Reviews

Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko

bookswithniizzze's review against another edition

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1.0

DNF because the book just wasn't that captivating. I didn't like the style of how it was written although the story did have a lot of potential.
By the way, I sincerely think this book needs a trigger warning, the torture scenes are incredibly graphic and detailed. Honestly, I was not prepared to deal with this kind of thing and almost threw up. It is also one of the reasons why I did not finish the book, I was simply unable to proceed to read this.
Additionally, I am kind of disgusted by the scenes with the Night Swan. I started to dislike Tayo's character mainly because of that scene. Like how can someone love his uncle and simultanously f*ck his uncle's lover. I am not okay.

freewaygods's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

fallohide's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

vaporization's review against another edition

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2.0

This book is so hard to read. I read this for an out-of-class, extra-credit assignment, so there was no class discussion, which I feel I would have greatly greatly benefited from. This is one of the books that needs careful attention paid to the details to understand.

rachelynne's review against another edition

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i just cant

aranafyre's review against another edition

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5.0

This is one of my favorite books. The interweaving of ceremony and ritual and stories. The struggle of Tayo who is a WWII veteran with PTSD. It is brilliant.

That being said I struggle with this reread. I wanted to read it while still in the west. Instead I read most of it while traveling to Europe. I was exhausted and couldn't get into the disjointed flow of the narrative.

orangepeaches's review against another edition

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adventurous inspiring mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book is really informative in the native ways of thought and theory. I'm reading it for a native American Literature class and it really is a decolonized lens through the whole book. Everything is cyclical and the timeline is jumbled but in a way the story makes sense and shows growth, place, and time as cyclical. Most of the book I would say is also dedicated to the place, the setting, in that there is strong connections to the land and the place the story occupies. It is a story of resistance healing and love at the end of it all. 

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whatsmomreading's review against another edition

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4.0

Ceremony tells the story of Tayo, a young American Indian who returns to the reservation after being held in a Japanese war camp during World War 2. He suffers from PTSD, survivor’s guilt and severe depression upon returning to his aunts home where he was raised after being abandoned by his mother. He struggles to find himself amongst his fellow veterans who have started to turn to drinking to cope with their struggles. It’s finally decided that he needs to seek help through their medicine man in order to come back into himself.

I found this book at my library’s little book store & I’m so glad I gave it a chance! It’s so outside of what I normally read & one of my goals this year was to try more classics. Silko’s writing was so beautiful, the story was broken up by pieces of prose and poetry inspired by Indigenous folklore that served as great transitions in the story & gave some beautiful insight.

For me this was a beautiful reminder to branch out into other genres & stories, you’ll never know what you’ll enjoy!

juliloops's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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radikaliseradgroda's review against another edition

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3.0

It took me a while to get into the writing style (it didn't help that the audiobook didn't indicate which parts were stories/songs and which were the plot). But the last half was brilliant. I bet the first half will make more sense to me on a reread, now that I know what to expect.