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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
emotional
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:
Yes
Context: I did not realise when I began this book that Mr Orange’s novel There There shares some of the characters that this novel does. I think when I read the first novel a lot of my confusion will be cleared up.
So, Kindle had this summer reading challenge. This was one of the books.While I my preconceptions of summer reading was light this novel is anything but.It illuminated the reasons for the generational trauma so evident in Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich. It is a novel that I hope many USains will read and remember.
While the stories told of a multigenerational family are hard, the author writes beautiful prose., with narration styles changing as needed for the story. I was confused when we leave Victoria Bear Shield and begin part two in 2018. This is what happens when you read books out of order.
The plot is intricate, places are wonderfully described, and the characters could hardly be more alive. This is what a novel should be. Read it and remember, stolen lives, stolen land, stolen labour.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gun violence, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Deportation
Moderate: Alcoholism, Cancer, Suicide, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Alcohol
Minor: Medical content
Graphic drug overdose. Moderate maternal death.
I was very much between a three and a four star rating for this book and feel like it’d go up to four stars on a re-read. The characters feel very rich and alive and I loved how deftly Orange shifted narrative styles, including a chapter written in the second person which I found very powerful. The book is well written and the themes of addiction and identity are interesting, but it’s hard to pinpoint anything in the narrative that I will remember a year from now.
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
emotional
sad
slow-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
This book has been being talked about in Indigenous book spaces for a long time, and I see why it has all the hype it does. Reading as an audiobook, it was a bit difficult to keep up with all the relations and how everyone was related, but everyone’s story was still really good nonetheless. In the second half it became a lot easier and the characters were very personable!
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Self harm, Blood
challenging
emotional
informative
medium-paced
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
challenging
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Orange so gracefully interlocks the themes of individual trauma and communal grief within the fragmented structure of There There, while here he holds onto the mic too long to make sure everyone understood the point. The first part, charting a unique ancestral mythos, is a highlight.