Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

Hunting by Stars by Cherie Dimaline

21 reviews

the_wistful_word_witch's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Genocide, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Violence, Hate crime, Confinement, Blood, Medical trauma, Death, Slavery, Racism, Pregnancy, Forced institutionalization, and Murder

Minor: Child death

bookcaptivated's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Gun violence, Blood, Death, Gore, Murder, Kidnapping, Forced institutionalization, Torture, Confinement, Pregnancy, Grief, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Racism, and Violence

Minor: Child death

tinytrashqueen's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Grief, Racism, Forced institutionalization, and Death

Moderate: Confinement, Pregnancy, Kidnapping, and Physical abuse

Minor: Fatphobia

greenlivingaudioworm's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Death, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Xenophobia, and Genocide

Moderate: Abandonment, Trafficking, Torture, Racism, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, and Medical content

whitedaylilies's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Sexual violence, Gore, Medical content, Blood, Cannibalism, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Torture

thazell's review

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? It's complicated

5.0

This was the perfect continuation of 'The Marrow Thieves' and god did I ever love it. I could not put this book down, I was always reaching for it to continue to the next chapter, to find out what happens next. This book had me within its grasp, I was sitting at the edge of my seat and overfilled with emotions. Compared to the first book we got to feel the more dystopian side of the plot which I found really enjoyable, instead of just seeing the characters on the run from these unknown and mysterious recruiters we get to see the insides of how everything works. The world-building was done in such a great way where I also felt the panic and dread French felt, nothing was revealed too fast or not fast enough but just right as we discovered the secrets of the operations of the schools. Not only was there more world-building but we got to experience multiple pov's of characters, this was done really well. One thing I really enjoyed was seeing the character development and relationship development as the characters were put into harsh situations that they hadn't experienced before, it was a true moral vs survival situation which I truly enjoy. I loved being inside the other characters' heads and following them on their adventures, there were also a few surprising POV's but they were so amazingly done that it didn't interrupt the pace that the story had. Author Dimaline did a fantastic job with this sequel and I can't help but want more despite such a beautiful ending.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Death

yasmilktea's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Grief, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Forced institutionalization, Death, Racism, Cannibalism, and Colonisation

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Sexual assault, Pedophilia, and Child abuse

lancakes's review

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

3.75

Just not for me. I was really happy with where the first book left off. This sequel was really dark, I don't why it felt so much more difficult to read than the first one, but I just felt like 1) there were less gruesome details in Book 1, and 2) the horror was better balanced by tenderness and care among the characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Incest, Genocide, Confinement, Death, Kidnapping, Murder, Pregnancy, and Racism

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