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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Was up at 11:30 last night trying to finish it :-)! Unfortunately work got in the way today but as soon as I signed off, I ignored the family and finished the read. I sure hope there's a sequel. Would love to know how life turns out for Elilima.
This may be a novel that I’ll have to reread again at a later time. It could be that I wasn’t completely present for it this time around. Whether it was me or the novel itself, I struggled staying focused while reading, it didn’t hold my attention.
When I received this novel in my very first “Sweet Reads” subscription box, I was so excited for it! This book has received positive praise from many beloved authors, and the synopsis definitely had me intrigued! I recognize this is an unpopular opinion, but I feel as though this book just didn’t deliver. I
desperately wanted to like this novel more than I actually did.
The good: This novel uses themes of class/status and oppression to draw parallels between the author’s fictional world, and our own. The auctioning off of people for employment is comparable to our dark history of slavery. I loved how the author was able to integrate these important issues/themes into her book.
The bad: Despite this, I still found this novel hard to love. I would appreciate if more time/effort was put into creating this fictional world. Compared to other dystopian-type novels, I felt as if there was next to no description the settling, politics, and people. It is hard to understand the dynamics of a fictional place when there’s not a lot to go off of. I just didn’t feel as if I was truly immersed in it.
In addition to this, I found that this novel struggled to clearly indicate the passing of time. Maybe it’s just me, but it seemed to jump forward in time without much warning/indication. With that said, this novel is quite fast paced, and I often felt as if parts of the plot were glazed over. It just felt a little rushed to me. Maybe this is why I felt that it never really went anywhere?
I had high hopes for this book when I first picked it up. This is likely why I find myself so critical of it today. I love the concept of this novel, just not how it was executed.
When I received this novel in my very first “Sweet Reads” subscription box, I was so excited for it! This book has received positive praise from many beloved authors, and the synopsis definitely had me intrigued! I recognize this is an unpopular opinion, but I feel as though this book just didn’t deliver. I
desperately wanted to like this novel more than I actually did.
The good: This novel uses themes of class/status and oppression to draw parallels between the author’s fictional world, and our own. The auctioning off of people for employment is comparable to our dark history of slavery. I loved how the author was able to integrate these important issues/themes into her book.
The bad: Despite this, I still found this novel hard to love. I would appreciate if more time/effort was put into creating this fictional world. Compared to other dystopian-type novels, I felt as if there was next to no description the settling, politics, and people. It is hard to understand the dynamics of a fictional place when there’s not a lot to go off of. I just didn’t feel as if I was truly immersed in it.
In addition to this, I found that this novel struggled to clearly indicate the passing of time. Maybe it’s just me, but it seemed to jump forward in time without much warning/indication. With that said, this novel is quite fast paced, and I often felt as if parts of the plot were glazed over. It just felt a little rushed to me. Maybe this is why I felt that it never really went anywhere?
I had high hopes for this book when I first picked it up. This is likely why I find myself so critical of it today. I love the concept of this novel, just not how it was executed.
challenging
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
4.5 stars. She did a lovely job of creating a dystopian but realistic world of class and race based inequalities secondary to colonialism. The characters are well written and beautiful. I only wish the ending was a bit deeper and detailed, it felt rushed.
My most anticipated of early 2021 did not disappoint! If you’re looking for a book that explores the affects (effects?) of colonization and institutional racism, this is for you! You’ll definitely learn something.
Sure, this book is marketed for adults but our main characters are teens so that might be a bit off putting for you, but the story is what matters here!
I really don’t want to say too much, because I don’t want to spoil the story! But just know that this novel is worth the read, and I can see it being such a great powerhouse for schools, and finally getting on the school reading lists that are outdated to begin with.
Sure, this book is marketed for adults but our main characters are teens so that might be a bit off putting for you, but the story is what matters here!
I really don’t want to say too much, because I don’t want to spoil the story! But just know that this novel is worth the read, and I can see it being such a great powerhouse for schools, and finally getting on the school reading lists that are outdated to begin with.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
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
Gutter Child is set in a fictional world where a class of people are forced to work off their debt to society to achieve freedom. Our protagonist, Elimina, was part of an experiment, a gutter child who was taken from her family and raised amongst mainlanders where she never really seemed to be accepted. When as a teenager her adopted mainlander mother passes away she is forced into the gutter child lifestyle of working off her debt. The novel takes the reader through Elimina's navigation of this system as she learns what it means to be a gutter child.
Gutter Child was such a powerful and captivating read. It instantly has become a book I will recommend for years to come and am very much looking forward to re-reading.
