Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty

13 reviews

nrogers_1030's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Mental illness, Addiction, Alcohol, Colonisation, Cursing, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Dementia, Sexual assault, Miscarriage, Violence, and Racial slurs

Minor: Child death

m47n's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Miscarriage, Child death, Domestic abuse, and Colonisation

bkwrm1317's review

dark emotional 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? Yes

3.75

Talty’s collection of connected short stories is intense, real, and dark. Reflecting on the reality of an Indigenous Tribal Penobscot family and some of their connections brings you to witness their humor, grief, addiction, culture, food, economic reality, and more. 

Pacing medium-slow made it harder for me to get through (and short stories aren’t my fave). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction

Moderate: Sexual assault, Colonisation, and Child death

Minor: Vomit

sundayfever's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense 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

4.5

Dark but good read. Collection of short stories strung together. Nice to read an indigenous story set here in Maine. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Drug abuse, Vomit, Child death, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death, Addiction, and Mental illness

Moderate: Violence, Colonisation, Racism, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Animal cruelty

kvokolek's review

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, and Child death

Moderate: Dementia and Sexual violence

Minor: Colonisation and Pregnancy

mscalls's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Colonisation, Toxic relationship, Death, Drug use, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Violence, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Grief, Medical content, Drug abuse, Racism, Vomit, Addiction, and Child death

hannahlee's review

challenging dark medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Strange and illuminating to read this set of intense stories set so close to home for me, but depicting a world I know so little about. Short stories are not usually my favorite, but these are interconnected enough that  book feels as though it's on the verge of being a novel, constructed jumping around in time in a very effective, compelling way. I look forward to seeing what Morgan publishes next.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Colonisation, Drug use, Infertility, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Dementia, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Racism

Moderate: Vomit, Violence, and Sexual assault

rorikae's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective 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

‘Night of the Living Rez’ by Morgan Talty is a set of vignettes that tell one Indigenous boy’s story as he grows up and looks to find his place in the world. Shifting from his childhood into his young adulthood, we get to see pieces of David’s life and how he relates to the world. 
This is an interesting book because I think that Talty’s writing is rich and evocative. It’s easy to care deeply for these characters and feel connected to them. He presents a very stark image of their existence and how their relationships shift over time. 
Despite this, I also had a hard time with this collection. Part of this is because I don’t think it is appropriate to call this a story collection. The story follows one character through different points in his life, looping back and forth in time such that for the entirety, I actually thought we were following two characters, a child and a young adult. The title is also a bit misleading as it leads one to believe this will be a horror story collection while it is much more contemporary literature. The fault here is really in the marketing, not in the book itself, which is an affecting piece about growing up Indigenous in Maine and David’s specific life story. 
I would recommend this book, but I think it is crucial to go into it understanding that it is not a horror short story collection as the title and description might lead you to believe but actually the story of a single character told through vignettes that loop through time between the character’s childhood and young adulthood.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Colonisation, Grief, Alcohol, Addiction, and Drug use

sidneyreads_'s review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Chronic illness, Drug use, Drug abuse, Colonisation, and Abandonment

Moderate: Vomit, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, and Addiction

Minor: Blood, Sexual violence, Abandonment, Child death, and Classism

bookdragon217's review

challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

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

5.0

I pre-ordered Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty earlier in the year and it quickly became one of my most anticipated reads. From the moment I read the summary, I knew I would love it but didn't expect for it to crawl its way into the deepest parts of my heart and stay there.

The novel is told in short stories that  interconnect and span time periods on the Penobscot Reservation. You are introduced to life on the rez where you see the lasting effects of settler colonialism and its consequences. You have characters dealing with poverty, addiction, failing health, lack of resources, loss of a child, grief, domestic conflict, broken homes and becoming a caregiver. Talty gives you an unflinching view of what it means to be Penobscot in Maine and he shows you what is at the heart of his community.

These stories are full of tragedy, friendship, sadness and the mundane aspects of life on the rez. Each story gives you insight into the key players and some background into how they became who they are now. By the time the I got to the last story 'The Name Means Thunder' I was gutted completely as they all came full circle. 

What stays with me is the undying love Indigenous people have for each other. How they show up for each there, never abandon one another and continue to stay rooted to their ancestors and their ways is at the core of this novel. The Penobscot people continue to survive and cling to their community to anchor them. I love how Talty shows that the bonds of family are not defined by blood alone but rather that family can be your inheritance. Family can be redefined as how you push forward past tragedy. Familial responsibility takes different forms in the novel but at the center is always love even when it doesn't look like it. 

Talty brought these characters to life and by the end I just wanted them to be okay because of all the losses they continued to experience. This was storytelling at its finest. If I could sum this one up in one word it would be haunting. This one will one will stay pressed up against the pit of your stomach long after you finish. I am in awe of what Talty accomplished in these pages and I will be anxiously waiting for more.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, and Colonisation