Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Five Little Indians by Michelle Good

8 reviews

gray_birch's review

emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

The book as a whole is pretty good it helped me gain a farther understanding of what it was like to indigenous people after residential school but I do have to that, the book is kinda jumpy in the time line like this happened oh now its a year later kind of thing. The characters there was some character development mainly at the end and some were more developed than others.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Suicide, Death, Grief, and Sexual content

Moderate: Child abuse, Cursing, Alcohol, and Child death

schwelo's review

challenging dark 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

I knew this book would be heavy and it was. But the characters are so relatable and the storytelling so compelling, that I couldn’t put it down. Trauma takes many different forms in this story, but there is also survival, hope, healing & community. If the boarding schools were a rock thrown in a lake, this book is the story of all the ripples that spread out across the water’s surface. Excellent book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Cursing, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Racism, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual assault, Vomit, Child death, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Confinement, Drug abuse, Abandonment, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Rape, Alcoholism, Child abuse, and Suicide

linw21's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cursing, Drug abuse, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Suicide, Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Child death, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Vomit, Blood, and Child abuse

bnelson13's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative 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

A beautifully written, absolutely heartbreaking story. I can't even begin to put into words how Five Little Indians has made me feel while reading it. The absolute horror of the residental schools and what the survivors went through, and their struggles just to heal and try and live a decent life after is just crushing. An amazing read, the stories were captivating. Be prepared to cry.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pedophilia, Death of parent, Alcohol, Child death, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Cursing, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Suicide, Alcoholism, Murder, Pregnancy, Racism, Rape, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Kidnapping

bretagnereads's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Drug abuse, Cursing, and Drug use

amberinbookland's review

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Vomit

brenticus's review

challenging dark emotional informative sad fast-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

4.0

I read this just after Jonny Appleseed, which was probably a mistake. This is a brilliant account of the ways residential schools affected generations of Indigenous peoples, even decades after they'd left the horrors of the schools. But while this was a powerful series of stories, it also lacks some of the rawness I'd felt from Jonny Appleseed. Sometimes it feels a little contrived, a little convenient, which is something I didn't get from my previous read.

But that's only by comparison, and it does nothing to invalidate the truth in these stories. The stories of these five former residential school students are distinct yet interconnected. They all went to the same school but left at different times, sometimes linking up with each other and sometimes not. The vignettes of their lives focus in on aspects where we can see the continued traumas that affect them, and while some can find peace later in life many don't get that chance. We see their struggles in school, their struggles in life after release, the struggles of their families after they're taken and after they return, the struggles of the families they find and create... This is, first and foremost, a story of Indigenous people struggling to deal with the effects of residential schools, regardless of whether they actually went to them.

Other than my comparison of tone to Jonny Appleseed, my only real gripe is that the pacing of this book is very uneven. The timeline lurches around and we don't always see characters starring in their stories often enough to really follow how their life goes. It's common for someone's POV to end on a bit of a cliffhanger and then jump to someone else, somewhere else, possibly sometime else, and it's not always a clean jump back into their story. 

Still, if you haven't read a book like this, or at least heard stories from people who experienced the residential school system, you should absolutely read this. It's a powerful, emotional account of just how the Canadian government's policies, along with the Church's methodologies, caused misery for so many people.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Colonisation, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Racism and Cursing

Minor: Gore, Grief, Medical content, Pregnancy, and Vomit

remy_licked_my_book's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

✨FIVE LITTLE INDIANS✨

BOOK REVIEW 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

🧡I finished Five Little Indians today. What an incredible story. I think everyone should read this book, but particularly if you live in Canada, pick up a copy and read this. 

🧡Michelle Good tells the story of 5 lives who endured Mission Residential School. The story is told from these 5 perspectives as they navigate life both inside and out of the torturous Residential School. They each face abuse and racism of all sorts. What struck me is how completely heartless this system was, of course I knew that, but you don't truly know until you read the first hand accounts. Each of these characters are based on real stories. The author's Mother attended a school very similar to Mission and you can feel the trauma in the pages. These topics are introduced in such a way that they are "easy to read" and what I mean by that is the language is simple, the message clear. It shares the traumas without excruciating detail but gets the point across.

🧡 This book shatters you with the truth, a truth we all need to start accepting as part of our shared history. 

💧I cried many times reading this book. Cried for the children that were helpless, for the families who were traumatized by the seizure of their young children, and cried for the many kids who never found their way home. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, and Addiction

Moderate: Rape, Racism, Suicide, Drug abuse, Sexual violence, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Child death, Cursing, and Death