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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
Certainly had great empathy for Jared the main character. I think this book was less confusing than Monkey Beach. I certainly will keep trying to educate myself about Indigenous problems and their causes.
3.5 stars. A solid book about teenage life with magic thrown in for good measure. But... it left me wanting an end rather than wanting a series. I'm not that into reading magic, but I enjoyed the story and characters. Eden Robinson is a great author.
this isn't my normal genre, but it was suggested to me at the library & i am always interested in an indigenous author. i really enjoyed this, it was super quick-paced, it didn't even really bug me that the plot doesn't get going until the second half of the book. i think i'll read the others in the trilogy!
Could not put this down and instead read until 2am... Highly recommend.
This was a lot of things! A coming-of-age story about a 16-year-old boy, a look at blue-collar families within an indigenous reservation, magical realism, and more. I wasn't sure where it was going for the first half (or more) and I feel like everything happened suddenly in the last 100 pages, but I'm still glad I read it.
This was pretty cool in the end. It got off to a slow start, with Jarred mostly drunk/high and partying. The second half of the book was very good though, and I look forward to seeing where the story goes in the next couple of books.
2nd of the 2020 Canada Rads books. Oh this one hovers between a 3 and 4 star read. I enjoyed the characters and the story. I struggled a bit with how much the narrative jumped around but understand the stylistic choice. I wish there was more focus on the magic and was a bit frustrated that it took almost 2/3 of the book before we learned about it in a meaningful way.
This was a great book. However, I do not recommend reading the end of it while you are out camping, deep in nature, with no other people around.
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Hooo boy. Where to start?
For a magic realism book it sure forgot it was magic realism from chapter 4 to the last 75% of the book.
Which would be fine if the character drama was compelling but it really isn’t. Jared is fine but literally every other person is an asshat; the girls are catty stereotypes the likes of which I haven’t seen since the early 00’s, you’ve got a jock character with a mean dad cliché, various other stoner characters that are given names but they only differ in name, a step sister who’s a teen mom who pawns her child off on Jared, an absentee father who steals his money and is addicted to oxy, his abusive psycho mom (who we’re supposed to root for because she’s “”””tough””””) with an abusive psycho boyfriend and an abusive psycho ex-boyfriend who’s somehow worse than the current one for whatever reason. The only character who doesn’t treat Jared like a punching bag abandons him at the end so that his mom can have an I-told-you-so moment.
If the characters are not going to be likeable at the very least make them interesting. But development for characters is practically non-existant. They just suddenly have it shoved in the last three chapters during the falling action. The just spin their wheels doing the same shit: getting high, having sex, getting into fights, repeated ad nauseam, only for the story to decide it want to do something with them in the last 40 pgs.
This book was just plain exhausting.
For a magic realism book it sure forgot it was magic realism from chapter 4 to the last 75% of the book.
Which would be fine if the character drama was compelling but it really isn’t. Jared is fine but literally every other person is an asshat; the girls are catty stereotypes the likes of which I haven’t seen since the early 00’s, you’ve got a jock character with a mean dad cliché, various other stoner characters that are given names but they only differ in name, a step sister who’s a teen mom who pawns her child off on Jared, an absentee father who steals his money and is addicted to oxy, his abusive psycho mom (who we’re supposed to root for because she’s “”””tough””””) with an abusive psycho boyfriend and an abusive psycho ex-boyfriend who’s somehow worse than the current one for whatever reason. The only character who doesn’t treat Jared like a punching bag abandons him at the end so that his mom can have an I-told-you-so moment.
If the characters are not going to be likeable at the very least make them interesting. But development for characters is practically non-existant. They just suddenly have it shoved in the last three chapters during the falling action. The just spin their wheels doing the same shit: getting high, having sex, getting into fights, repeated ad nauseam, only for the story to decide it want to do something with them in the last 40 pgs.
This book was just plain exhausting.