Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley

22 reviews

thelongautumn's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Gun violence, Drug abuse, Death, Colonisation, Car accident, Murder, Misogyny, Drug use, Death of parent, Alcohol, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Torture, Stalking, Racism, Racial slurs, Injury/Injury detail, and Grief

Moderate: Rape, Sexual harassment, and Sexual assault

Minor: Forced institutionalization

amelia_dr's review against another edition

emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Drug abuse, Drug use, Rape, Addiction, Death, Gun violence, Murder, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Blood, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gore, Grief, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Violence, and Vomit

gconley's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Murder, and Drug use

Moderate: Rape, Sexual violence, Death, and Torture

filipa_maia's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This cover is amazing! This story is amazing! I know that we are just half through the year, but I know that this is going to be my favorite book from 2022. This story starts kinda slow, but when it gets momentum, is a very fast read until the end.

I love Daunis, the girl that is between worlds, she is strong, stubborn and knows exactly what she wants. Stepping up to defend a community that don't look at her as equal, she does everything to take care of everyone, even to her own costs. The story is brilliantly written, the bad is very well balanced with the good. For every bad action committed by a character, there is a act of love somewhere else. For every heartbreak that Daunis is put through, there is a act of kindness to even out.

More than the story, this book brings us knowledge about (some) Indigenous culture, and that was my favorite part. I went online to learn the meaning of words, specific dances and prayers and I took a lot of notes. Angeline Boulley also writes about some troubles faced by this Indigenous communities: drugs, death and the non-stoping sexual violence towards native women. But she doesn't do it in a "let's shock readers" way... the fact is that things like the ones Angeline's writes about keep happening, and seems like no one (outside the communities) cares that much.

I learned so much from this book! I want to read it again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Child abuse, Medical trauma, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Blood, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Abandonment, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Grief, Kidnapping, and Torture

Minor: Car accident, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, and Terminal illness

muchadoaboutliz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Xenophobia, Addiction, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Cursing, Grief, and Drug use

Moderate: Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Car accident, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Alcohol, Blood, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Violence, Bullying, Death of parent, Death, Gaslighting, Medical trauma, Rape, Suicide, and Torture

rwmccormic's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Grief, Colonisation, Murder, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicide

Moderate: Racism, Chronic illness, Police brutality, Cultural appropriation, and Medical content

Minor: Toxic relationship, Car accident, Dementia, Torture, and Medical trauma

creationwing's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

This review is based on the audiobook.

This book is a coming of age story that reminds us that sometimes wisdom comes in the harshest of ways. I appreciated the very real depictions of how

grief relating to death and "lost ones"

manifests in different ways for different people.

While knowledge of histories such as residential schools (or, as the book calls it, "boarding schools") and the Sixties Scoop is not necessary, it's clear that the history informs the actions of many characters, including Daunis and her elders. I highly recommend looking into these histories before or as you are reading this book.

Overall, I think it was a well-written book with important themes. Boulley did a good job of leaving hints and foreshadowing as the book went along. My only real issues were with pacing and the ending. It was hard at times to know if months, days, or merely hours had passed in the narrative. This may have been an issue with listening by audiobook, however. As for the ending... it felt like it was merely there to tie loose ends in the plot, like the ending screen in a documentary stating what happened after filming ended. The knowledge was satisfying, but the way it was written wasn't.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Grief

Moderate: Violence, Xenophobia, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Rape, Racism, Murder, Kidnapping, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, Classism, Car accident, Alcohol, Addiction, Abandonment, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Excrement, Bullying, Vomit, Blood, Medical content, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Torture, Child death, and Homophobia

Daunis is 18 years old

at the start of the book, which means this book really skirts the line of adult/minor relationship, in my opinion

.

jialianyang's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

A young adult novel that tackles difficult themes of friendship, family, grief, substance use, violence, sexual assault and growing up. The plot thickens slowly then finishes at a gripping pace with twists and turns. Featuring a clever, romantic, headstrong, compassionate Ojibwe young teen girl entering adulthood as lead. Moral of the story is to honor Indigenous wisdom, have courage, preserve culture, be curious and listen to your elders.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Violence, Toxic relationship, Torture, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Murder, Misogyny, Drug use, Drug abuse, Death, Child death, and Body shaming

jai_martin's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Addiction, Death, Racial slurs, and Racism

Moderate: Toxic relationship and Gun violence

Minor: Body shaming and Torture

bookish_sabrina's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I was pleasantly really impressed by this novel. I'll admit that I started the audiobook twice; the first time I put it down early, somewhat uninterested in the protagonist's fears about college and boys.

However, I decided to try this book a second time after hearing a lot of praise and I am SO glad I did. This was a very interesting novel that is much more intense than I expected. I didn't know what the book was about at first, and so I didn't know what I was missing by turning it off. It is very important to get to know the protagonist's life, her friends, family, hopes, and fears before a key turning point in the book that involves drug abuse and gun violence. This leads to her becoming a CI for the FBI. A couple of agents are investigating a new strain of meth that they believe originates from the indigenous community in which our protagonist lives. We follow her as she acts a spy in her own community, grappling with whether or not what she is doing will lead to justice or betrayal, or both.

There were some extremely gripping and tense scenes in this novel that I loved. However, my favorite part of the novel was its integration of indigenous language and culture into the narrative. I feel like I learned a lot about Ojibwa traditions. They run through every facet of our protagonist's life. They guide her, but they also challenge her. There was so much attention and respect given to these traditions that the novel exuded warmth and compassion, even when it was tense or challenging. I was very impressed by this novel and would highly recommend it to adult and YA readers alike.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Gun violence, Drug abuse, Murder, Rape, Racism, and Torture