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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
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:
No
Set in an alternate world where a country is split in two, and the only way to get from the Gutter to the Mainland is to pay off your debt to society. Fair enough? Except who is in the Gutter and how they can 'redeem' themselves is a long way from just, and the Gutter is largely inescapable. The book follows Elimina, a young girl who is part of a project to raise Gutter children in the Mainland, but whose world gets turned on its head when her Mother dies, and the project is terminated.
This is a brilliant book, but it felt very mis-sold as adult fiction. I'd class it YA (although I'm learning YA as a term means everything and nothing). It is a very direct commentary on colonialism and apartheid, and more broadly racism, the class system, and capitalism. It also spends a lot of time reflecting on the importance of belonging, the difficulties of bridging two social groups, and isolation. Older teens and adults who don't really understand / haven't honestly confronted colonialism and other social systems will get a lot from it. Its prose style is pretty bland, and the emotional distress of the characters is only explored at a surface level (hence feeling more YA), but that doesn't take away from the ability of the story to move you as it builds up the many layers of oppression, and shatters the mirages of hope, so there is no 'happy' ending.
It would be the perfect school or book club discussion prompt to educate on the compounding effect of disadvantages and privileges, as well as a great segway to learning about historical and current social injustices when the inevitable 'That would neverโฆ' arises.
Overall not a great literary work, but a brilliant encapsulation of pertinent ideas and topics on which hypocrisy still abounds.
โ๐ ๐จ๐ช๐ณ๐ญ ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ฏ๐ด ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฐ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ด ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ท๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณโฆ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ฏ๐ด ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ข๐ตโ๐ด ๐จ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ข๐ตโ๐ด ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ญ๐บ ๐ข๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฆ๐ญ๐ง, ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ถ๐ณ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ข๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ต ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ด ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ช๐ง๐ง๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ณ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ช๐ต ๐ช๐ด ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฆ๐ญ๐ง. ๐๐ด๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ค๐ช๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐บ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐บ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ข๐ณ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฆ๐ญ๐ญ๐ด ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆโ๐ด ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ณ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต.โ
What I liked about the book: I could not put the book down. The story was well written and I wanted to know what came next for the characters. Without giving anything away - I like the ending. It was appropriate.
What I was not a fan of : The subject matter. The story of displacing and treating indigenous people horribly is one that has been done (in real life) over and over. It is both frustrating to hear and read about as I do not understand why it was ever done. I usually do not read these books.
Therefore, I give Jael Richardson, two thumbs up that they were able to keep me engaged and I finished this book relatively quickly.
What I was not a fan of : The subject matter. The story of displacing and treating indigenous people horribly is one that has been done (in real life) over and over. It is both frustrating to hear and read about as I do not understand why it was ever done. I usually do not read these books.
Therefore, I give Jael Richardson, two thumbs up that they were able to keep me engaged and I finished this book relatively quickly.
A great look at what colonization can do to a country and a people. Would be a great book for HS students to study to make comparisons between events in the book and how different t parts of the world have been colonized.
challenging
dark
emotional
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:
No
2024, books-to-never-read-again
[edit] | I heard about this book when it was first coming out a few years back on The Shit No One Tells You About Writing podcast. I have since stopped listening because my taste in books and writing differed quite a lot from the hosts, and because of that, I should have taken this book off my TBR.
This book is a train-wreck. And the author's purpose and message hit you just as hard.
There is nothing subtle about this book. It is the story of colonization futurized. Basically you have the Mainlanders who came to a new continent, kicked the natives off their land, and forced them to live in the gutter and be enslaved people with a set amount of debt they have to pay off before they can earn "redemption freedom". As made obvious by the fact that I picked up this book, I thought the premise was filed with promise. The actual delivery? A hot mess.
Let me list the ways:
The main character is quite dumb. I get that she is fourteen when the book starts, and she has been sheltered, but she constantly asked questions that shouldn't have needed asking, was blind to things it seemed impossible to be blind to. She also was so emotionally volatile and immature. She created drama and fights off the littlest provocation. That may sound normal for a YA book, but this book was not marketed as YA, and even if it was, it was heavy-handed even for that market.
The "Gutter" is not presented in a consistent manner. While Elimina lives on the mainland, the picture painted of the Gutter is bleak, bringing to the mind's eye a true hovel--no running water, shack-like structures, death and decay everywhere. It was also spoken of as a place that you cannot go back to once you leave. But then, once Eliminia is living there, people have real houses, real jobs, there are hospitals and parks and trees. They drink lemonade on front porches. And people return to the Gutter with ease. It's not presented as Eliminia merely having the wrong idea about the place--which would make sense; it's just a lack of consistency.
I AM SICK TO DEATH OF UNEXPECTED PREGNANCY AS A PLOT LINE. Women have SO much more complexity to their lives merely than being a vessel for other lives. As soon as the plot moved in this direction, the power of this book simply left for me. The character lost any possibility of interesting development (I was looking for a strong, kick-ass protagonist to take down the system). Until that point, it had been around a 3 star read and dropped to a 2. (That's not to mention the the fact that the boy who gets her pregnant decides to initiate sex with her right after she's divulged being molested. That is gross on his part, at best.)
The rest of the plot after the pregnancy just simply does not exist. From there, the book wanders like a sleepwalker and spins its wheels in the mud. The fact that Elimina is the last one alive from her "project" is not only a tired "Chosen One" sort of plot, but one that ends up going absolutely no where. And don't even get me started on the ending, if you can call it that. The last fifty pages neither bring you to a conclusion or a cliff hanger. The words just quietly meander until the book falls into a blessed silence. The relief I had in finishing was great, and in those fifty pages, the book devolved to a 1 star.
