Reviews with content warning for Torture - Hunting by Stars

The Marrow Thieves / Hunting by Stars series is a wonderfully written, scarily realistic, dystopian, young adult, speculative fiction series and I both love and hate it. 😂

**POTENTIAL SPOILERS BELOW*

Welp! Looks like I spoke too soon in my review of The Marrow Thieves!! Hunting by Stars starts out with a kick right in the teeth. I felt like the first book had left off unresolved but hopeful, and the second has just shattered that illusion in the first few sentences.

This book gives us an intimate, brutal look at what really goes on in Canada's new residential schools, and the depths to which the dreamless have sunk comes out as French fights to stay sane in this cruel new world so that he can escape and reunite with his family. But his torment isn't over even when he manages to accomplish these almost insurmountable feats, and his family gets dragged down with him on their own flight for freedom...

There are very few bright spots in this book, and I cried a lot, especially during the last few chapters. The epilogue had me bawling though because Ms. Dimaline once again leaves us with hope, with potential... with dreams.

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bookcaptivated's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

4.5

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alysiaroy's review

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challenging 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? Yes

5.0

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annamorgan27's review

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challenging 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? Yes

4.0

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greenlivingaudioworm's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

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whitedaylilies's review

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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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electricjuicebox's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring 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? No

3.75

I didn't enjoy this book as thoroughly as I did The Marrow Thieves, and it took me more than half the book to really become immersed in the story, but I ended up really enjoying it and would recommend it overall.

I thought this book does a good job of balancing YA content (adolescent crushes, family ties vs. differences) with a dark and challenging premise. The author spends some time at the beginning of the book reintroducing us to the characters and providing a brief overview of the plot of the first novel, but I would highly recommend starting there since the story continues almost immediately where The Marrow Thieves leaves off. I enjoyed the varied perspectives in this book, and also liked how Dimaline included different indigenous groups among the main characters. This book has some very dark parts, which is to be expected given the subject matter, but also maintains a strong thread of hope and resistance throughout the story.

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yasmilktea's review

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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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