Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich

7 reviews

lizzie24601's review against another edition

hopeful informative inspiring relaxing 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

4.0

Another gorgeously written novel by Louise Erdrich. Her books feel so cozy to me - she is so skilled at sucking the reader into her world and the community she's brought to life. This book tells the important and inspiring story of her grandfather and his tireless community fighting to save themselves from termination.

One star taken off solely because

I was so disappointed by the lack of a reunion between Patrice and Vera. Patrice spends the entire first third of the book searching for her sister and worrying about her, and when Vera returns, there isn't a single scene with the two of them!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking and Racism

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Child death, Death, Grief, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death of parent, and Kidnapping

Minor: Suicide, Animal death, and Gun violence

rieviolet's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective 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

3.5

This is the first Louise Erdrich's book I've read and, all in all, I liked it. It was not a bad reading experience and I'd like to try out some of her other books.

The chapters are quite short so you can get through them quickly and the book doesn't really feel as long as it is. 
There are multiple point of views and it is interesting to experience so many different voices; still, inevitably, some characters were more captivating than others to me, and the overall narrative could feel a bit disjointed. 

I really appreciated how the author constructed the characters, they were flashed out well and felt very vivid on the page.
Also, I've read very few stories about Native American communities, so I enjoyed getting a glimpse into their history and culture.

It took me a bit to tune into the writing style, and there were still some bits where I struggled a little with the language and I'm not sure I really understood what was being said (but I am not a native speaker) or what was going on.

At times it got a touch strange for my personal taste 

just to name a few examples: dogs talking, chapters from a horse's POV, mention of a horse's vulva

, or the story took quite dark and disturbing turns abruptly, leaving me a bit discombobulated.

I wasn't completely sold on the ending, I think that a lot was left unexplored and untold, which is comprehensible given that there were a lot of narrative threads, but it still left me feeling a bit unsatisfied. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Death, and Racism

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual content, Colonisation, Death of parent, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Medical content, Kidnapping, Violence, Gun violence, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Toxic friendship, Dementia, Animal death, Sexual harassment, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Addiction, and War

xaixexai's review against another edition

dark reflective slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, and Racism

Minor: Colonisation, Gun violence, Confinement, and Hate crime

ekmook's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective 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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Racism, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Grief, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Violence, and Trafficking

Moderate: Child death, Classism, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Forced institutionalization, and Gun violence

frogknitting's review against another edition

dark reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I didn't like this one as much as The Sentence, but I'm also not a big historical fiction fan, so that's just a personal preference thing. It was a very good book. There were a lot of character names in there to keep up with, which was disconcerting at times. Also, Patrice's immediate situation when she gets to the Cities was odd as well, just because it seemed to be immediate and not fitting the tone of the book before then. I know it was important/necessary, but I wish that the tone could have shifted a bit more before that.

Other than that, I really liked this book. I swore it was written in the 90s, but apparently not. The omniscient point of view threw me at first, but I grew used to it and became a pretty big fan, especially considering how Erdrich used it. Having a few chapters from animals' perspectives was cool. It's a very good book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Kidnapping, Rape, Sexual assault, Trafficking, Sexual violence, and Alcoholism

Minor: Gun violence

caseythereader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Excrement, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Violence, and Religious bigotry

myfriendthatcanread's review against another edition

dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Addiction, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Torture, Trafficking, and Sexual assault

Minor: Excrement