Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq

46 reviews

katharina90's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

Listening to this audiobook was a unique experience that has stuck with me. Tagaq's narration paired with her throat singing between chapters pulls you into this strange tale which is part memoir, part fiction. It almost has a dream-like (perhaps nightmarish?) quality to it... You be the judge. I still don't know what to make of it all. I do know I found this audiobook utterly mesmerizing even during parts of the story that were hard for me to follow.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence and Child abuse

Moderate: Colonisation and Drug use

emory's review

challenging dark emotional sad

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

My most succinct reason for disliking this is just that it's not for me. I very much enjoyed the surrealism of the plot, but so much of the book was overshadowed by sections upon sections of what seemed to me to be trite quips trying very hard to be profound and quotable through vague generality. The sections and poems with genuine heart shone through besides, but I couldn't get past the writing, and although a goal of this book seems to be challenging notions of what is natural and sitting with that discomfort, I personally could not get past the recurring upsetting sexual imagery and motifs.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual violence, Child death, Death, Drug use, Grief, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Animal death, Bullying, Colonisation, Drug abuse, and Suicide

Minor: Vomit

A few depictions and mentions of, albeit in dreams and myth, bestiality.

emsim's review against another edition

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Drug use, Alcohol, Animal death, Rape, Sexual assault, and Bullying

dianacarmel's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This book (especially the audiobook version) is a work of art - the childlike storytelling of graphic and traumatic experiences, combined with the throat singing and the mix of supernatural yet memoir-like experiences, creates a completely unique literary experience. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Drug use

darnicar's review

dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Rape, and Suicide

kleine_elster_'s review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad medium-paced

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Sexual content, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Drug use and Suicide attempt

vtlism's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

Chilling, beautiful, imaginative, quotable 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Suicide, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Self harm, Rape, Pregnancy, Pedophilia, Murder, Gore, Drug use, Colonisation, Child death, Child abuse, Blood, Animal death, and Alcohol

mariane_g's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Pregnancy, and Drug use

mapscitiesandsongs's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

2.75

I don't really know how to rate this, since I have the feeling that I didn't even understand half of the book. The prose was certainly interesting and beautiful. I am a bit sad that I couldn't get the audiobook. Maybe I would have enjoyed it more. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Sexual harassment, Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Animal death, and Sexual content

Moderate: Colonisation, Misogyny, and Sexism

Minor: Blood and Grief

dianahincureads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

Split Tooth is an experience. Truly unlike anything I’ve read before. Following the perspective of a young Inuk woman growing up in Nunavut in the 1970s, the novel sketches the portrait of a community affected by colonialism and poverty. At only 11, the unnamed protagonist sees right through the adults around her. Her coming of age is saturated with spirituality, making up for any lack in the material world. To survive the violence she is subjected to daily, she strengthens the ties with her ancestors, holding on to her Inuit identity so tightly that reality blends seamlessly with the unseen. What is real? What is a dream?

Tanya Tagaq’s debut novel is subversive, both in content and form. It is a powerful counter-narrative denouncing the atrocities of colonialism and toxic masculinity. It mixes prose and poetry, autobiography and fiction, reality and myth.

The frozen landscape is an active character. Nature is unforgiving and harsh but aren't humans even harsher? Split Tooth proves just that.

I highly recommend this novel.

📖 « La forme des nuages ressemble à des avertissements codés en morse: l’été ne durera pas. La vie, c’est ça. Mange-la toute de suite. »

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug use, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Rape, Sexual violence, Death, and Sexual assault

Minor: Animal death, Domestic abuse, and Animal cruelty