Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The Round House by Louise Erdrich

27 reviews

anna_hepworth's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-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

5.0

This is a very difficult story to read --mostly because it deals with some awful things, but also because a) I found the viewpoint character, a 13 year old boy, very difficult to stay engaged with and b) there are lots of layers of what is going on, all the time, and I struggled to keep track. 

Well worth having stuck through having to borrow it from the library four times, each time having to wait through the hold queue!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol

Moderate: Murder, Hate crime, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Rape, and Injury/Injury detail

audreyolejasz's review

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

2.0

The main character is kunda of a pervert...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Rape, Car accident, Drug use, Hate crime, Religious bigotry, Domestic abuse, Child death, Misogyny, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Blood, and Pedophilia

lauren_cutshall's review against another edition

dark reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

Graphic: Murder, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Racism

sestout's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Sexual assault, Racism, Sexual content, Rape, and Violence

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, and Religious bigotry

lorenag5's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Domestic abuse, Murder, Child death, Physical abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Racism, Rape, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Alcohol, Car accident, Colonisation, Death, Dementia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Vomit, Adult/minor relationship, Eating disorder, Fire/Fire injury, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexism

rshisler's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual violence, Death, Racism, Violence, and Rape

indrabindra's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Death, Rape, Physical abuse, Murder, and Hate crime

Moderate: Vomit, Blood, Racism, and Sexual content

Minor: Car accident and Adult/minor relationship

sarahholliday's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

The non-five-star rating is completely down to my personal taste, because this is very clearly a masterpiece of a novel. 

I am definitely a plot-driven person, but I enjoy picking up the occasional character-focused story. Joe and his community are absolutely fascinating, and though at times I wished we could move outside of his limited first-person perspective, it was both haunting and magical to see the events of the novel through his eyes.

What stood out to me the most was the emotional rawness—Erdrich takes readers into the kinds of emotional landscapes that are suffocating and overwhelming, but leads them through in the myriad ways all humans turn to: avoidance, escape, drunkenness, attempts to maintain some sort of control.

I loved Erdrich's style enough that I'm eager to pick up some of her other novels, and I highly recommend The Round House to anyone looking for a deeply-felt story of family, injustice, courage, and friendship.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Rape, Alcoholism, Murder, Cursing, Grief, Death, and Gun violence

sam_fielder_137's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense slow-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

3.25

I was mostly just bored. Since the main character is telling the story as an adult lawyer who's married, when we got to the climax, I knew everything would be okay. The stakes were low. The crime happened, they knew who did it. It was about justice, but didn't dive a lot into that aspect. I think the word "breast" was in the book more times than "justice" which is saying something. It was disturbing to read about a 13 year old boy's infatuation for his aunt, and the payoff for that was much too low.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Murder, Violence, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Alcohol, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Classism, Colonisation, Death, Religious bigotry, Hate crime, Grief, Cursing, and Racism

Minor: Eating disorder and Kidnapping

e_tully4's review

challenging emotional reflective 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: Rape, Sexual assault, and Racism

Minor: Gun violence