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velamik's review
- 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
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Racism, Pedophilia, Drug abuse, Death, Mental illness, Grief, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Torture
marchemvee's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Drug abuse, Torture, Rape, and Drug use
sab3467's review
- 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
Graphic: Child abuse, Racism, Suicide, Death, Colonisation, and Drug abuse
Moderate: Death of parent, Child death, Forced institutionalization, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Addiction, Torture, and Kidnapping
susanknights's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Abandonment, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Violence, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racism, Self harm, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Murder, Rape, Religious bigotry, and Torture
jozefinkak's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I enjoyed the easy style of writing and the varying perspectives of the characters, which made me care deeply for them all. Michelle Good did
an amazing job of relaying what these characters went through without resorting to graphic detail. Beautifully subtle.
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Grief, Pedophilia, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Vomit
kait_unicorn's review
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
3.0
But this book has a massive continuity error in it. I am baffled how the editor missed it, because it’s not a little thing.
The book starts off with Kenny, establishing him as a kid who has regularly tried escaping the horrific conditions of the genocodal residential school system in Canada. I’m his first chapter, he finally successfully escapes after his friend, Howie, is taken away to hospital, having been beaten so badly. Basically, Howie is taken away in the morning, unconscious and maybe dead, and Kenny is so distraught he escapes later that afternoon.
Move forward, about halfway through the book, and Howie is an adult and sharing with one of the other characters how he came to be at that particular “school” and his subsequent escape. He talks about waking up in the hospital after the beating and his aunt coming to tell him their plan to get him out. When he is taken back, she says, he must escape that first night and they will meet him at the dock. She asks if he will be able to do this, and he says he will because his friend Kenny will help.
Now, as the reader I thought, good tension. I know Howie does escape as that’s been shared already, but I also know, Kenny is already gone. So Howie will have to find a way out without Kenny’s help. What will it be?
But no.
Kenny is there when Howie goes back.
And to make it weirder, later when the two men meet each other for the first time since they were both at the “school” together, they both know how they each escaped from witnessing one another’s escapes. Like, how did NO ONE PICK THIS UP?
It bothered me a lot because it popped me out of the world building and narrative. It made it feel less real when something like this is very real and this kind of book is necessary to confront the ongoing impact of colonialism and the genocide of Indigenous people across Turtle Island. The book won awards, a lot of them, and it has this big plot error that makes it feel like a rough draft and not a completed novel.
Graphic: Torture
Moderate: Sexual violence
brenticus's review
- 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
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.
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