Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

8 reviews

greenan26's review

emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Pregnancy, Grief, and Confinement

Moderate: Police brutality and Death

jennieliv's review

emotional mysterious reflective tense 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

Took a while to get into but loved the way it ended 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cultural appropriation, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Genocide, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Colonisation, Medical content, Slavery, Death, Hate crime, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Violence, Panic attacks/disorders, and Racism

spookily's review

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Police brutality, Panic attacks/disorders, Addiction, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Pregnancy

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.

biblioghoul's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective slow-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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Medical content, Confinement, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Stalking, Racism, Pregnancy, and Death

Moderate: Addiction

Minor: Grief, Animal death, and Death of parent

edie_reads's review

challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

2/3 <3

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cultural appropriation, Death, Child abuse, Colonisation, Confinement, Hate crime, and Police brutality

Minor: Grief, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Animal death, and Pregnancy

teresareads's review

emotional 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Police brutality, Cultural appropriation, and Pregnancy

Minor: Genocide

futurama's review

challenging 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? Yes

3.5

Wow. There is A Lot in this book. I was surprised I enjoyed it. I'm not normally a fan of multiple plot lines and characters. But Erdich spends intimate time with each character. Nothing felt out of place. It's slow and not necessarily engaging but I enjoyed spending time with Tookie, even though I didn't understand why she was the main character (wasn't sure of what she wanted in the story). So much happens in the first half that the

second half, which takes place in 2020, overwhelms the story. It makes me wonder if Erdich was writing this novel and decided to add the pandemic/BLM protests last minute. The addition of the actions in May 2020 do make sense, the novel takes place at the epicenter of the protests. But I do think the story can function the same without the modern timeline.

I love the tongue-in-cheek humor sprinkled throughout the book. Erdich fictionalizes her bookstore and a fictional version of herself pops in from time to time. Erdich's details and Tookie's observations leaned wry. Tookie's book recommendations were spot on and surprisingly present day, including 2020 (and 2021?) releases. Heaven by Mieko Kawakami was on there! Lily King's Euphoria is mentioned twice!

The Sentence is not a funny story but it is a human story. The book leaks all these human emotions: happiness, fulfillment, sadness, frustration, confusion. The Sentence has all the characteristics of a novel I would avoid: ensemble cast, too-current events, multiple plot lines, but it did blow me away. It's dense but not intense. Overall, I enjoyed spending time with Tookie. 

Major, major CW for Covid-19. I wish that was a content warning tag. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality

Moderate: Pregnancy