Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

A Council of Dolls by Mona Susan Power

15 reviews

dogoodwithbooks's review

challenging reflective sad 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

4.0

 A Council of Dolls is an eye-opening read of three generations of Native American women and their connection to their dolls. With a POV split between the three women, each POV tells a haunting story of the abuse Native Americans have been subjected to for years and how they turn to their dolls for comfort and guidance. Adding touches of magical realism, Power’s historical fiction novel captures the generational trauma passed down from each woman and how to ultimately heal from it. If you’re a fan of the multi-generational sagas found in books like Memphis by Tara M. Stringfellow, you might like this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Racism, Colonisation, Murder, and Child abuse

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, and Police brutality

Minor: War, Fire/Fire injury, and Suicide

sangsmiles's review

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Racism, Emotional abuse, and Child abuse

Moderate: Violence, Genocide, Child death, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Animal death and Suicide

candaceross321's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Genocide, Death of parent, Addiction, Domestic abuse, Racism, Mental illness, Death, Alcoholism, Colonisation, and Religious bigotry

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

zoracious's review

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

jordynkw's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Colonisation, Genocide, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Death of parent, Death, Religious bigotry, Confinement, and Xenophobia

spacescape's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Domestic abuse, Slavery, Murder, Misogyny, Mental illness, Genocide, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Cultural appropriation, Confinement, Racism, Death of parent, Death, and Colonisation

Minor: Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, Sexual violence, and Suicide

careinthelibrary's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Racism, Violence, Religious bigotry, Murder, Child abuse, Child death, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Death, Genocide, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Police brutality, Suicide, and Mental illness

Minor: War

mh_s's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective medium-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Colonisation

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Fire/Fire injury, and Miscarriage

serendipitysbooks's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

 

A Council of Dolls is the story of three generations of Dakota women. It clearly shows the harms done by residential schools and lets the readers see intergenerational trauma in action. I can have mixed reactions to magical realism but here it was done to perfection. I loved seeing the different roles the dolls fulfilled for the girls - companionship, support, protection, advice, love, a feeling of safety- many of which might have been provided by their mothers had they been able to parent in the way they would surely have wished. The novel is structured as a series of three stories which are told in reverse chronological order with the mother in the first story, being the girl in the next, and her mother being a child in the third. It was effective at showing the links between harmful and undesirable behaviours and underlying trauma, and was a a good reminder not to judge people, especially when you don’t know their full story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism