Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - The Marrow Thieves

Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline

74 reviews

spicycronereads's review

adventurous hopeful mysterious sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

This was an interesting concept - a post apocalyptic North America where the apocalypse was a combination of climate change, colonialism, and capitalism. So…near future sci fi. The central concept - that non-indigenous people have lost the ability to dream and now hunt and try to harvest dreams from indigenous folks, killing them in the process - was really strong.

The story initially follows MMC Frenchie as his family is displaced and eventually lost. He joins a group of other indigenous folks in his quest to continue following his parents’ direction to travel North. But it feels more like an ensemble of characters rather than necessarily Frenchie’s story. We get glimpses of the backstories of a few of the secondary characters and as result they seem to almost have more dimension than Frenchie or his love interest Rose, the multi racial character who joins the band of travelers. There was a bit more showing rather than telling in terms of character development so I didn’t quite feel as drawn in as I could have.

I would have liked more back story on Minerva. Obviously her role as elder is really important but that and the brief story of her SA is kind of all we know. Similarly, there was no attention to where Frenchie’s dad had been all this time or how he came to be where he was. Same for Isaac. Though I was pleasantly surprised when it was him among the other group. I expected it to be someone else from Frenchie’s family

That said, it was still an enjoyable read. As I said, the concept is really interesting. It is well-paced. I read most of it in a day. And there are a few twists that are simultaneously predictable and surprising. Don’t want to say more for fear of spoiling.

In terms of diverse representation, the book is primarily indigenous characters, with a few multi racial characters here and there. There is a gay man among the main characters.

There is a romance subplot but it is also suffers from the author telling rather than showing. It also goes from the character stating they are in love with the other person to later only really liking them. So that was a bit confusing. I give it one swoony heart. 💖

Overall, I liked it, despite these issues. They didn’t accumulate to the light where I didn’t enjoy the book. I will likely read the second one. ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 / 💖

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purplepickle's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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tlaynejones's review against another edition

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adventurous dark sad tense fast-paced

Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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hashbrownhedgehog's review

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dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.75

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munchkennina's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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kchin's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Heartbreaking, heartwarming, love, loss, fear, hopeful, devastating, all at once. An incredible YA read.

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clemmies's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective relaxing sad medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

Cherie Dimaline is a pointed writer. That much is clear in THE MARROW THIEVES alone. She attends her femme perspective while directly focusing on masculinity under American colonialism. The primary relationships are vastly majority masculine, yet the vitality and unrivaled power of femininity and maternal love is underscored by the climax.

Frenchie is an adorably emotional, protective, and loving - if distant - figure for both the reader and his found family. His father figure Miig is the standoud relationship for-sure, with the pure dichotomy of emotional repression and paternal defensiveness under a genocidal state being the primary subtext scoring their journey to protext their family. Miig relents the vitality of emotional avaliablility and vulnerability, yet is necessitated to limit how that is expressed due to the pure cruelty of the situation facing the native population of the Americas in this not-so-speculative fiction.

As Frenchie learns how to protect his crush Rose, while additionally learning not to lose her, Dimaline is teaching the reader of the cultural reality of integrationist schooling for Indigenous American Indians during the period of Manifest Destiny. This banal reality cannot just be *told* to a child, yet they will experience the violence all the same, so storytelling and characterization are utilized to make the reality compartmentalized and more simply understood by an emotional, limited teenage perspective that this novel is aiming for. Yet regardless, through trusting the story, this information will be delineated, creating many new young intellegenistas and prospects of decolonial theory in the process.

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