Reviews with content warning for Racism - Hunting by Stars

A thrilling sequel that I didn’t know I needed! I absolutely fell in love with Cherie Dimaline’s story and characters in The Marrow Thieves and was so excited to come across this next part of the adventure. The characters are so rich and the writing is so compelling. I read this entire book in one day, which is very rare for me. I will admit that I listened to the audio at the same time so that sped things up for this slow reader…and the narration was superb! This story pulled at the heart strings so many times. The love that this family has for each other is just so beautiful and palpable! The stakes are so high for them and they just keep surviving, keep protecting each other, keep telling their stories and sharing the bits of language that they remember. As an ancestor of colonists to Turtle Island, I do the work I can to unlearn the false history and systemic racism that I grew up with, and stories like this are so important for teaching that if we are not careful that past becomes the future and that can never be allowed to happen again (and many would agree that the “past” is still present for Indigenous People of Turtle Island). I highly recommend this book and it’s first…go read immediately!

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thazell's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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

This was the perfect continuation of 'The Marrow Thieves' and god did I ever love it. I could not put this book down, I was always reaching for it to continue to the next chapter, to find out what happens next. This book had me within its grasp, I was sitting at the edge of my seat and overfilled with emotions. Compared to the first book we got to feel the more dystopian side of the plot which I found really enjoyable, instead of just seeing the characters on the run from these unknown and mysterious recruiters we get to see the insides of how everything works. The world-building was done in such a great way where I also felt the panic and dread French felt, nothing was revealed too fast or not fast enough but just right as we discovered the secrets of the operations of the schools. Not only was there more world-building but we got to experience multiple pov's of characters, this was done really well. One thing I really enjoyed was seeing the character development and relationship development as the characters were put into harsh situations that they hadn't experienced before, it was a true moral vs survival situation which I truly enjoy. I loved being inside the other characters' heads and following them on their adventures, there were also a few surprising POV's but they were so amazingly done that it didn't interrupt the pace that the story had. Author Dimaline did a fantastic job with this sequel and I can't help but want more despite such a beautiful ending.

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yasmilktea's review against another edition

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

5.0

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hannendez's review against another edition

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dark hopeful reflective tense medium-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

4.5

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anaguana's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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maryjames's review against another edition

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adventurous dark reflective sad tense slow-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? No

3.5

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lancakes's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

3.75

Just not for me. I was really happy with where the first book left off. This sequel was really dark, I don't why it felt so much more difficult to read than the first one, but I just felt like 1) there were less gruesome details in Book 1, and 2) the horror was better balanced by tenderness and care among the characters.

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