Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - Chasseurs d'étoiles

A thrilling sequel that I didn’t know I needed! I absolutely fell in love with Cherie Dimaline’s story and characters in The Marrow Thieves and was so excited to come across this next part of the adventure. The characters are so rich and the writing is so compelling. I read this entire book in one day, which is very rare for me. I will admit that I listened to the audio at the same time so that sped things up for this slow reader…and the narration was superb! This story pulled at the heart strings so many times. The love that this family has for each other is just so beautiful and palpable! The stakes are so high for them and they just keep surviving, keep protecting each other, keep telling their stories and sharing the bits of language that they remember. As an ancestor of colonists to Turtle Island, I do the work I can to unlearn the false history and systemic racism that I grew up with, and stories like this are so important for teaching that if we are not careful that past becomes the future and that can never be allowed to happen again (and many would agree that the “past” is still present for Indigenous People of Turtle Island). I highly recommend this book and it’s first…go read immediately!

Content Warnings

yasmilktea's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

hannendez's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Content Warnings

caseythereader's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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

4.5

Content Warnings

2treads's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

“Story is a home, it’s where we live, it’s where we hold everything we’ll need to truly survive— our languages, our people, our land..." – Miig

Dimaline stuns with the depth of feeling she is able to conjure with her words as she leads us back to Frenchie and his family, his community. When your very marrow is the most precious resource in a shattered world, where and how far can you run to remain free?

Hunting By Stars expands the portraiture of found family established in The Marrow Thieves, focusing a wider lens into community, memory, resistance, family, and love; giving the reader insight into the misguided and warped thinking of the Institute, its mandates and changing goal.

Dimaline draws upon Indigenous history and experiences with residential schools, how that horrific past can still be excavated and used to detail a trauma that has not been healed and that Indigenous peoples still encounter and live with today. The phrase 'kill the Indian in the child' occurs more than once and impresses upon the reader that manipulation and indoctrination is also a part of what was done then and that has bearing on the treatment of Indigenous bodies today.

But, what stays with me after reading this novel and having experienced this series, is the power of choosing family; of living one's truth and keeping tradition, story, and identity foremost as we move ever forward.

"They never win when we remember.” – Miig

Content Warnings

More...