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hothotheat's review against another edition
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
for the 1998 book. best parts of the book were easily how erdrich writes and talks about grief and it's expanding impact on everyone's lives, long after their deaths. when rozin makes food for both richard and deanna? when she has the dream and frank gives her his skin? OK!!!! only things are: could've done without the horny dogs and the organization of the last part was kind of weird and disjointed to me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide
Moderate: Alcoholism and Child death
sometimes_samantha_reads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.25
This one just wasn't for me... I was pretty excited about it based on the summary and I tend to enjoy magical realism, but after Part One I started to get lost. There were multiple speakers/narrators so the point of view (1st, 2nd, and 3rd!) was constantly changing and I was confused about who was talking. The time shifted a lot too and it wasn't always clear if we were in the past or present because there was a lot of mixing past and present tense writing within the same chapters. The magical realism was one element that could have been implemented earlier because it seemed it was "tacked on" toward the middle of the book.
I appreciated the authors sentiment in the afterward about how she went back to revise and added extra bits for some of the characters but I think it made the story more muddled and hard to follow (though I didn't read the original publication).
The ending, I thought, was way too tidy for how chaotic the rest of the book was. I was disappointed in it. I tries really hard to understand and enjoy this one, but unfortunately it just wasn't my thing.
I appreciated the authors sentiment in the afterward about how she went back to revise and added extra bits for some of the characters but I think it made the story more muddled and hard to follow (though I didn't read the original publication).
The ending, I thought, was way too tidy for how chaotic the rest of the book was. I was disappointed in it. I tries really hard to understand and enjoy this one, but unfortunately it just wasn't my thing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Stalking, Violence, Trafficking, Suicide, Death, Blood, Addiction, Self harm, Kidnapping, Infidelity, Genocide, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, War, Pregnancy, Colonisation, Body horror, Animal death, and Alcoholism
Minor: Gaslighting, Cultural appropriation, and Incest
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