Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Bad Cree by Jessica Johns

12 reviews

mikki_9's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, and Grief

Moderate: Animal death

Minor: Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Racism, Colonisation, Death, Addiction, and Alcohol

kelly_e's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense 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

4.25

Title: Bad Cree
Author: Jessica Johns
Genre: Magical Realism
Rating: 4.25
Pub Date: January 10, 2023

T H R E E • W O R D S

Beautiful • Haunting • Layered

📖 S Y N O P S I S

Mackenzie, a Cree millennial, wakes up in her one-bedroom Vancouver apartment clutching a pine bough she had been holding in her dream just moments earlier. When she blinks, it disappears. But she can still smell the sharp pine scent in the air, the nearest pine tree a thousand kilometres away in the far reaches of Treaty 8.

Mackenzie continues to accidentally bring back items from her dreams, dreams that are eerily similar to real memories of her older sister and Kokum before their untimely deaths. As Mackenzie’s life spirals into a living nightmare—crows are following her around and she’s getting texts from her dead sister on the other side—it becomes clear that these dreams have terrifying, real-life consequences. Desperate for help, Mackenzie returns to her mother, sister, cousin, and aunties in her small Alberta hometown. Together, they try to uncover what is haunting Mackenzie before something irrevocable happens to anyone else around her.

💭 T H O U G H T S

Bad Cree was already on my TBR, yet it definitely got bumped up the list after landing on the 2024 Canada Reads shortlist. Marketed as a horror, I really wasn't quite sure what to expect, but a few bookish friends told me it wasn't 'horror' in the typical sense of the genre.

With poetic writing, I was instantly hooked by the opening scene of this deeply atmospheric and urgent story. Advancing at a slow meander, it was absolutely disturbing and unsettling at times, yet each of the characters were so real, leaping off the page. There is so much beyond the brutality - an underlying thread focusing on familial (particularly female) bonds, grief and generational trauma. Delving into the very real horrors POC continue to face as a result of systemic oppression, the social commentary never takes over.

I really appreciated getting to know more about Cree traditions and customs, the connections to the spiritual and natural worlds, and the role of dreams. Jessica Johns does a fabulous job portraying the isolating nature of grief - not only from death, but from the impacts of industrialization and colonization as well. Everything was just very well done to not detract from the plot.

Bad Cree is an exceptional and gripping debut from a rising Indigenous voice. It took me by surprise, and I will be keeping an eye out for what Jessica Johns is working on next. I suspect this one will fair quite well in the upcoming Canada Reads debates happening March 4th-7th. If I had to pick a winner, this would likely be it. Regardless of how it does, I definitely think this is one book all Canadians should read.

📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• readers looking for something different
• realistic horror enthusiasts
• anyone looking for a new author

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"One thing they don’t tell you about when someone you love dies because of a sickness is that death happens in a million different ways in the lead up to the actual moment."

"That might be the worst thing about death: it doesn't stop anything. The world keeps moving, even though the pain is just as real as the day it settled in." 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Body horror, Blood, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Colonisation, Alcoholism, Murder, Vomit, Animal death, Violence, Addiction, and Mental illness

Minor: Cannibalism, Death of parent, Religious bigotry, Cancer, and Kidnapping

sibling death

directorpurry's review against another edition

emotional mysterious 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Body horror

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Racism, and Violence

Minor: Death of parent and Kidnapping

danicaleblanc's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Body horror

Minor: Death and Death of parent

glutenfreemaggie's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Gore, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Blood, Murder, Vomit, Cancer, Cannibalism, Violence, Cursing, and Injury/Injury detail

throwback682's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Body horror, Blood, Grief, Abandonment, Animal death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Moderate: Drug use, Alcoholism, and Cancer

Minor: Kidnapping

shadestate's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

What a wonderful, raw exploration of grief, community, and guilt. How avoiding deep pain doesn't make it disappear. It just gets a chance to linger and fester. I loved how Mackenzie, the main character, was deeply flawed. 

Anxious, avoidant, pushing people away because she feels like a burden. Unable to ask for help. Falling into the trap that pretending you're okay is the same as not making your loved ones worried. Yet still loved by her family and friends. Because we all have our flaws, the bad. 

 

A five of cups book at its core. Definitely want to reread this late October, when I think the pages will speak even more than they did now, at the start of spring. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Abandonment, Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Colonisation

Moderate: Mental illness, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Racism, and Child death

Minor: Sexual harassment, Sexism, Body horror, and Murder

spineofthesaurus's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Gore

Moderate: Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, and Terminal illness

Minor: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Colonisation, Abandonment, and Cannibalism

annemaries_shelves's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.0

Bad Cree was a very anticipated book for me and it didn't disappoint. It's a solid debut that explores family, grief, and the importance of dreams. Johns spends a lot of time expanding on our main character's sense of her place within her family and the burden Mackenzie imagines she is to them at times. I loved the sister/cousin and auntie/niece dynamics and how they manage to reconcile and grow stronger and learn to rely on each other once more. There's a lot about grief here - and how one handles grief, that I thought was well done but could've gone deeper. 

The dreams - and their power - were some of my favourite parts. Beyond exploring the importance of dreams to Cree people, Johns effectively used them to up the tension for the reader as she brought the plot to a climax and resolution.

I would classify this is a literary genre novel with horror elements, grounded in Cree worldviews.
For those interested in LGBTQIA+ rep, there a minor character who uses they/them pronouns (so I assume they're nonbinary) and one of the MC's close relatives is either bi/pan as they have dated men and women. 

Overall, a solid debut and I'd love to read more of her future works.

I predicted that it would be a wendigo - or wheetigo per the book's spelling - but it was still a satisfying reveal and resolution.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Grief

Moderate: Death of parent, Death, Body horror, and Colonisation

Minor: Car accident, Alcoholism, and Panic attacks/disorders

blacksphinx's review

emotional hopeful mysterious 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

Somehow this is the third horror novel I've read this year about grief and the second about the death of a family member, and it's my favorite handling of the subject. At its heart, this is a novel about how you can't outrun your grief no matter how much it pains you to feel it. 

It was also wonderful to see the treatment of a piece of indigenous folklore that is often misused and cheapened by outsiders being handled by someone from that culture!

If you're looking for something that will chill you to the bone and keep you up at night, I don't think this will do it for you. It is eerie and disorienting, focusing more on untangling a mystery than being scared. A peak atmospheric read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, and Blood

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Alcoholism, Death, and Death of parent

Minor: Racism