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blackmetalblackheart's review against another edition
4.0
What a great read! Welcome To Orphancorp is short, but filled with a robust world and incredible emotional range. I was sucked in from the first few pages, and the quality never let up. The book is brutal yet touching. It is dark yet human, a balance of tragedy and hope. Gems like this make reading worthwhile.
thingslucyreads's review against another edition
4.0
Shit man this was real good, I'm glad the sequel is out already so I don't have to wait ages for it!!
cupiscent's review against another edition
4.0
A brutal slice of through-the-cracks childhood in a dystopic Australian future. I had emotional difficulty with this orphange-as-industry setting - it's too real, too harsh, and though it's centred on the older kids, it shows in passing the infants, and every single time it screwed my stomach into knots. (Probably doesn't help that my bub is sick right now.) For the first twenty pages or so, it was touch-and-go, but by then the strong, sardonic, starkly descriptive - and incredibly Australian - first-person narrator voice had me hooked.
So basically, this is horrible, with a dash of hope, and it's so well delivered.
So basically, this is horrible, with a dash of hope, and it's so well delivered.
chrisistrangerthanu's review against another edition
5.0
After finishing this more, all I wanted was MORE. I wanted the story to continue so much and to find out more about each of the characters. In such a short time the author managed to make me care so much about the circumstances these characters were in. It was also a very insightful look into dysfunction and affection when children have no one to learn off. I found some of the dystopian elements frightfully close to what we are starting to see today.
teachreadreview's review against another edition
4.0
A tragic, futuristic tale of slavery and oppression. Children locked away in cattle-like facilities, forced to do jobs for the 'Aunts' and 'Uncles' and grow up far too quickly. With undertones of the stolen generation, Ward builds tension and ferocity almost immediately. Then before you know it, it's over. This is a startling and shocking introduction to the trilogy.
sopranopage's review against another edition
3.0
I've had this book on my TBR for a while and finally ran across it in the library. See on Wordpress.
Details at a glance:
Format: Paperback (library)
Pairings: F/F, M/F
Sexual content: Yes - frequent, including an orgy, the language is not overly explicit but it's clear what is going on
Rep: Bisexual Aboriginal MC (her name means shooting star in Gamilaraay language), sapphic Vietnamese LI, nonbinary South Asian character
Ownvoices: Bisexuality
Content warnings: Fatphobia, pedophilia (not condoned, but not called out), racist anti-Aboriginal slurs (uncensored, called out), child abuse, torture, psychological abuse, implied self-harm
***
This was an interesting novella that clearly draws inspiration from Australian detention centres, high incarceration rates for Indigenous Australians and the issue of the school-to-prison pipeline. It's also part of a grand tradition of horrible orphanages in fiction, which fits extremely well into a dystopian setting. There was a 1984-esque vibe to the way shackles and other similar restraints were never called by their names, but were called Consequences. Characters are tortured during this novel but the narrative skips over most of it.
A note on the cover: All the covers I have ever seen for this book are extremely misleading. Given the level of sexual content and profanity, I would not give this to a child the same age as the kid on the cover.
The writing style is easy to read and the characters are surprisingly vivid given they have little time to develop. Some might call the F/F pairing instalove because of how quickly it had to develop in the short space of time the protagonist had left in the orphanage, but it didn't bother me and I was surprisingly invested in them.
It was also really cool to see that Mirii, the protagonist, was a self-taught tattoo artist and extremely interested in technology.
I did have a serious issue with the fatphobia. It seems like every adult villain is described as fat in some way. The one thin antagonist is a much more sympathetic character than most of the fat antagonists.
Even then, on a different issue, there is a scene where that character refuses to participate in an orgy and it's framed a little oddly like it's just one more thing that sets her apart from Mirii and her friends. On the other hand of that, during that same orgy, one character doesn't consent to one particular act and that is respected. Mirii also has a serious conversation about consent with a younger orphan, Cam, who is just becoming sexually active with the other orphans in his age group. That was a good thing.
I'm also uncertain of the use of an uncensored slur in the book. I don't know if the author is Aboriginal or not (since it's not always obvious by looking at someone), so I'm not 100% comfortable passing judgement here. I will say that it is called out immediately and the character who used it, Cam, is a child who then learns better and doesn't use it again. I did really enjoy the protagonist's budding friendship with him otherwise.
There were probably better ways to get Mirii to talk about the fact she may be Aboriginal, however. Getting her to talk about it in response to Cam using a slur wasn't the best framing, in my personal opinion.
I can't comment on the nonbinary rep. The word nonbinary is never actually used, but they/them pronouns are used throughout the book for this character.
I liked this book well enough that I'll probably borrow the sequel, Psynode, from the library. It's never going to be a favourite of mine, though.
Details at a glance:
Format: Paperback (library)
Pairings: F/F, M/F
Sexual content: Yes - frequent, including an orgy, the language is not overly explicit but it's clear what is going on
Rep: Bisexual Aboriginal MC (her name means shooting star in Gamilaraay language), sapphic Vietnamese LI, nonbinary South Asian character
Ownvoices: Bisexuality
Content warnings: Fatphobia, pedophilia (not condoned, but not called out), racist anti-Aboriginal slurs (uncensored, called out), child abuse, torture, psychological abuse, implied self-harm
***
This was an interesting novella that clearly draws inspiration from Australian detention centres, high incarceration rates for Indigenous Australians and the issue of the school-to-prison pipeline. It's also part of a grand tradition of horrible orphanages in fiction, which fits extremely well into a dystopian setting. There was a 1984-esque vibe to the way shackles and other similar restraints were never called by their names, but were called Consequences. Characters are tortured during this novel but the narrative skips over most of it.
A note on the cover: All the covers I have ever seen for this book are extremely misleading. Given the level of sexual content and profanity, I would not give this to a child the same age as the kid on the cover.
The writing style is easy to read and the characters are surprisingly vivid given they have little time to develop. Some might call the F/F pairing instalove because of how quickly it had to develop in the short space of time the protagonist had left in the orphanage, but it didn't bother me and I was surprisingly invested in them.
It was also really cool to see that Mirii, the protagonist, was a self-taught tattoo artist and extremely interested in technology.
I did have a serious issue with the fatphobia. It seems like every adult villain is described as fat in some way. The one thin antagonist is a much more sympathetic character than most of the fat antagonists.
Even then, on a different issue, there is a scene where that character refuses to participate in an orgy and it's framed a little oddly like it's just one more thing that sets her apart from Mirii and her friends. On the other hand of that, during that same orgy, one character doesn't consent to one particular act and that is respected. Mirii also has a serious conversation about consent with a younger orphan, Cam, who is just becoming sexually active with the other orphans in his age group. That was a good thing.
I'm also uncertain of the use of an uncensored slur in the book. I don't know if the author is Aboriginal or not (since it's not always obvious by looking at someone), so I'm not 100% comfortable passing judgement here. I will say that it is called out immediately and the character who used it, Cam, is a child who then learns better and doesn't use it again. I did really enjoy the protagonist's budding friendship with him otherwise.
There were probably better ways to get Mirii to talk about the fact she may be Aboriginal, however. Getting her to talk about it in response to Cam using a slur wasn't the best framing, in my personal opinion.
I can't comment on the nonbinary rep. The word nonbinary is never actually used, but they/them pronouns are used throughout the book for this character.
I liked this book well enough that I'll probably borrow the sequel, Psynode, from the library. It's never going to be a favourite of mine, though.