Reviews tagging 'Trafficking'

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich

60 reviews

maryfranvs's review

dark emotional funny hopeful 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking and Violence

Moderate: Torture, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Sexism, Addiction, Drug use, and Grief

Minor: Sexual content

mamreads0816's review against another edition

challenging dark informative 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Trafficking and 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

danimcthomas's review

hopeful informative 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, and Trafficking

Moderate: Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Confinement, Death, and Alcoholism

Some graphic depictions of sex trafficking

matcha_cat's review against another edition

informative mysterious sad 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Colonisation, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, and Trafficking

Minor: Kidnapping, Rape, Confinement, Death, and Death of parent

matcha_pages's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Trafficking and Alcoholism

Minor: Sexual content

madelinemarigold's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious sad 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

4.75

Very informative historical fiction, discusses the attempt to disband (destroy, exterminate) the turtle mountain band of the Ojibwe and the community that came together to stop americas attack on indigenous sovereignty. Language, sisterhood, whiteness, love, indigenous (ojibwe) cosmology, and Mormonism are all explored

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Colonisation, Violence, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Alcoholism, Genocide, Trafficking, Torture, and Drug use

Minor: Death

lorenag5's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective fast-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Alcoholism, Confinement, Slavery, Death, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Grief, Rape, and Trafficking

booknerd_therapist's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Blood, Death of parent, Genocide, Sexism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Trafficking, Addiction, Alcoholism, Racism, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Child abuse, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, and Animal death

Minor: Deportation

waterbear0821's review

emotional informative inspiring 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

4.25

As with any Pulitzer Prize winning literature, expect beautiful prose…and probably a sense of melancholy. Isn’t that the way of it? This book was excellent. It’s significantly based on the author’s ancestor and a real house resolution to terminate his tribe. The story contains rich historical details and it’s filled with both humor and sadness. I don’t read literature very often because my heart can’t always take it but I would recommend this without hesitation for the interesting, character-based story, the beautiful writing, and the history lesson. As a note, I listened to the audiobook version, which was read by the author - almost always hearing the book read by the author improves it and I suspect it did in this case. The writing shifts between perspectives of characters (and even objects) without warning but I had no trouble following these shifts while listening. I think the depth of perspective only added to the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Genocide and Sexism

Minor: Domestic abuse and Sexual content