Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Chouette by Claire Oshetsky

28 reviews

serendipitysbooks's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective 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

4.0

 Chouette is the strangest book I've read in a while, a modern fable about mothering a child who falls outside the accepted norm. Tiny is a cello player who somehow becomes pregnant to her (female) owl lover and gives birth to an owl-baby. Her husband intitally struggles with the baby's differences, but then focusses his attention on therapies, treatment and doctors to give Chouette, whom he calls Charlotte and refers to as "our girl", a better life, in other words to try and make her "normal". Tiny, meanwhile, fiercely and unconditionally loves her owl-baby, believes she is perfect as she is, is fixated on letting Chouette be her true self, and wants others to love and accept her for who she is. Tiny is disappointed and increasingly lonely when Chouette isn't accepted, becomes burnt out from trying to accommodate all her special needs, and, of course, increasingly alienated from her husband. A paean for the unconditional love of a mother and for children being unapologetically, joyfully themselves. 
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kristasorocks's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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imrereads's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

Wow! What an incredible story, written so beautifully and melodically. I want to echo the quotes on the cover of ny edition, calling it magnificent, a marvel, and sublime.

This is the story of a mother (Tiny) and her child (Chouette), her owl-baby, this little one with her strange apparence, who will never learn to walk or talk and causes chaos wherever she goes. Her mother loves her for who she is while the father want to try any and every treatmwnt available to make her better (or rather make her normative — because underneath the strange magical realism we find a story about parenting a non-normative child.)

This is a strange and queer book about fierce motherly love, disability and ability, and breaking free from expectations. It opens with this wonderful passage:
"I dream I'm making tender love with an owl. The next morning I see talon marks across my chest that trace the path of my owl-lober's embrace. Two weeks later I learn that I'm pregnant.
You may wonder: How could such a thing come to pass between a woman and an owl?
I, too, am astounded, because my owl-lover was a woman."
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bookishmagpie's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

what did i just read
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readingpicnic's review against another edition

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5.0

I was hooked by the first page! Such weird and captivating writing that I finished it in one day. Such a heartbreaking story about the isolation of motherhood coupled with having a disabled child that her husband wants to “fix” (autism speaks vibes). I love how she never gave up on her owl daughter and that she understood that there was nothing to fix about her daughter; that the world needs to be fixed to be a more accessible and accepting place for Chouette. I loved the queerness of this book as well, in all its many layers. Overall, a stellar book. This is like The Fifth Child if the mom hadn’t been ableist also. 
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scorpi07's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

That was… weird? What an oddly affirming tale of the sacrifices of motherhood. Though this story is strangely magical, dark, and left me wondering what just happened, I kind of loved it. 
I’ve stumbled across several books in this vein. I like the magical realism and the lack of clarity on what *really* just transpired. 
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redrockhoney's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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dannysercia's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

While to writing in this book is very beautiful at times, using wild animals as a metaphor for raising an autistic child seems pretty ableist. 
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alyssapusateri's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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seawarrior's review against another edition

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5.0

Chouette is a wild, lyrical novel I immediately recognized as a metaphor for raising a disabled child, specifically an autistic one. While Oshetsky relating her experience raising her autistic daughter to Tiny raising an owl-baby may seem questionable to some readers, I personally feel drawn to stories that depict trauma through allegorical and impossible means. And while Tiny suffers immensely in raising her daughter, it's Chouette who is in the most danger from a world so repulsed by her that it would dehumanize her in order to alter her natural state.

I gleefully suspended my disbelief while reading this story, relishing in Tiny's devotion to her daughter and Chouette's unembarrassed honesty and wanton destruction. Throughout the book, Chouette's father, who noticeably calls his daughter by the wrong name, refuses to interact with her unless he's found a new medical intervention. While some of these interventions are imagined, others that are briefly mentioned, such as forcing a child to ingest poisonous chemicals, are abuses that have been documented as supposed "cures" for autism: Parents are poisoning their children with bleach to 'cure' autism. These moms are trying to stop it (https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/moms-go-undercover-fight-fake-autism-cures-private-facebook-groups-n1007871). Alternately, Tiny learns what Chouette needs and frenziedly provides it for her, while warring against her private doubts that Chouette's aggressively determined father may be right that she must be profoundly altered in order to exist peacefully in the world. I was moved by the meaning of this story, and exhilarated by its unconventional approach and rich descriptions of the natural world. While this novel may not be understood, much less loved by some readers, I treasured Chouette and its strangeness. 
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