Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline

73 reviews

readingwithkaitlyn's review against another edition

tense fast-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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Death, Murder, and Grief

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, and Child death

Minor: Pregnancy, Alcohol, Genocide, Animal death, Sexual assault, Rape, Child abuse, Colonisation, Addiction, War, Sexual content, Racial slurs, Vomit, Excrement, Gun violence, and Stalking

Residential schools, global warming, pollution, starvation, disease.

draven_deathcrush's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

5.0

I absolutely love this book. I'm Native, and I really want to read more books written by Native authors that are about Native culture, and this was the perfect one to read. It was heartwarming, well also being so sad and raw. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, and Racism

Moderate: Sexual assault, Child death, and Rape

obscurepages's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.5

Wow wow wow. I think I have goosebumps 😭 This was an incredible book. It's both harrowing and compelling, this is a story you won't forget soon.

There's something so visceral and melancholic in the writing style, but there's also the tiniest bits of humor and I love that. I also love how this book is just filled with hope and love, just as much as it's filled with grief. It speaks so much of what humans have done to the environment (since their world is now broken because of global warming) and other people (the way Native Americans are being hunted). Language and culture is a big part of this story too and it is beautifully profound.

Overall, an such an incredible story. Glad I was able to discover and read this book!

(Lots of CWs for this one tho please take care of yourselves. CW: residential schools, violence, colonial trauma, racism, genocide, death, grief, torture, sexual assault, pedophilia, injuries) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Murder, Violence, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Colonisation, and Torture

Moderate: Genocide, Violence, and Grief

mrsdrury's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault

watermelonvodka's review against another edition

dark sad slow-paced

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

2.5

This book was not at all what I was expecting. I really liked the first 50 or so pages, but then it was just a repeat of the same thing. They camped for the night, learned some of their history, got up in the morning, walked, camped for the night, heard someone's story about how they got there, got up in the morning, walked.... I felt like nothing really happened and I wasn't interested when things eventually started happening towards the end. Sometimes the writing threw me off, because things would happen without an explanation, or time would pass without it being obvious.
Some of the passages were really well written, and some of the things that happened to the characters and the way they talked about it, were powerful and really made you stop and think.
Unfortunately this one wasn't for me. I hope more people enjoy it more than I did.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Rape and Sexual assault

abitbetterbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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? No

4.5

Well, what the fuck. How am I just supposed to go about living my life with an ending like that?

This book was stunning from start to finish, the prose was flawless, descriptive and evocative, the characters vibrant and life-like, the concepts and world-building absolutely horrifying and captivating, so close to home and hauntingly prophetic. 

The only thing I wished for was a bit more plot wrapping up at the end, it felt like there was a lot of lead up to one particular moment and I was kind of hoping for a few more answers to how everything would unfold, even now knowing there’s a second book!

Anyways, Wab deserves the entire world, and I don’t think I’ve ever had my heart broken by anything as much as Isaac & Miig. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Physical abuse, Death, Child death, Colonisation, Confinement, Grief, Violence, Death of parent, Genocide, and Racism

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

msbarnesela's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

3.75

Disclaimer: I’m not the target audience for this book. It’s YA, and it reads like YA, and I am not a teenager. I read this to determine whether I could use it with my students.

The plot moves quickly, and the chapters are short. The premise is compelling. The characters make sense, given the situation and setting. I wanted good things for them. They weren’t always likable, but they’re trying to survive while people are hunting them, and most of them are also dealing with puberty, so some prickliness is to be expected. 

I’m not a huge fan of the style of the prose. The book is from the perspective of the main character, who is a teen boy. The way his emotions and observations are narrated feels a little too exaggerated while also being weirdly self-aware. I would have enjoyed a bit more emotional subtlety and maybe just more writing craft? But again, I’m not the target audience. And I wonder if some of the storytelling techniques are echoing oral narrative techniques that I’m just not culturally connected to.

This is a book that I will use with my students. It has references to some really terrible things (see content warnings), but none of it is graphic. Violence and sex are acknowledged but not narrated, so it’s appropriate for younger high school (and maybe mature 8th graders, with adult support to contextualize and process the traumatic parts). Stylistically and structurally, it’s probably an easy enough read for middle grades. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Death, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Racism, Trafficking, Violence, Child death, Cultural appropriation, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cursing, Medical content, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, Rape, and Trafficking

One character alludes to being gang-raped (the lead-up and aftermath are briefly detailed, but not the rape itself). Another character is said to have been raped (no detail). Kidnapping, trafficking, medical experimentation, and murder of indigenous people are the premise of the book, so it’s to be expected that it’s referenced. Residential schools are referenced frequently, but there’s very little description of the experience of institutionalization since only one character in the book had spent any time in the schools. There is one reference to sexual arousal between two teens, but nothing happens beyond kissing, and it’s awkwardly and abruptly interrupted. Two young adult characters couple up, and the woman is mentioned to be pregnant, but it’s a passing reference. Some characters shoot people (mostly justifiable self-defense) and feel bad about it afterwards.

liz_cox's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense fast-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism and Genocide

Minor: Sexual assault and Rape

livroses's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Colonisation, Genocide, Racism, Grief, Forced institutionalization, Violence, Rape, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Child death

Minor: Child abuse, Vomit, Kidnapping, Gun violence, and Death of parent

sweetsimplenothing's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Forced institutionalization, Child death, Death of parent, and Genocide

Moderate: Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Gun violence