Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Five Little Indians by Michelle Good

20 reviews

sgbray's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Mental illness, Colonisation, Drug abuse, Grief, Physical abuse, Racism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Suicide

yourstrulytay's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Genocide, Forced institutionalization, Sexual assault, Racial slurs, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Addiction, Colonisation, Murder, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Medical trauma, Death, Racism, Kidnapping, Alcoholism, Confinement, Child abuse, Child death, and Alcohol

velamik's review

emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Racism, Pedophilia, Drug abuse, Death, Mental illness, Grief, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Torture

abbie_'s review

dark emotional sad medium-paced

3.75

Finished this one on Friday and it was a tough one but very necessary. With Five Little Indians, Michelle Good tells the stories of five residential school survivors, before, during and after their lives are irrevocably altered by the horrors of the Canadian institution. It’s told from the perspective of all five characters and flits around so we get to know their lives before the residential school, although the main heft of the novel is the five doing their best to live after they’ve been released into the world. It is truly disgusting how these ‘schools’ would steal young children away from families, strip them of their Indigenous heritage, often inflict unthinkable abuse, and then just cut them off once they come of age, left to struggle in the real world with no preparation or support. They do have each other, as this book highlights, and that’s all they have to cling to in a world that wants nothing to do with them. Michelle Good demonstrates how deeply trauma buries itself into the psyche of all five characters, to devastating consequences like alcoholism, mental illness, violence and even suicide. The writing is quite spare, but it grew on me quickly and I don’t think this is a topic that needs dressing up or sugarcoated.

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Difficult to swallow, but a must for understanding the horrors of Canadian residential schools.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Physical abuse

seductive_cactus's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated

4.0

A VERY emotional and reflective book - seriously, I cried on the plane while reading this (I’m so sorry to the people who were sitting next to me).
This book gives the reader a raw look into what the Indian Residential Schools were like and holds nothing back. In the author acknowledgements, Good mentions that part of the situations in the books were based on her own mother’s personal experiences. 
This is not for the faint of heart, but is definitely something that needs to be discussed. I only picked it up because my book club choose this book for January - and I’m glad I did. I knew that the Indian residential schools were bad, but never to this level of detail. While the character journey and development is the big driving plot point, it can be a bit confusing to read at times. Some of the POVs jump around a bit without warning and can give you a bit of whiplash.
The book follows five children and their trauma as they go from “graduating” from the schools to becoming adults. Recovering from a childhood of trauma is not easy, and this book puts an emphasis on the lifetime and generational scars this caused.
Other than the sometimes confusing chapter jumps, I highly recommend giving this a read, and taking a look into other historic sources.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, Colonisation, Grief, and Mental illness

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Violence, Sexual violence, Drug abuse, and Sexual assault

mpbookreviews's review

dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Racism, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Alcoholism, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Vomit, Abandonment, Addiction, and Violence

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

awebofstories's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use, Racism, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Addiction, Alcoholism, Suicide, Child abuse, Colonisation, and Cultural appropriation

1rae1's review

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Forced institutionalization, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Child abuse, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Trafficking, Mental illness, and Police brutality

cassielaj's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.25

This story is emotional and powerful. I learned so much about the horrors that governments inflicted on indigenous peoples. I appreciate that amidst the horror, this story instills some hope about the future. I like that the story and perspectives jump around, but each is still immersive enough that I didn’t get lost

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Suicide, Child abuse, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Drug use, Drug abuse, and Alcohol