Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Five Little Indians by Michelle Good

83 reviews

katelynrushton's review against another edition

emotional informative 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? It's complicated

5.0

A difficult read, but well work it. Tells the interconnected stores of 5 Indigenous children as they survived residential schools and the impact that had on their lives.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Drug use, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Grief, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Minor: Animal death

jen_again's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Child death, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, and Death

amberinbookland's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Vomit

brenticus's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad fast-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? Yes

4.0

I read this just after Jonny Appleseed, which was probably a mistake. This is a brilliant account of the ways residential schools affected generations of Indigenous peoples, even decades after they'd left the horrors of the schools. But while this was a powerful series of stories, it also lacks some of the rawness I'd felt from Jonny Appleseed. Sometimes it feels a little contrived, a little convenient, which is something I didn't get from my previous read.

But that's only by comparison, and it does nothing to invalidate the truth in these stories. The stories of these five former residential school students are distinct yet interconnected. They all went to the same school but left at different times, sometimes linking up with each other and sometimes not. The vignettes of their lives focus in on aspects where we can see the continued traumas that affect them, and while some can find peace later in life many don't get that chance. We see their struggles in school, their struggles in life after release, the struggles of their families after they're taken and after they return, the struggles of the families they find and create... This is, first and foremost, a story of Indigenous people struggling to deal with the effects of residential schools, regardless of whether they actually went to them.

Other than my comparison of tone to Jonny Appleseed, my only real gripe is that the pacing of this book is very uneven. The timeline lurches around and we don't always see characters starring in their stories often enough to really follow how their life goes. It's common for someone's POV to end on a bit of a cliffhanger and then jump to someone else, somewhere else, possibly sometime else, and it's not always a clean jump back into their story. 

Still, if you haven't read a book like this, or at least heard stories from people who experienced the residential school system, you should absolutely read this. It's a powerful, emotional account of just how the Canadian government's policies, along with the Church's methodologies, caused misery for so many people.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Colonisation, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Racism and Cursing

Minor: Gore, Grief, Medical content, Pregnancy, and Vomit

lilcoppertop's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Self harm, Racism, Racial slurs, Kidnapping, Emotional abuse, and Colonisation

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, and Death

Minor: Gaslighting, Pedophilia, Religious bigotry, and Terminal illness

raf2star's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative 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: Alcoholism, Child abuse, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Child abuse and Rape

Minor: Suicide

markedwithanm's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Grief, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, and Suicide

the_original_shelf_monkey's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Racism, and Racial slurs

Minor: Rape and Sexual assault

canadabooks's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Forced institutionalization, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racism, Rape, Suicide, and Terminal illness

Minor: Child death and Sexual assault

donaldleitch's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad fast-paced

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

4.0

Five Little Indians provided new insight into the profound experience of Canada's residential on the indigenous peoples. Although familiar with the basics of the residential school story through media reports over the last decade, it was through reading this novel I better understand the scars that the system has left with generations of families. Parents who had their children taken from them. Children who no longer knew their parents and families when they were finally let out of school. In combination with the emotional and sexual abuse that some children experienced in these schools, the residential school system is a shameful part of Canada's history. 

Michelle Good has written a powerful novel that speaks to the pain of the school system that suppressed indigenous cultures and languages and continues to impact aboriginal peoples within Canada.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Suicide