Reviews with content warning for Colonisation - North Woods

Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

spadefootfrog's review

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dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

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danaaliyalevinson's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

I liked this book. Though it came highly recommended and I wanted to love it. And I didn’t. This said, some of things that made me not love it are things that may be right up the alley of other readers: an omniscient third person narrative voice that can sometimes feel a little emotionally detached (not to be confused with the book being unemotional, it’s a very emotional book. Only that the narrator is giving us that emotion from a very outside perspective), and nearly every chapter featuring a totally new central character all linked together through living in or attachment to a single house over centuries.

Which for me, I tend to be attracted to very character driven books, and so being presented with a new central character each chapter just as I was getting to know the previous one was difficult for me to get into. But what I will say is, the book is super interesting. It’s very concept driven and the concept is incredibly compelling. One of the things I really did love in its concept was the usage of ephemera. Oftentimes, between chapters, there would be things like photographs, news clippings, obituaries, poems, journal excerpts, etc, which really made the world feel so real and palpable.

So for those who love somewhat experimental concept driven books, you will likely love this. And there are multiple characters who I did find incredibly compelling and was sad to depart from so quickly when the book moved on to a new inhabitant of the house. The book is also undeniably very well written and constructed. I think that while it wasn’t a five star read for me, it would be a five star read for many others. In fact I already recommended it to two different friends who I think would absolutely lose their minds over this book based on their reading tastes. So don’t let my criticism deter you if this is the kind of storytelling you like!

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mmccombs's review against another edition

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reflective medium-paced

5.0

I absolutely adored this book! So creative and fresh, the prose was lovely and the mix of mediums (chapters, letters, songs, images) was so engaging. Following one house through time made for an incredibly interesting character study, the setting being the main character and the people flowing in and out of it character development. The way nature was described filled me with wonder and made me want to go on a hike (and I do not hike!), but also made me interrogate how humans have perceived “nature” over time. I loved thinking about how each inhabitant of the yellow house came to it with different intentions, with different relationships to the solitude and wildness it offered. And seeing how characters we meet show up later for other characters, how their actions are remembered when so much of their context is lost to time. It was also unexpectedly pretty funny, like there was some silly content and really funny bits that caught me by surprise. Basically this was a book that I enjoyed just thinking about, one that I will probably continue to engage with and reread!

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mscalls's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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town_scar's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

Have we not all looked at houses all around the world and pondered what history the walls may tell? What the earth might know?

This novel is a true masterpiece. A combination of prose and poetry that embodies naturalism and spiritualism at its core.

Perhaps my only gripe is that I wish there had been a greater focus on non-White individuals. The main owners of the house are all white (with a single brief exception) and while the original inhabitants of the land are acknowledged they are not given a voice.

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ashleyjean6's review

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dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Original and well written! It's genre defying: historical fiction, ghost story, thriller, academic essay, nature essay, poetry. It is also both a novel, but one made up of many short stories tied together by a place. The book starts during the 1600s and continues to modern day and beyond. Without spoiling things, I can't add much details. Only to say that while the overall tone of each story is typically a combination of sad and bizarre, it is also thought provoking and inspiring in its sheer creativity. Highly recommend. The audiobook was also very well done!!

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