Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

3 reviews

scmiller's review

challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Colonisation, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Violence, Gun violence, Hate crime, Pandemic/Epidemic, Abandonment, Addiction, Body horror, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Racism, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Kidnapping, Rape, Animal death, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Confinement, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Police brutality, Trafficking, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Medical content, and Torture

Minor: Trafficking

sfschmidt93's review

dark reflective 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Minor: Rape, Torture, Drug abuse, and Emotional abuse

prettycloud's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious 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? Yes

4.75

This book feels like the pandemic: just when you think you've found the rhythms of normal life, you feel the uncertainty as threads come loose bit by bit until the whole thing unravels. It's a powerful look at the way that unraveling gave people in the US a new understanding of our own complacency, caused people to question the facts of life we'd come to accept. The energy that flowed into anti-racism work in that summer of 2020 feels vibrant and real in this book without being too trite. And it does not shy away from the nuances of systemic and interpersonal racism!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Medical content, Police brutality, Alcohol, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Grief, Body horror, Abandonment, Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cultural appropriation, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Trafficking, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Domestic abuse, Toxic friendship, Torture, Slavery, and Sexual content

Minor: Colonisation, War, and Racism

This book addresses the horrors of colonialism and historic wrongs, but it doesn't twist the knife or delight in violence. The characters in the present experience common experiences during the first year of COVID, from generalized pandemic anxiety to

police violence and hospitalization from the virus

. The main character had previously endured police and other violence during her incarceration, which she describes in the beginning of the book and which forms part of a later conflict. No one in the present tense of the book abuses drugs or alcohol, but the main character's mom was an addict and neglected her, and she does describe this.