Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

20 reviews

stephe's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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

4.0

The Sentence is beautifully, lovingly written, capturing the power that books and stories and memories have to reveal deep and painful truths—about ourselves, those around us, and our worlds. It also faithfully captures a moment in Minneapolis (and the world) in which deep pain and patterns of systemic abuse came bubbling up and out into the streets, all in the midst of the darkest times of the Quarantine Era. Having lived in Minneapolis during most of these events, it was hard to read at times. And yet, Tookie and the whole cast of characters brought so much life and depth and joy to the story that I finished it with hope that, together, we can reckon with that which haunts us and welcome healing into our lives.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic and Colonisation

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Racism, Abandonment, Police brutality, Death of parent, and Drug abuse

Minor: Sexual violence

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

carlytenille's review

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Pandemic/Epidemic, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Police brutality, Deadnaming, Death, Gun violence, Medical content, Murder, and Racism

sian's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective 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: Racism, Death, Medical content, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Death of parent, Addiction, and Sexual content

Minor: Drug use

caseythereader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Colonisation, Cursing, Alcoholism, Cultural appropriation, Death, Death of parent, Police brutality, Racism, Medical content, Drug use, and Grief

Moderate: Sexual content

erinwolf1997's review

emotional funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Medical content, Death, Colonisation, and Police brutality

Moderate: Addiction, Genocide, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Cultural appropriation and Animal death

emory's review

emotional funny reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Some of the most completely fleshed out and realistic characters in anything I've read in recent memory. Beautiful writing and wonderful plot 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Racism, Addiction, Abandonment, Confinement, Suicide attempt, Child abuse, Cultural appropriation, Drug use, and Police brutality

farenmaddox's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

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

2.0

I genuinely feel like this is two different novels regrettably smashed into one. There is one book about indigenous identity through the lens of the bookstore and the employees who work there and the ghost, and there is a second book about indigenous identity through the lens of the current events of the Coronavirus pandemic and BLM protests, and to my mind this novel tripped over itself in trying to be both books at once. There were too many threads to follow and they all suffered from being crowded together.

In some ways, it's very reflective of real life that the story which was happening to the characters was interrupted and re-prioritized by the pandemic and by George Floyd's death, and some people may find this to be a really profound message. But to me this is not how a novel works and the story I thought was being told in the end, wasn't told properly due to the sharp turn into current events in the second half and then the sudden scramble to resolve the ghost story at the end.

I also think there is some nitpicky things that are coloring my opinion - the amount of attention given to the author self-insert character bothered me more than I can say, and the brief lapses into a different point-of-view character were glaring and weird and unnecessary, contributing nothing to the narrative and not even regular enough to seem deliberate. These things may not bother another reader.

 Overall, I would still really like to read more of Erdrich's work, because there was so much potential in this book, some very compelling passages and a charmingly dark humor. But The Sentence missed the mark for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Death, Police brutality, and Racism

Moderate: Death of parent and Child abuse

unboxedjack's review

emotional funny 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Hate crime, Police brutality, and Murder

Minor: Death of parent, Drug use, Grief, Medical content, Death, Addiction, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

stampest's review

challenging emotional reflective sad 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: Chronic illness, Violence, Suicide attempt, Police brutality, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Gun violence, Forced institutionalization, Fire/Fire injury, Drug abuse, Drug use, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, and Addiction

Moderate: Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, and Forced institutionalization