Reviews with content warning for Racial slurs - Heart of Darkness

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Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

138 reviews

arkeith85's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I got the version that has an intro from Karen Swallow Prior bc I knew I’d need some extra help understanding this book, and I was totally right. Her intro gave me context into the author and where it fits in history. Basically, the first part is narrated an unnamed guy in a boat with a few other guys in a boat just floating away. Then, one of the other guys, Marlowe, tells the longest story ever about his trip into Africa as colonizer going to colonize - or civilize as they said - Africa. He is racist and prejudiced, a product of his own time, but he did question his role as the colonizer as his story meandered on and on.
The story gave a lot of “what men will do instead of going to therapy” vibes. Seems like Conrad (the author) had a lot of questions and feelings that he needed to process and did it by writing a book about a man who also had a lot of questions and feelings. Conrad wrote the book as three installments to be published in the newspapers so the book is just three long parts. Also, the book isnt long, it just feels long.
I didn’t love this, but I didn’t intend to. It was a good discipline to read something that wasn’t an easy read for me.

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wilpetty's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.5

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puppygirl_cryptid's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

I am very compelled by Heart of Darkness, not for it itself, but for the discourse around it. It’s truly fascinating.
Although I can’t denied, the story is masterfully written and well narrated in the audiobook I listened to. It wasn’t this particular one, but the one I found on Spotify had absolutely no voice actor credits and I couldn’t be bothered to search for another hour to find whoever narrated that version. (For anyone interested, it’s the one with a black-and white cover uploaded during the July of 2023.

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ekgranstro's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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kkat_em's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

“The horror, the horror”, I like to think that monster Henry Kissinger uttered those words when his last moments were hopefully plagued by images of his blood soaked legacy.

I felt no peace reading this book, just a profound sadness and resentment. Over 100 years after this novella was written the world still hasn’t learned it’s lesson, colonialism and imperialism wears mask, whole countries are being blown up and our kids will ask us the same questions we asked our predecessors “how could you have let that happen?”.

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