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abeplaut's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
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
4.75
This collection is sometimes very funny, sometimes very sad. The audiobook narration was beautifully performed and breathed so much life into the characters.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death and Drug abuse
theochick's review
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Child death, and Addiction
lucesandin's review
challenging
dark
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? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death and Addiction
brianna_moye's review
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Child death, Drug abuse, and Death
Moderate: Mental illness, Pregnancy, Rape, Pedophilia, and Injury/Injury detail
rnorthie's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
4.0
This is a hard book to rate. The writing was beautiful and I loved the challenge of piecing the stories together and the last 2 stories were amazing (in a sad tragic way). I think in general some of the stories weren’t my favorite but it didn’t take away from the intrigue they slowly built up to the last two stories. Definitely worth a read.
Check content warnings!
Check content warnings!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse
Moderate: Gaslighting, Terminal illness, Vomit, Grief, Death, Pregnancy, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Chronic illness, Child death, Blood, Car accident, and Abandonment
Minor: Sexual assault
mercerhanau's review against another edition
dark
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
I started listenings to the audiobook on a friend’s recommendation (can't remember who?) without actually reading the back-of-book-type introduction at all. I think I went into it expecting something more supernatural/horror, which is not exactly what this book delivers (in the usual way). I set myself up for genre disappointment, so take my review with a grain of salt.
It’s a reflective set of stories, looking at slices of life from the narrator as a child, teenager, and mid/late 20s, looking back from later in life. Lots of drinking and suffering from drug addition, wanting to get clean. Depressing, occasionally funny, a LOT of scenes with varying degrees of nausea, dry heaving, and vomit. Unpleasant. But there are also scenes of tenderness that help flesh out the characters.
The title (and a couple references to zombies) encouraged me to look for what could be “horror” or the supernatural in stories that otherwise feel like a fictionalized memoir. Animal presences serve as metaphors that connect interpersonal struggles to the natural world in all its power, chaos, and… stenches.
More thoughts on real-life "horror": SPOILERS / Content Warnings
Horrors of caterpillar corpse carpets, decaying snapping turtle smell, miscarriage, child deaths, postpartum depression, having a dead twin (like a teratoma?), feeling responsible (sort of) for a sick infant’s death while still a child yourself, social services knocking incessantly at the door while home alone with one’s sister’s baby (feels like a zombie movie), dementia resurrecting ghosts/memories of long-dead relatives, witnessing physical and sexual violence, car crash, feeling disconnected from one’s body and mind in the throes of drug addition and withdrawal.
Feels like an important story to tell. Nuanced representation of a deeply interconnected Native community and family. The writing style and characters didn’t resonate with me, and that’s okay! I definitely see why other people love the book.
Cf. / Reminded me of themes in…
- Wellness, by Natan Hill:psychologically shifting stories and guilty uncertainty about what really happened during a childhood tragedy.
- The Only Good Indians, by Stephen Graham Jones:Indigenous perspective on spooky pregnancy stuff. The horror of nature (esp. animal-related). Losing contact with indigenous knowledge that might have helped prevent/dispel the horror.
- Every Drop Is a Man's Nightmare, by Megan Kamalei Kakimoto:More spooky reproductive/fertility stuff, whether supernatural or just things that happen to human bodies that aren’t talked about thanks to patriarchy keeping reproduction a mysterious, taboo subject. Complex feelings about family dynamics, both tender and cruel.
- This Thing Between Us, by Gus Moreno:curses, generational trauma, feeling haunted by lost loved ones and/or forces beyond our understanding. Losing one’s mind a lil bit. Gore. Technology running amok, sometimes in subtle ways: Grammy’s car radio turns on by itself, like the Itza (Echo Dot equivalent) in TTBU.
It’s a reflective set of stories, looking at slices of life from the narrator as a child, teenager, and mid/late 20s, looking back from later in life. Lots of drinking and suffering from drug addition, wanting to get clean. Depressing, occasionally funny, a LOT of scenes with varying degrees of nausea, dry heaving, and vomit. Unpleasant. But there are also scenes of tenderness that help flesh out the characters.
The title (and a couple references to zombies) encouraged me to look for what could be “horror” or the supernatural in stories that otherwise feel like a fictionalized memoir. Animal presences serve as metaphors that connect interpersonal struggles to the natural world in all its power, chaos, and… stenches.
More thoughts on real-life "horror": SPOILERS / Content Warnings
Feels like an important story to tell. Nuanced representation of a deeply interconnected Native community and family. The writing style and characters didn’t resonate with me, and that’s okay! I definitely see why other people love the book.
Cf. / Reminded me of themes in…
- Wellness, by Natan Hill:
- The Only Good Indians, by Stephen Graham Jones:
- Every Drop Is a Man's Nightmare, by Megan Kamalei Kakimoto:
- This Thing Between Us, by Gus Moreno:
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Addiction, Drug abuse, and Vomit
Moderate: Blood, Child death, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Dementia, Miscarriage, and Car accident
Minor: Pregnancy, Medical content, Sexual assault, Animal death, Infertility, and Racial slurs
kattyenn's review
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction
Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Child abuse, Drug use, Sexual assault, and Murder
rheagoveas's review
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Drug use, and Sexual assault
bladebailey's review against another edition
dark
funny
reflective
slow-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
3.5
Night of the Living Rez gathers short stories in an alternating format, exploring life and identity as a Penobscot person in the 21st century. Talty delves into the topics of family, coming of age, addiction, and others with a straightforward writing style and simple prose. The audiobook narrator does an excellent job of bringing dimension to the dialogue, turning every character tangible and human even more than the writing. I definitely recommend checking the book out, but it wasn't the most successful for me as I found it boring at times and said a lot without actually getting very far. Maybe that was the point, and every book has an audience, and I think I sit comfortably on the fringes of this one's.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use
Moderate: Child death
kaywhiteley's review
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Vomit, Drug abuse, and Racism
Moderate: Child death and Miscarriage
Minor: Sexual assault and Car accident