Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Five Little Indians by Michelle Good

66 reviews

daniellekat's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Racism, Forced institutionalization, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Sexual violence, Violence, and Police brutality

Minor: Drug use and Suicide

carbs666's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

This book is gripping. The way Good pulls you deeply into the hearts and lives of her characters brings the words to life. The prose is simple but occasionally striking - four dollar words aren't needed here. There are some truly heart wrenching moments mixed with moments of calm peace and courageous triumph. The changes from third to first person narration signal so much - once you pick up on them, they fill you with trepidation. An amazing book. 

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Content Warnings

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

kelly_e's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

Title: Five Little Indians
Author: Michelle Good
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 5.0
Pub Date: April 14, 2020

T H R E E • W O R D S

Essential • Heartbreaking • Powerful

📖 S Y N O P S I S

Taken from their families and sent to a church-run residential school as small children, Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie and Maisie must learn to live in the real world upon their release. As the title suggests, Five Little Indians tells the stories of five young adults, with very few skills or resources, navigating and trying to survive in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Over the years their paths will cross as they each must contend with the trauma they endured for years at the Mission school. A story about trauma and loss, love and friendship, and coming to term with the past, while ultimately finding a way forward.

💭 T H O U G H T S

Of the five finalists for Canada Reads 2022, this was the one I had heard the most about prior to it being shortlisted. Five Little Indians is a work of fiction, but at it's heart it is gruesome and heartbreaking lived experience of so many residential school survivors and their families. Filled with a lot of trauma, there is certainly a lot to unpack, but there's also an underlying sense of hope and resiliency.

Told from five perspective in an alternating fashion, each one offers a different story that needs to be told. The five individuals each suffered a similar trauma, yet the various accounts explore how that trauma culminated in a completely different experience for each individual. Michelle Good utilizes this tool in order to showcase the broad scope of the long-lasting impact residential schools have had.

As someone trying to learn more about a past I was never taught, I felt this book really bridged a gap. There are books that ultimately shift everything you thought you knew, and this book was one of them for me. It's no surprise it was crowned the winner of Canada Reads 2022, as the one book to connect us all. This is a book we all need, and at its heart it is a book about connection - the connections to family and culture lost and connections made through shared experience. There is no one book I will be recommending more this year than Five Little Indians

📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• all Canadians!
• teachers/professors
• anyone wanting to learn more

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"'I just don't know what to do.' Bella squeezed Kenny's hand. 'It's like most of me is gone and I can't get it back.'"

"'Sometimes I think I did die, I'm just still walking around.'"

"'Child, he loved you more than life. Me too. It was himself he couldn't love. They did that to him. Whatever they didn't break in him, they bent. They beat him so many times I couldn't even count. He never told me this, but I know Brother was bothering him too. That creep went after so many of those little boys.'"

"'You know what Mariah taught me about death? That the only thing our loved ones suffer is when we are suffering here without them. We know he is free, finally, in the green grass world. You know he would not want you to suffer.'
'I try. It just hurts so much. He deserved so much better.'
'We all did. But I guess the only thing we can do is try to make our own lives better now.'"

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Death, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual violence, and Suicide

Minor: Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, and Colonisation

melaniekarin's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

This is a truly beautiful book of interwoven lives and stories of five residential school survivors. Difficult but important read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Genocide, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Police brutality, and Colonisation

susanknights's review

challenging dark emotional inspiring sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Colonisation

reading_rainbows's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective slow-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

kassidypf13's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

Minor: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, and Abandonment

thebacklistborrower's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

3.5

The first of the five shortlisted Canada Reads 2022 books that I’ve read. I took a leap and picked this one out of the longlist to start with, and turns out I picked well! This was a book I had seen a lot about since it was published in 2020. 

Cw: residential schools

Five Little Indians tells the stories of five Indigenous people dealing with the impacts of residential schools. There are five key characters, but others appear for chapters here and there. The book starts in a residential school near Mission, BC, but from there, the reader follows the characters through the United States and Canada, each intertwining with each others stories and paths throughout their lives.

It should be no surprise that this is a dark book, with sad elements. The book is not explicit about many of the abuses suffered by the characters, but all are affected. The book deals with the death of characters who cannot cope with what they experienced, and others who cope poorly. But there is also, of course, survival and resilience. The connections they make between each other allow them to support and mentor each other through the pain and trauma.

Canada Reads 2022 is about finding a Book to Connect Us. This book is so deeply about connection. The connections lost with family from being stolen away, and the connections lost to culture. But also connections made: not all the characters knew much about each other from the school, but the common history of the school connected them. And connections made to activists and mentors that helped build them up above the lot expected by the school and society at large.

This book will connect readers by showing so many different stories in a single book. The stories of residential schools, escapes, rising above trauma, and succumbing to it, the American Indian Movement, incarceration, and retribution will connect us by showing us all that there is no one way forward, and we need to make connections to get to a better future for all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Racism, Self harm, Sexual violence, Violence, Religious bigotry, and Alcohol

knaylor's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

This should be required reading (with facilitated conversation) for all Canadians.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Alcohol, and Colonisation

jmitchell20's review

challenging dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism and Sexual violence

Minor: Child abuse and Drug use