Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

A Minor Chorus by Billy-Ray Belcourt

13 reviews

tenderbench's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Colonisation, Sexual content, Grief, Alcoholism, and Police brutality

jayisreading's review

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

I haven’t been this emotionally moved by a book in some time. Belcourt writes with such lyricism and poignancy to explore what I felt were the most prevalent themes: identity and loneliness. Maybe that’s why this book moved me as much as it did, because I think a lot about these things myself, so I felt particularly seen by the author in the way he discusses these themes.

I feel that this book is neither plot- or character-driven. Instead, it’s very focused on asking you to sit with your feelings and… well… feel them. And I know this style of writing won’t work for everyone. I think another aspect that will be a major hit-or-miss is the numerous references that Belcourt makes to literary thinkers and theorists throughout his novel. Personally, I loved it. It brought so much of the protagonist’s way of thinking and being together in a complex and meaningful way.

I highlighted a lot of passages in this book, just because so much of the protagonist’s meditations left a lasting impression that, in some ways, hit close to home. I truly look forward to reading more of Belcourt’s works.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Homophobia, Racism, and Colonisation

Moderate: Sexual content and Addiction

Minor: Genocide, Suicide, and Domestic abuse

kirkspockreads's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Confinement, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Colonisation, Homophobia, Racism, Toxic relationship, Genocide, Addiction, Alcohol, Abandonment, Forced institutionalization, Sexual violence, and Violence

Moderate: Death, Drug abuse, and Drug use

Minor: Miscarriage

princessnomi's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.5

This was my first go at this kind of book and I liked it. Just a warning to others though (because I was caught off guard) there are extremely graphic descriptions of sexual acts. That was t the entire focus of the book but they are there  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Abandonment, and Addiction

danaaliyalevinson's review

emotional sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

3.75

An indigenous Cree gay man returns home to gather the stories of those he grew up with as part of an academic project. There’s a lot I loved about the book. The characters were well written. The prose was poetic. For me, it felt like a cross between Anna Hogeland’s “The Long Answer” and Ocean Vuong’s “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous”. The latter is referenced in the text itself as well as in the acknowledgments. And sometimes I felt it was a little bit too close in form and structure. The other thing is that the main character is in academia, and in the beginning of the book, there’s a lot of dialogue that felt self-referential and intentional in its usage of in academia theoretical frameworks that aren’t necessarily accessible. It did feel like a choice, but sometimes I felt the moments where the book was getting into theory could’ve bridged the gap a bit more to make those passages more accessible for those who don’t have backgrounds in the theories being discussed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Racism, Animal death, Genocide, Rape, Colonisation, Mental illness, Addiction, Classism, and Sexual assault

serendipitysbooks's review

emotional 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? It's complicated

4.25

 A Minor Chorus is the story of a queer indigenous graduate student who steps away from academia and returns home to rural Alberta to interview friends and family for a novel he plans to write. The writing is lyrical, simple yet affecting, and there is plenty of intersectionality. The story of his cousin Jack highlights the heartbreaking and infuriating legacy of colonisation. I appreciated the insight into the difficulties indigenous people face within the academic environment. It covered a lot of ground in relatively little space yet it never felt dense. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation and Racism

Moderate: Addiction and Homophobia

sammies_shelf's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, and Colonisation

Moderate: Police brutality and Addiction

cantfindmybookmark's review

emotional informative 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation

Moderate: Police brutality and Addiction

meerigarum's review

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Homophobia, and Racism

Moderate: Addiction and Police brutality

Minor: Domestic abuse

catapocalypse's review

challenging emotional reflective medium-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

5.0

A short, artful read with so many big ideas and a lot of heart.

A queer Indigenous PhD candidate feels disconnected from his academic goals, and decides to venture home to rural Northern Alberta to write a novel. His new goal is to write in a voice as representative of his community as possible, and he spends time interviewing a number of friends, family, and others in the area.

The book examines so many different things, including the hardships inflicted on Indigenous folks by colonization and police violence, the struggles of growing up queer in rural communities, the search for love and intimacy, the purpose and uses of writing. There are so many things to mull over, I think it requires multiple read-throughs to even try to grasp it all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Homophobia, Racism, and Sexual content

Moderate: Addiction

Minor: Domestic abuse