Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Five Little Indians by Michelle Good

32 reviews

deandra_lalonde's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Death, Child death, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, and Grief

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

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

laschwe's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Child death, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Self harm, and Suicide

Minor: Car accident, Kidnapping, Mental illness, and Racial slurs

francestea's review

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful 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

Wow this was SO GOOD. I liked the format of switching between characters each chapter. Each character was fully formed, interesting and complicated. Their relationships, pains and joys all felt very real.  If you read this and loved it I would suggesting finding some interviews with Michelle Good about the book and her mother’s experience, they are very interesting also. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Kidnapping, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Pedophilia, Police brutality, and Sexual assault

asmale's review against another edition

reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Violence, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Racism, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Drug abuse, Colonisation, Child abuse, and Child death

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

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