Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Five Little Indians by Michelle Good

4 reviews

thesapphiccelticbookworm's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Religious bigotry, Slavery, Sexual content, Child abuse, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Racism, Addiction, Child death, Death, and Confinement

Moderate: Pedophilia, Violence, Vomit, Car accident, Medical content, Pregnancy, Police brutality, and Animal death

Minor: Bullying and Death of parent

reading_rainbows's review

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Drug abuse, Grief, Medical content, Child death, Colonisation, Rape, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Child abuse, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Racism, and Sexual violence

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