Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

There There by Tommy Orange

70 reviews

raelong12's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death of parent, Child death, Alcoholism, Mass/school shootings, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Death, and Car accident

sydapel's review

dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

One of those books that will just haunt you in a way that feels both comforting but leaves a deep ache. Even with a tragedy you can see slowly approaching, it's the characters that grab onto you and leave you thinking long after you've finished the book. These characters will deeply change the way you think about indigenous people in America and what as a culture they have been through. Definitely check trigger warnings but this is not one to skip. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Gun violence, Violence, Alcoholism, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Sexual content, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, Child death, Blood, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Murder, Mental illness, Hate crime, Genocide, and Physical abuse

chaosandwildflowers's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad 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

3.0

The idea of this book is so phenomenal; it's a character study focused on the diverse range of life experiences within the Native American community, while simultaneously drawing attention to the fact that a growing number of Native Americans now live in cities - not on reservations. It explores various themes, including self-discovery, identity, self-loathing, heritage, parental expectations, toxic/abusive relationships, forgiveness, etc etc etc. The book also tells different character perspectives in different styles, including every thing from first to second to third person POVs, past and present verb tenses, and various other tone shifts used to distinguish characters from one another.

One of Tommy Orange's greatest strengths is in his writing and his understanding of the human psyche. The writing truly is beautiful, even feeling poetic in some places, and though the cast of characters is vast, he takes time to explore each of them in at least a little bit of depth.

However, I do think the book tried to do too much in too little space. Some characters feel extremely similar, making their chapters feel repetitive, and the sheer number of characters made it difficult to really delve into more than a few of them. I believe this book should have either streamlined its plot to fit the space or allowed itself more pages to really explore the themes. I also felt like the story ended very abruptly, with a few loose ends and unexplained plot points.

Overall, I would absolutely recommend this book. Hard stop. I think it's important to read, especially in our current society. But I'd also suggest that readers go into it expecting to focus more on the characters than on an extremely coherent plot. Solid 3/5 stars!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Cursing, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, and Murder

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Grief, Pregnancy, and Rape

kawooreads's review against another edition

emotional hopeful 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

4.0

Wow, what a beautiful novel. It definitely hurt my heart to read, but it was such a well-written story about modern Indigenous culture in Oakland, CA. It is told from multiple POVs, and each character is traveling to the Powwow and reflecting on their pasts and what forces are pushing them towards the present. In the process, there is a lot of discussion about indigeneity, tradition, and reclaiming hope and power.  There were times when I was confused about who was who, but the author provides a cast sheet at the beginning that was helpful. The ending had me in its grips! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mass/school shootings, Gun violence, and Violence

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail

eddiesourboy's review against another edition

emotional reflective tense fast-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: Gun violence, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Rape, Drug use, and Sexual assault

Minor: Suicide and Car accident

sarahbythebook's review

challenging dark sad tense

4.0

I'm not totally sure how to feel after finishing this book, but I can say that There There is a powerful story.  If you can handle the content warnings, it's worth reading. 

"The problem with indigenous art in general is that it's stuck in the past. The catch or the double bind about the whole thing is this: if it isn't pulling from tradition, how is it indigenous? and if it is stuck in tradition, in the past, how can it be relevant to other indigenous people living now? How can it be modern?"

Tommy Orange's debut novel answers his own question as it weaves together the lives and experiences of 12 Native people coming together in Oakland, California, for a massive powwow. Their strings are all tangled together in ways clear and confusing, and Orange uses these characters and their experiences to bring front and center the lives of "Urban Indians" for his readers. Through their lives, readers are able to see the struggles, challenges, and failures that Native society is forced to navigate while highlighting the culture that still exists despite colonizers' best efforts. 

As much as I enjoyed this book, I struggled with the sheer number of points of view and keeping them all straight, especially the young men. As the book progressed, that got better, but the beginning in particular was rough for me. I think this would have been better with a physical or digital copy of the book rather than the audiobook. 

The ambiguity at the end is frustrating, but I also think it's perfect for this book. The lives of Native and Indigenous people are not static and do not have an ending; this story, a glimpse into that reality, should not have an ending either. Instead, readers should take it as a call to action to do the work to improve the lives of Native communities around them, boosting a beautiful culture so that the youth can break the cycles of poverty that white Americans forced them into years and years ago. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Racism, Addiction, Body shaming, Ableism, Colonisation, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Minor: Rape

cassielaj's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

4.75

Absolutely stunning. This book features quite a few characters, each of whom has a fully crafted perspective and story. The author is able to pack so much emotion and story into each chapter, and he does an incredible job of weaving these stories and characters together. The book is a snapshot of the characters’ lives, but imbued with the depth of years, decades, generations of the stories that came before. The pace steadily increases throughout, giving this book a beautiful sense of flow and forward momentum. This book will be a classic

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Murder, Gun violence, Death, Mental illness, Mass/school shootings, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Blood, Violence, Grief, Colonisation, Domestic abuse, Cursing, Alcohol, Addiction, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Fatphobia, Rape, and Pregnancy

This book is emotionally taxing, but so worth the read

hubes's review

reflective fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mass/school shootings, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Rape

tomnoor's review

3.5

In terms of themes there were so many that were intriguing, but I largely felt they were underdeveloped. There were also so many characters to keep track of that I often felt confused, and it was hard to form an emotional connection with any of them since we spent so little time with each before moving to the next, which ultimately made it difficult to care much about the events at the climax. I would’ve liked there to be another hundred pages or so to flesh things out more. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death, Gun violence, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Mass/school shootings, Alcoholism, and Violence

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Blood, and Physical abuse

Minor: Rape and Car accident

gilnean's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Excrement, Murder, Gore, Death, Genocide, Colonisation, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Fatphobia, Cursing, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Child death, Alcoholism, Grief, Alcohol, Addiction, Drug abuse, Racism, Gun violence, Suicide, Drug use, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Ableism, Cancer, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Sexism, Sexual assault, Rape, Death of parent, Medical content, Car accident, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Terminal illness, and Pregnancy

Minor: Pedophilia, Torture, Abandonment, Abortion, Self harm, Classism, Kidnapping, Confinement, Child abuse, Mental illness, Body horror, and Religious bigotry