Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

Edenglassie by Melissa Lucashenko

6 reviews

treesofreverie's review

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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Slavery, Medical content, Genocide, Colonisation, Grief, Murder, Police brutality, Racism, Racial slurs, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Cultural appropriation, Gore, Mental illness, Child death, Alcohol, Drug use, Alcoholism, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault

Minor: Rape, Addiction, Torture, and Religious bigotry

black_cat_iiix's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective slow-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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Racial slurs, Colonisation, Slavery, and Racism

Moderate: Death of parent and Child death

Minor: Domestic abuse, Addiction, Abortion, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

bejf's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, Slavery, Police brutality, Cultural appropriation, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Genocide, Death of parent, Child abuse, Death, Grief, and Colonisation

jkreads's review against another edition

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.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Colonisation, and Violence

Moderate: Cultural appropriation, Child death, Addiction, Murder, Alcoholism, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Death, Police brutality, and Rape

Minor: Slavery

sian's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Racism, Hate crime, Pregnancy, Grief, Racial slurs, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Medical content, Death, and Police brutality

Moderate: Gore, Death of parent, Child death, Alcohol, Sexual assault, Addiction, Drug use, Rape, and Sexual violence

Minor: Torture, Slavery, Religious bigotry, and Abandonment

lauren_mansfield0201's review

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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Pregnancy, Genocide, Sexual harassment, Violence, Slavery, Colonisation, Hate crime, Medical content, and Racism