Reviews tagging 'Rape'

A Council of Dolls by Mona Susan Power

3 reviews

thiswasatriumph's review

challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I am thinking of this book in terms of windows and mirrors, and in conversation with my wife who read it before me. I am on the other side of this equation: my family own land belonging to the Miami and benefited from the policies of removal and genocide. I live on unceded Dakota land. And yet those miseries inflicted upon people like Jesse's family failed to make mine happy. The destruction of their culture has impoverished mine. We lack stories, our memories extending no further than a single human lifetime. I have worked, like Jesse, to recover lost memories, though my methods are less profound and affecting. The results of my work mean much to me, but they are like the twined-tied boxes. Very little of my work speaks to me, and none of it speaks past me. I worry that it will be my life gathering only for another dispersal because my people do not care about their history. No one is trying to destroy it, though it is precious. We discard it as rubbish. What have we gained for all this suffering inflicted? How can we move forward? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Forced institutionalization, Body horror, Child death, and Genocide

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Violence, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Rape, Child abuse, and Slavery

Minor: Alcoholism, Abandonment, Alcohol, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Panic attacks/disorders, and Racial slurs

littlecottagereads's review

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A

5.0

This was one of the most moving novels I’ve read in a while. Mona Susan Power writes gorgeously devastating prose about the generational trauma of 3 generations of women. The story is told through a different children’s POV for 3/4 of the story and it truly reads like a memoir. In the author’s notes, she writes that while the story is fictional, many of the events and inspiration were drawn from her own family history and the traumatic experiences many Native Americans children experienced while attending boarding schools.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Child death

Moderate: Racism and Rape

readingwithkaitlyn's review

dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Racism, Child abuse, Death of parent, Violence, Death, Child death, Forced institutionalization, Alcoholism, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Infidelity, Terminal illness, Hate crime, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Confinement, Sexual violence, Genocide, Racial slurs, Murder, Colonisation, Blood, Sexual harassment, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Grief, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Pregnancy, Sexual content, Miscarriage, War, Excrement, Slavery, Vomit, Ableism, Rape, Incest, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, and Suicide

Mention of serial killer, segregation, Korean War, boarding schools, Dakota 38, Whitestone Hill, hangings, Wounded Knee, Carlisle, and starvation.