Reviews

Little Big Bully by Heid E. Erdrich

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notoriousesr's review against another edition

challenging reflective medium-paced

4.25

Little Big Bully is a poetry collection from Ojibwe writer Heid E. Erdrich. In it, she writes about love, history, genocide, and the current political moment, all through an indigenous lens.

This might be the first poetry book I’ve listened to as an audiobook and actually enjoyed. It felt like going to a reading by the author, and though I couldn’t see the line breaks visually, Erdrich is a good reader (NOT overwrought, like many poets, thank god) and the intimacy of her voice, to me, outweighed whatever I was missing by not reading it on paper. There were no poems that I particularly didn’t like, and standouts include “Big Sir”, “The Bully Treaty”, and “Story of the Charismenace”. Her use of language was very particular, and while sometimes I wish there was a little more variety in the collection, I feel like I recognize little quirks of her singular poetic voice--there’s nothing generic about it. 4 out of 5 bad apocalypse movies.

nunnabunny's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

4.0

bookishmillennial's review against another edition

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spectacular collection of poetry!
themes of sexism, sexual violence, colonisation, generational trauma
the author's note at the end provides great context!

carpenoctumpoetry's review against another edition

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4.0

Erdrich truly never misses. The voice and passion in this work and its uniquely formatted poems come together into a work that is powerful and special.

samidhak's review against another edition

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3.0

Very interesting and very empowering. Poetry shines through when it merges culture and trauma and Heid Erdrich does it very well. Some bits were a bit too whimsical for me, such that I had to read over and over, but that’s the way poetry is written, so no complaints.