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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
Louise Erdrich is never an easy read (in the best way), but the narrative voice in this is warm and funny and curious and strong, and I loved being with her. It’s a gorgeous book with a premise that’s just shattering.
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
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:
No
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I first became aware of this book through a video that described it, in terms of the reviewer's experiences with Christian fundamentalism, as a woman escaping a cult while pregnant. While I don't think that's entirely accurate (most charitably, it can be applied to one turning point in act two), the application of Christian fundamentalist ideas in a perilous pseudo-apocalyptic evolutionary event and impacts the lives specifically of women of color and their reproductive freedom was a really rich source of narrative tension and thematic grit.
From a craft perspective, I really enjoyed both the form of the novel as a journal written by protagonist and narrator Cedar to her unborn son and the obscurity of the specifics both of the fundamentalist cult's hostile takeover of the US and the scientific understanding and journalistic communication of the evolutionary event that creates the crisis which gave them leverage to initiate said takeover; they're both smart writing choices and they, respectively, make it easier to hook the reader and focus on the emotional, personal experience of those surviving the event. That said, from a readerly perspective, the lack of information we get about what's happening was a little disappointing even as it increased my experience of tension, and towards the end, when Cedar is recaptured, her continued access to her journal did break my immersion a little, the same way that found footage films where people keep filming a little too well despite the ongoing alien attack or other miscellaneous threat break my immersion. I loved this book enough that it didn't fully pull me out of it - in no small part because I enjoy the literary conceit of this structure in a way which almost directly opposes my distaste for the potentially comparable found footage conceit in movies - but it did weaken the ending for me just a hair.
From a craft perspective, I really enjoyed both the form of the novel as a journal written by protagonist and narrator Cedar to her unborn son and the obscurity of the specifics both of the fundamentalist cult's hostile takeover of the US and the scientific understanding and journalistic communication of the evolutionary event that creates the crisis which gave them leverage to initiate said takeover; they're both smart writing choices and they, respectively, make it easier to hook the reader and focus on the emotional, personal experience of those surviving the event. That said, from a readerly perspective, the lack of information we get about what's happening was a little disappointing even as it increased my experience of tension, and towards the end, when Cedar is recaptured, her continued access to her journal did break my immersion a little, the same way that found footage films where people keep filming a little too well despite the ongoing alien attack or other miscellaneous threat break my immersion. I loved this book enough that it didn't fully pull me out of it - in no small part because I enjoy the literary conceit of this structure in a way which almost directly opposes my distaste for the potentially comparable found footage conceit in movies - but it did weaken the ending for me just a hair.
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Pregnancy
Moderate: Death, Mental illness, Suicide, Torture, Medical trauma
adventurous
inspiring
mysterious
sad
medium-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
4.5/5
I don't know what it is about this book, but it was one of the better books I have read in a while. The book follows the story of Cedar an adopted woman of Native American descent who finds out she is pregnant. Not only is she pregnant, she is pregnant while the world is falling apart. We find that the way in which the world is ending is not what we are used to in a "normal" apocalypse.
There are not many books that end and leave me so...unsettled. The way Erdrich builds the world in the book is both extremely familiar, but so different. There is no really extreme collapse of the world described (burning buildings, zombies wastelands, etc) but as you read, you can tell the world isn't right. The author does an amazing job of not jarring the reader into a world that you cannot relate to.
I highly recommend this book for those who enjoy apocalypse stories but also those who want realism as well. I'm happy I got this book through Book of the Month and I think I will have to pick up more of Erdrich's books.
I don't know what it is about this book, but it was one of the better books I have read in a while. The book follows the story of Cedar an adopted woman of Native American descent who finds out she is pregnant. Not only is she pregnant, she is pregnant while the world is falling apart. We find that the way in which the world is ending is not what we are used to in a "normal" apocalypse.
There are not many books that end and leave me so...unsettled. The way Erdrich builds the world in the book is both extremely familiar, but so different. There is no really extreme collapse of the world described (burning buildings, zombies wastelands, etc) but as you read, you can tell the world isn't right. The author does an amazing job of not jarring the reader into a world that you cannot relate to.
I highly recommend this book for those who enjoy apocalypse stories but also those who want realism as well. I'm happy I got this book through Book of the Month and I think I will have to pick up more of Erdrich's books.
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated