Reviews

This Place: 150 Years Retold by Sonny Assu, Katherena Vermette, Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, Jen Storm, Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley, David A. Robertson, Brandon Mitchell, Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair, Richard Van Camp, Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley, Chelsea Vowel

montanasounddesign's review against another edition

4.0

Really interesting overview of some moments in Canadian Indigenous history I was unaware of. I got. a bit lost in some of the stories because my reference points to Canadian history are not super solid. However this book did a great job of making me want to know more. Also much sadness at the journey of folks, particularly the info on residential schools, it is really a awful part of history and destruction of culture that I didn't realize the extent of. And I did like the graphic novel format, because the images and arranging of text made the stories more vivid

kaileywicked's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring 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? N/A

I don't rate books I read for course until I reread them without that studying aspect, so a rating will certainly soon enough. However, I will day that this is such an important read. An an American, I knew very little of Canadian history and even less about indigenous peoples history in the region. Please read this. 

dianalrendina's review against another edition

5.0

Beautiful, haunting, and necessary. This anthology collects stories of the indigenous peoples of Canada and their history. It's painful to see how much of this history is not commonly taught in school and how the effects of this history are still being felt today.

drjorgensen's review against another edition

dark emotional informative tense fast-paced

3.5

asha_m_c's review against another edition

5.0

What an incredible book! It gives readers snippets of key parts of Indigenous history post confederation. The stories are both heart wrenching and inspiring, and I have so much more research to do. I loved that before each story, the author wrote about their inspiration, and there is a timeline of events. The stories are all incredibly written, and illustrated.
This is only the 2nd graphic novel I’ve read (the other one being MAUS) and it was a perfect format for telling this collection of stories. The illustrations brought them to life more vividly than words could have done alone.
I highly recommend this to ALL Canadians. I think this could be read by kids 10-12+ or you get but with the support of an adult. I think it would also be really interesting to use in a classroom to teach history (maybe in a grade 10 Canadian history class)

jackiekeating's review against another edition

4.0

Some stories in this graphic anthology gave me goosebumps they were so good, and some just didn’t do it for me. 4.5 stars for the collection though!

mizunotsubasa's review against another edition

4.0

Wow, collection of stories from different Indigenous authors based in Canada. I learn a lot from reading. It makes me very sad how out government screw our Indigenous people they were on this land before immigrant settlers came and took it from them. I acknowledge that I live on Stolen Land. This book should be shown in schools as I was never thought about our Canadian history, it was more US history.

Each comic in this book was outstanding, I'm going check out a physical book as it as hard to get through it on digital format.

endermanlibrarian's review against another edition

4.0

Beautiful artwork and great storytelling. Every story begins with a historical timeline setting the context. It was hard enjoying the stories when such tragedy underlines them all, however the hope that always shined through was what really stuck with me.

phoenixs's review against another edition

adventurous challenging hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-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

izzy_reads7's review against another edition

challenging dark informative fast-paced

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

3.0

The foreword of ‘This Place’ really struck me with the idea that indigenous people live in a post-apocalyptic world already. “The world as we knew it ended the moment colonialism started to creep across these lands”—that’s just striking. This book is extremely eye-opening regarding the history of indigenous people in the lands now known as Canada, starting back in the 1800s and even extending into a very distant future. There was some history that has happened in the last 30 years that I had no idea about—brutal history in Canada that I had never heard of. I love that this is an anthology, as we get to see multiple writers and artists tell these stories. I would love to see the process of putting together this collection. 

I will admit I do have some complaints, though. As an American, I am very much ignorant of a lot of this history, and with many of these stories, I felt like I was thrown right into the situation, expected to know these people, but I didn’t. This is a me problem, though, not a book problem, but it did hinder my reading experience. One of the authors notes that his story is supposed to be a starting place, and I think that can probably be said for a lot of these stories. You read these little snippets here and then go and do your own research. 

I did enjoy this collection. There were a lot of cool art styles. I learned history, and even if some of the stories were very overwhelming and hard to follow just because of how they were formatted, I would still recommend this. Maybe the reading experience would be better if you follow the podcast that goes along with it.