Beloved Reader Responss

>>Reader Response
>>Responses taken from Goodreads, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon review sites.

This section will be much shorter than the one for UTC, mostly because many people had the same general thing to say. What I talk about is what the overwhelming majority of reviews have in common.


 Average Goodreads Rating: 3.8

The most powerful review I found was right in the beginning. Even after some digging, I found that everything seemed to fall in the same area of thought. Beloved is being praised as one of the best novel the reviewers have ever read. All over there's praise for Morrison's writing style and characterization, the way she holds nothing back and gives everything. My favorite review on the site says "It's 6 o'clock in the morning and I have finished with one of the best books I have ever read in the course of my short life. I am sleepless and I need a moment to organize my thoughts, sort out my feelings. Come back to real life. But I can't." It speaks volumes about Morrison's writing style, that she can leave that kind of lasting impact on people. i know I harbor a lot of the same feelings. And the few people that did give it less than stellar reviews were met with hotly debating counter-comments. My favorite so far is "I didn't like this book very much but it wasn't because it made me "feel guilt for being white". White people are seriously some of the whiniest group of individuals I've ever come across. If one group isn't politically-correct and spouting off about how there should be more diversity the other group usually consists of individuals who complain about political correctness yet get offended by books like these. Grow up."
Yikes. 

I agree so strongly with the responses I've seen here. Everyone seems to have a more positive regard for this book than Uncle Tom's Cabin The reviews I saw here weren't without criticism, but overall, they seemed to have liked Beloved much better. And who could blame them? Morrison's mastery is undeniable. So many people were shaken by the story and the way it portrayed itself. Stowe's narrative just wasn't as impactful. Morrison brings out so many turbulent emotions in people, things we aren't supposed to be thinking about, or so we've been told. Slavery doesn't exist anymore, so we shouldn't think about it so much, right? Morrison isn't about to let that happen.



Average Amazon Rating: 4.1

More overall positive reviews. Everyone seems to, again, be on the same page as one another when it comes to this. Everyone agrees that Morrison is one of the best writers they've read; One even claims "Toni Morrison's writing isn't 'great'. It's mind-blowing." The entire first page of reviews is almost exclusively five stars. In many cases, the only thing that held it back from higher ratings on anything less that five was the difficulty following the shifting narrative. I can understand, given that Morrison doesn't spell everything out for her readers, and that isn't for everyone. That is also a double edged sword, though, as one reader says "Unfortunately, I found this incredibly tedious to read [...] It felt almost as if the author was intentionally clouding the narrative." Also understandable. At times it was a little tedious to read, but that's also Morrison's signature style; heavy on symbolism and weaving visual scenery. Like I said, nothing is spelled out. Another great point I saw made was that it needs to be reread in some cases. "A lot of it needs to be reread because it makes you think about what she is really saying". It always comes back to Morrison's writing style, largely praised, but sometimes condemned for difficulty. 

This one gave me a lot more varied reviews while still being largely positive. People tend to be more talkative on Amazon reviews, Ive noticed. Why that is I have no idea, but it makes everything a lot easier to read through. I still agree with just about everything I've seen thrown down on Amazon. They were a little more critical of Morrison's writing while still enjoying it. As much as I praise Beloved, especially in contrast to Uncle Tom's Cabin, it's always nice to see the critical elements as well. no novel is perfect, after all.


Average Barnes and Noble Rating: 4 Stars

Why does no one ever want to write a review on this site?

A majority of the reviews are just star ratings, so this one took a little bit of digging on my part. The few on the first page were critical but still positive. In fact, the very first review puts it well when they say "This is a very complex novel with multiple themes, motifs and surreal events. Be prepared to read it through at least 2 times and find help to understand it deeper." Another repeating message or rereading. It's important with a book like this to actually get a chance to understand what Morrison is saying, and rereading will definitely give you that chance. the first time through, you're so absorbed in the book and its events, you don't have time to really pay attention to anything outside of it. When you know what to expect on the second read, though, it becomes a little easier to actually absorb what Morrison is writing, without having to pay extra special attention to the main plot. I was hard pressed to find any negative reviews, going through the first five or six pages just kept giving me five star ratings no matter where I looked. (And because Barnes and Noble doesn't have a "filter by rating" feature, scrolling took a LONG time. Also, special shoutout to the person that wrote their review all in caps. I love reading book reviews in an aggressive internal voice. Quite entertaining.)  

Everything I saw from these sites, I had to agree with. They were much more critical than they were with uncle Tom's Cabin, but not in the way you'd expect. While critiquing the story, they didn't neglect the reason it was so gory, so tedious, or so thought provoking It's an important narrative on the lives and horrors that slaves lived through, and that hasn't been lost since the slave trade itself came to be. Even now, a few hundred years later, the echoes of it's implications still haunt us. We can't escape it, and Morrison wouldn't let us, even if we could.