Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn

1 review

quandtuniverse's review

challenging funny hopeful informative lighthearted reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.5

This book is like The Crucible, if The Crucible were an absurdist comedy about an alphabetically-minded cult. It's definitely light-hearted enough to be fun to read, but the social themes and critique of tyrannical governments and unjust laws, as well as the social motives why people rat each other out to such governments, are strongly there. Wrapped up in an ingeniously constructed narrative with very precise and creative word choice, this novel is a treat for those who consider language to be one of the most magical and fascinating aspects of humanity.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Death, Violence, and Alcoholism

Minor: Child abuse and Suicide

This book may be difficult for people with dyslexia, as it plays with language in unusual ways.

Near the end, when almost all the letters have been banned, the council allows people to misspell words with similar-sounding letters; a lot of the text then becomes written in this quasi-phonetic spelling, such as "ewe" in place of "you", for example.

Due to the epistolary format much of the violent content goes undescribed, but the story does revolve around an increasingly strict police state that enacts harsh punishments on those who violate the letter bans. Near the end,

one character attempts suicide twice (and fails both times). This is treated somewhat humorously, though it may depend on the perspective of the characters involved.