Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline

56 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.

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

zombiezami's review against another edition

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma, Grief, Death of parent, Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Genocide, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Child abuse, Gore, Blood, Murder, Animal death, Death, Child death, Racism, Torture, Violence, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Colonisation, Vomit, Sexual violence, Stalking, Rape, Pregnancy, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, Drug use, Drug abuse, and Alcoholism

sarahemhavens's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense

4.0

Many tears shed over this book, incredible imagery, and a heartbreaking storyline. Loved the ending

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Death, Colonisation, Violence, Grief, Forced institutionalization, and Murder

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

erosabsens's review

dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Gun violence, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Child death, Child abuse, and Rape

augustar14's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.75

This book is so powerful. Very well done, hard to listen at times but all important because while set in the future, many of the experiences are based on reality or historic reality for indigenous Americans. Definitely recommend, if you're in a space for something that is heavy and strong.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Rape, Addiction, Forced institutionalization, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Alcoholism, and Vomit

Minor: Sexism, Xenophobia, Confinement, Medical content, Cannibalism, and War

pigeonquestions's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Beautifully written. A view of “the apocalypse” entangled with history back to the first residential schools and Indigeous peoples forced from their lands, not just when the coastlines began to shrink or the Water Wars or when a dreamless plague spread over North America. Lovable characters of multiple generations in a found family that I got very attached to. Dark, hopeful, bittersweet, fast-paced. I love the way stories are interwoven into the main narrative. The story features a pair of men who are a couple and though they face adversity, homophobia is never really an issue. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Racism, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Trafficking, Forced institutionalization, Abandonment, Genocide, and Child death

Minor: Sexism, Alcoholism, Rape, and Medical trauma

katrinky's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

2.5

this book was brutal, but the writing wasn't strong enough for it to totally land for me. the central plot point is clever (and devastating), but the book read like an idea the author had that wasn't fleshed out enough to make a whole book. this is one of those books that is close enough to being very good that it reminds you how freaking hard it is to write a very good novel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Body horror, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Death, Genocide, and Child death

Moderate: Grief, Murder, Medical trauma, Violence, Trafficking, Sexual violence, Racism, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, and Gore

Minor: Rape

cepbreed's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? No

4.5

“It began as a rumor, that they had found a way to siphon the dreams right out of our bones, a rumor whispered every time one of us went missing, a rumor denounced every time their doctors sent us to hospitals and treatments centers never to return.”

 

So much about this book is traumatizing, it’s so hard to read. I say that, but no matter how evil the atrocities translated onto the paper I couldn't stop reading because of how beautifully Cherie Dimaline writes. Each coming-to story makes my heart physically ache, I feel like I know these characters and each of their lives is so personal to me. Thank you Dimaline for bringing them to life on these pages. I also loved having chapter titles. I feel like so many books forego them these days in favor of just the name of the POV character or nothing at all. Another element essential to the story and my enjoyment of it was all the foreshadowing. While in the dilapidated Four Winds the women of their group tell their stories, all of which are a dark premonition of the events of the following days. Those moments were harrowing. I love how Dimalinen made sure to highlight the voices of those women, and bring awareness to the mistreatment many like them suffer because of their presenting gender. The class on indigenous fiction that I read this book for has opened my eyes entirely to a whole new genre of books. I am unsure if I would've enjoyed this book as much as I did if I read it outside of a classroom context because my professor always offers very valuable insight on certain indigenous traditions that enriched the books meaning. For example the legend of the rougarou and its application to Minerva's story.

 

Minerva being taken absolutely killed me. This kind woman, understand her old age hindered their progress. She trusted in the younger generation to survive and sacrificed everything for them. I don’t have to see my own Harmoni in her to absolutely love the character but I do and it makes me all the more sad to see the consequences of her age. In the same way she is wise and essential to the survival of their culture her health is rapidly deteriorating. I dismissed her character before but now I admire her so much, one scene changed everything for me.

 

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Colonisation, Death of parent, Genocide, Grief, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Animal death, Death, Racism, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Body horror, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Violence, Trafficking, and Misogyny

Minor: Pregnancy