one again and again.

The emotional trauma at the end there.... I'm going to have to take a few days to mentally recover before starting King of Crows!

To be real, it took me almost 4 months to get through this book. I had read Lair of Dreams over a year prior to starting Bedore the Devil Breaks You and it was hard for me to jump back in with such a large gap between books. I had to rediscover the plot and characters, but once I was in, I was IN. My heart is honestly in tatters for Mabel and Arthur and Will (even though he low-key sucked lol). I'm excited to start King of Crows in a few days and finish off a series I hold near and dear.

All and all I liked this book! The pacing was pretty good and the concept was interesting and alluring. There were a few qualms I had with it though, which is why I'm rating it 3 stars. They're all personal opinions, and I would defintely recommend this book otherwise.

My first issue is I'm not a huge fan of contemporary fiction because I feel it gets dated very easily. There's a lot of real-life references that were relevant in 2015 but are no longer relevant in 2021, so that always kind of snaps me out of it. Second, I personally don't like when characters speak in a dialect. I like sentence descriptors that explain an accent or dialect, but when it's written out line after line, I feel like it can be a lot of mental labor - especially for a book with as much dialogue as this one. Lastly, there was one character that I really wanted to know about toward the end. I won't spoil it but I didn't get as much closure as I'd have like, which was totally intentional and I respect that! But I would have liked just one more chapter to explain things.

Again, I really did enjoy this book! I just think I was too focused on the loose ends and extra little things that I have opinions about to be engrossed in it like I wanted to be.