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orchidlilly's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
I'll be honest, I don't remember a lot of this book, other than it was utterly traumatizing and I loved every word of it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Grief, Cultural appropriation, Death, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Child death, and Colonisation
Moderate: War, Death of parent, Genocide, Murder, and Racism
Minor: Blood, Violence, and Gore
michaelion's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
sad
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? No
3.25
I write this review as a person not Indigenous to the Americas.
There's something very iffy with a white man repurposing the story of an Indigenous woman. And then having that book be in the curriculum of California's elementary and middle school education! (I didn't read this book growing up; in fact I'd only learned about the woman baptized as Juana Maria within the past few years, and then found out there was a book inspired by her.) That being said, as a person who does not identify as Indigenous so take my review with a grain of sand, the appropriation isn't that bad. There's a few times in the book you can tell is so written from an outsider's voice trying to emulate something they really don't understand, and probably could never understand, but the whole book is written like a person trying to be careful and respectful about a sensitive topic, but also you remember they started their sentence by saying "If I could just play the devil's advocate for a second..."
When it comes to the writing, I realized about sixty pages in there would probably be no dialogue, which is tough for me because I truly believe that in any book dialogue IS the story, but I didn't find this book to be a drag. It wasn't hard to follow or be swept into, probably because it's a book written for kids, of course. Overall, I did not have as many complaints as I thought I would.
There's something very iffy with a white man repurposing the story of an Indigenous woman. And then having that book be in the curriculum of California's elementary and middle school education! (I didn't read this book growing up; in fact I'd only learned about the woman baptized as Juana Maria within the past few years, and then found out there was a book inspired by her.) That being said, as a person who does not identify as Indigenous so take my review with a grain of sand, the appropriation isn't that bad. There's a few times in the book you can tell is so written from an outsider's voice trying to emulate something they really don't understand, and probably could never understand, but the whole book is written like a person trying to be careful and respectful about a sensitive topic, but also you remember they started their sentence by saying "If I could just play the devil's advocate for a second..."
When it comes to the writing, I realized about sixty pages in there would probably be no dialogue, which is tough for me because I truly believe that in any book dialogue IS the story, but I didn't find this book to be a drag. It wasn't hard to follow or be swept into, probably because it's a book written for kids, of course. Overall, I did not have as many complaints as I thought I would.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Child death, Animal cruelty, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, Colonisation, and Violence
Moderate: Death of parent, Murder, Racism, War, Genocide, and Suicidal thoughts
snazzysie's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.75
For a book using first person narration, we never really get a look into how Karana feels about things - the writing is mostly very matter-of-fact and descriptive in that way, which personally for me, made it a bit of a boring read. This writing style made the story especially disconcerting to read, when life-changing events occured and yet it felt like Karana barely had a reaction.
It was definitely strange as the praise on the back of the book mentions - but not in a way that intrigued me. The events in the book made me feel frustrated and lonely, as I'm sure Karana had felt, and yet none of that seemed to be portrayed in the novel.
The premise of this book definitely would have made for an interesting read, but as you can tell from this review, the writing style threw me off and made reading it more confusing and less enjoyable.
Maybe I'm missing some deep symbolism or something, or, because this book is deemed a classic, this is just how books were written at the time of its publishing - but whatever the case, I don't think I'll be rereading this one.
Nonetheless, it's a good story showing Karana's strength and courage throughout difficult trials, and the real life story of The Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island is inspiring. I also liked the side plots of her friendship with the dog and the girl Tutok, so for all of this, it gets 1.75 stars from me.
It was definitely strange as the praise on the back of the book mentions - but not in a way that intrigued me. The events in the book made me feel frustrated and lonely, as I'm sure Karana had felt, and yet none of that seemed to be portrayed in the novel.
The premise of this book definitely would have made for an interesting read, but as you can tell from this review, the writing style threw me off and made reading it more confusing and less enjoyable.
Maybe I'm missing some deep symbolism or something, or, because this book is deemed a classic, this is just how books were written at the time of its publishing - but whatever the case, I don't think I'll be rereading this one.
Nonetheless, it's a good story showing Karana's strength and courage throughout difficult trials, and the real life story of The Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island is inspiring. I also liked the side plots of her friendship with the dog and the girl Tutok, so for all of this, it gets 1.75 stars from me.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, and Death of parent
Minor: Violence
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