Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Edenglassie by Melissa Lucashenko

4 reviews

treesofreverie's review

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative 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

5.0


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jkreads's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

Edenglassie was a searing, emotional journey through time and culture. It shifts between two timelines; that of Mulanyin and Nita in the 1850s, and that of Winona, Johnny and Granny Eddie in 2024. 

The narrative jumps between timelines were seamless and I loved how beautifully all the plot threads were slowly pulled together to create the beautiful tapestry that made up this book. It was a challenging, heartbreaking, hopeful, romantic, soul-crushing, heartwarming read that broke me and put me back together over and over again. Melissa Lucashenko’s writing is beautiful and the audiobook narration was great too. For a book that dealt with so many huge and awful topics, it was very easy to read and I struggled to put it down! It was the kind of book I actually missed when I wasn’t reading it.

I really valued seeing different experiences of colonialism and connection to culture represented in this book - especially those of Winona who was brought up Aboriginal, and Johnny who only found out he was Aboriginal and connected to mob and culture later in life. Winona’s reaction to Johnny’s indigenous identity felt both jarring and also completely understandable. 

I don’t want to give too much away in this review because I truly think everyone deserves to experience this book for themselves but the reveal in the end about how Mulanyin and Nita’s story ended had me in an absolute state while driving to work and finishing up the audiobook. It felt inevitable but it also somehow knocked the wind out of me. It’s been a while since I felt gut-punched by a book but this one did it, well and truly! I’ll be thinking about this one for a long time.

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lauren_mansfield0201's review

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dark emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • 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


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bookb1itch's review

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adventurous challenging funny inspiring reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I received a gratis copy of this book from Better Reading, to preview.
this is the review I submitted:
 
I don’t have words for just how enjoyable this book was.  I knew from Lucashenko’s reputation that I was in for some possibly confronting race-relations commentary.  What I wasn’t ready for was the joyous militancy of Winona, one of my all-time favourite wise (and foul!)-mouthed activists.  The laugh-out-loud banter between Winona and Dr Johnny is delightful and I could almost hear Winona’s opinion on the current Voice to Parliament debate.  Both the 1850s and 2024 storylines are peopled with believable characters of various cultural backgrounds (indigenous, Scottish, Irish, Chinese, Maori) and when the narratives finally converge, the storytelling is simply lyrical, even, perhaps, mystical.  The book contains some beautiful descriptions of indigenous cultural practices and instances of powerful spiritual connection between people, animals and country.  There is also a liberal sprinkling of First Language words from different groups.  Lucashenko admits to having taken some liberties with history, but if even some of the atrocities in this book are based on fact, this country has some very shameful incidents in our colonial past indeed.   I will most definitely buy and vociferously recommend this extraordinary novel for my school library. 

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