Finally, the writing overall is lackluster and poor in its technical qualities. How time moves in the novel is confusing at best, especially towards the end. In dialogue, people do not say each other's names that often. The poems referenced would have been more powerful if the audience had actually seen them. There is no build up or explanation of the "love" that is developing between Eliminia and David at the end of the book, and we barely see the letters that they exchange, which would have allowed for at least some understanding.
Unfortunately, nothing in this book was done with a deft hand but rather was constructed with the brute force of a sledge hammer. This book has debut novel written all over it.
[edit] | I heard about this book when it was first coming out a few years back on The Shit No One Tells You About Writing podcast. I have since stopped listening because my taste in books and writing differed quite a lot from the hosts, and because of that, I should have taken this book off my TBR.
This book is a train-wreck. And the author's purpose and message hit you just as hard.
There is nothing subtle about this book. It is the story of colonization futurized. Basically you have the Mainlanders who came to a new continent, kicked the natives off their land, and forced them to live in the gutter and be enslaved people with a set amount of debt they have to pay off before they can earn "redemption freedom". As made obvious by the fact that I picked up this book, I thought the premise was filed with promise. The actual delivery? A hot mess.
Let me list the ways:
The main character is quite dumb. I get that she is fourteen when the book starts, and she has been sheltered, but she constantly asked questions that shouldn't have needed asking, was blind to things it seemed impossible to be blind to. She also was so emotionally volatile and immature. She created drama and fights off the littlest provocation. That may sound normal for a YA book, but this book was not marketed as YA, and even if it was, it was heavy-handed even for that market.
The "Gutter" is not presented in a consistent manner. While Elimina lives on the mainland, the picture painted of the Gutter is bleak, bringing to the mind's eye a true hovel--no running water, shack-like structures, death and decay everywhere. It was also spoken of as a place that you cannot go back to once you leave. But then, once Eliminia is living there, people have real houses, real jobs, there are hospitals and parks and trees. They drink lemonade on front porches. And people return to the Gutter with ease. It's not presented as Eliminia merely having the wrong idea about the place--which would make sense; it's just a lack of consistency.
I AM SICK TO DEATH OF UNEXPECTED PREGNANCY AS A PLOT LINE. Women have SO much more complexity to their lives merely than being a vessel for other lives. As soon as the plot moved in this direction, the power of this book simply left for me. The character lost any possibility of interesting development (I was looking for a strong, kick-ass protagonist to take down the system). Until that point, it had been around a 3 star read and dropped to a 2. (That's not to mention the the fact that the boy who gets her pregnant decides to initiate sex with her right after she's divulged being molested. That is gross on his part, at best.)
The rest of the plot after the pregnancy just simply does not exist. From there, the book wanders like a sleepwalker and spins its wheels in the mud. The fact that Elimina is the last one alive from her "project" is not only a tired "Chosen One" sort of plot, but one that ends up going absolutely no where. And don't even get me started on the ending, if you can call it that. The last fifty pages neither bring you to a conclusion or a cliff hanger. The words just quietly meander until the book falls into a blessed silence. The relief I had in finishing was great, and in those fifty pages, the book devolved to a 1 star.
Finally, the writing overall is lackluster and poor in its technical qualities. How time moves in the novel is confusing at best, especially towards the end. In dialogue, people do not say each other's names that often. The poems referenced would have been more powerful if the audience had actually seen them. There is no build up or explanation of the "love" that is developing between Eliminia and David at the end of the book, and we barely see the letters that they exchange, which would have allowed for at least some understanding.
Unfortunately, nothing in this book was done with a deft hand but rather was constructed with the brute force of a sledge hammer. This book has debut novel written all over it.
Suffered through a lot of nothing really happening to be screwed on the non-ending. Book would have flown across the room if it hadn't been audio format. Could have been so great. Could have been a sequel. Instead I was left with nothing. This was a freebie from Audible so nothing out of pocket which was the only redeeming feature about this book.
Thereโs nothing better for me than a really good dystopia and Jael Richardsonโs Gutter child delivered just that!! The story follows Elimina Dubois as she comes to terms with being born into the โGutter systemโ - a form of indentured servitude and that she will have to work all her life to achieve โRedemption Freedom.โ A heartbreaking coming of age story that deals with racial injustices and has strong connections with the society we live in today (as the best dystopians do). I really enjoyed the allusions to Langston Hughes poems and how Elimina fought hard for her family and dreams despite living in a seemingly hopeless system where many others gave in or gave up: โIโm trying not to lose heart, but I feel like weโre trapped in a cage of injustice.โ I heard the author give a virtual talk with the KPL and she was amazing. I was excited to learn sheโs working on a sequel and that thereโs already great enthusiasm to have Gutter child worked into high school curriculums. This book pairs really well with other high-calibre Canadian dystopias like The Handmaidโs tale, Crosshairs, The illegal and The birth yard. If youโre looking for your next great read this is it! HIGHLY recommend Gutter child. It is excellent on audio too! This book will definitely be on my favourites list for 2021!
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I could not put this book down when I started it. It is an extremely compelling YA take on colonization, indigenous history, residential schools, and political movements aiming to fight against that oppression through some efficient world-building and deeply compelling and empathetic characters. The plot and pacing are taut, like a good thriller, but without losing its emotional centre or leaving character development behind. I would strongly recommend this for anyone looking for a way to educate themselves or kids and adolescents.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Racism, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Colonisation
Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Torture
A must-read dรฉbut from Jael Richardson that mixes colonial history with dystopia from the perspective of a young girl who is desperate for the basics of life: justice, compassion, acceptance, family, love.
Very relevant in todayโs global contexts.
Very relevant in todayโs global contexts.