Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Hunting by Stars by Cherie Dimaline

26 reviews

hannendez's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Confinement, and Racism

Moderate: Torture, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Minor: Pregnancy

anaguana's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Genocide, Trafficking, Racism, Medical trauma, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Pregnancy, Pedophilia, Colonisation, Sexual assault, Child death, Cannibalism, Rape, Religious bigotry, and Torture

Minor: Fatphobia, Sexual content, Infertility, and Dementia

caseythereader's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Grief, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racism, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Sexual violence

betweentheshelves's review

dark 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

4.0

Picking up right where The Marrow Thieves left off, it was fantastic to return to this world. I opted to listen to the audiobook this time, and I feel like I was even more immersed in the world. This might be a dystopian-esque world, but it parallels what is currently happening to the Native population. There were some really powerful moments, and man, by the end, I didn't want to stop listening. I needed to know what was going to happen next.

While The Marrow Thieves didn't necessarily need a sequel, I loved the way that the world was expanded. Honestly, I can't wait to see what else Dimaline comes up with.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Racial slurs, and Torture

Moderate: Child death, Death, and Forced institutionalization

2treads's review

dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

“Story is a home, it’s where we live, it’s where we hold everything we’ll need to truly survive— our languages, our people, our land..." – Miig

Dimaline stuns with the depth of feeling she is able to conjure with her words as she leads us back to Frenchie and his family, his community. When your very marrow is the most precious resource in a shattered world, where and how far can you run to remain free?

Hunting By Stars expands the portraiture of found family established in The Marrow Thieves, focusing a wider lens into community, memory, resistance, family, and love; giving the reader insight into the misguided and warped thinking of the Institute, its mandates and changing goal. 

Dimaline draws upon Indigenous history and experiences with residential schools, how that horrific past can still be excavated and used to detail a trauma that has not been healed and that Indigenous peoples still encounter and live with today. The phrase 'kill the Indian in the child' occurs more than once and impresses upon the reader that manipulation and indoctrination is also a part of what was done then and that has bearing on the treatment of Indigenous bodies today.

But, what stays with me after reading this novel and having experienced this series, is the power of choosing family; of living one's truth and keeping tradition, story, and identity foremost as we move ever forward.

"They never win when we remember.” – Miig

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Forced institutionalization

raccoonbirb_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Racial slurs, and Torture

Moderate: Child death and Death