⭐5/5 stars⭐
Gutter Child was such a powerful and captivating read. It instantly has become a book I will recommend for years to come and am very much looking forward to re-reading.
⭐5/5 stars⭐
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
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:
Complicated
This book was excellent, but it was hard. It was really hard to confront the topics Richardson talked about in this novel.
I would call this a work of dystopian speculative fiction, though I’m not an expert and not sure if that would technically be correct.
In this novel you follow Elimina, who was taken from her Gutter mother as a baby to be raised by a Mainlander. When her mother dies at the beginning of the story, leaving her without another soul who loves her, Elimina is sent to Livingstone Academy. At this academy, she meets, for the first time, other people “like her,” people she would come to learn are Sossi, the proper name for the people the Mainlanders dubbed “Gutter people.”
It is through her exposure to her peers that we begin to see that while Elimina’s mother loved her, and Elimina loved her mother, the relationship was complicated. Elimina as a child could not understand why every other Mainlander hated her. Why they wouldn’t offer her and her mother services offered to other Mainlanders. We learn that Elimina has been bald her entire life because her (white) mother did not know how to care for her adoptive daughters (Black) hair. There is a deeply moving scene when Elimina first arrived at the academy and has her hair done my a Black woman for the first time, and isn’t forced to just shave her head.
After some time spent at the Academy, Elimina attends the Hiring Fair as the headmasters assistant. It is hard to read this scene without likening it to chattel slavery. Gutter youths are hired off to wealthy Mainlanders to work off the “debt” they owe them. (This debt is bogus but something all Sossi must endure). The debt is something most Sossi never get free of, and most of the money they make goes to anyone but themselves, including debt managers and the headmasters of the academies they were raised at. It is important here to note that far as I can tell, these academies are used only for free labour and to train Gutter children to enter the workforce. There is even a point where Elimina’s good friend goes to auction, sold to the highest bidder.
When Elimina learns she’s pregnant, she is sent to a home for “troubled” girls. At this home, the Academy aged girls carry their babies, only to have the “property” reclaimed by the Mainland government whether these girls want the baby or not. The infant will be sent to a junior academy, where they will grow up without parents, or any connection to their people. There is one particularly brutal scene where Elimina’s friend tries to keep her own baby, only to have the baby stolen from her arms and to be arrested.
The injustice continues when Elimina enters the Gutter. This is where the majority of Sossi live, and those who never leave the Gutter for an Academy and the workforce have very little hope of paying off their debt and earning their freedom. The Gutter is kept separate from Mainland society, behind a wall, and all the wealth is basically channeled out. The Sossi people do not have doctors. They do not have good schools. They do not have good jobs. We see that many Sossi elect to get subsidy cheques rather than work as they have at least then guaranteed income and can house and feed their families, even if each cheque adds to their debt so greatly that even their grandchildren have no hope of paying off their debt.
At the end of the novel, a small altercation between two Sossi friends turned into a police shooting that killed four. The media on the mainland showed it as a riot that the police were finally able to quell, however four individuals were unfortunately wounded and later succumbed to their injuries. The reality was that the Mainland Guard opened fire on a crowd of Sossi who were having a community meeting, and those four people were gunned down in the street.
The struggles faced by Elimina and the Sossi people in this book are struggles that BIPOC people face every day, especially in North America. The Mainlanders came from another part of the world, colonizing traditional Sossi land and pushing them out of space they had always lived, and eventually into a very small amount of their original land where they had inadequate healthcare, education and job availability. The Mainlanders actions caused huge inequity between Sossi and Mainlanders and created a system where it was virtually impossible to advance from their indebted status. These are experiences that specifically Black and Indigenous people in Canada and the USA speak about and are often ignored or silenced. While it was incredibly emotional to confront the injustice happening in this book, Richardson tied it with the real world, lived experience of BIPOC people in a deeply accessible and moving way. This book is important, and I can definitely see it being one taught in classrooms for years to come.
I would call this a work of dystopian speculative fiction, though I’m not an expert and not sure if that would technically be correct.
In this novel you follow Elimina, who was taken from her Gutter mother as a baby to be raised by a Mainlander. When her mother dies at the beginning of the story, leaving her without another soul who loves her, Elimina is sent to Livingstone Academy. At this academy, she meets, for the first time, other people “like her,” people she would come to learn are Sossi, the proper name for the people the Mainlanders dubbed “Gutter people.”
It is through her exposure to her peers that we begin to see that while Elimina’s mother loved her, and Elimina loved her mother, the relationship was complicated. Elimina as a child could not understand why every other Mainlander hated her. Why they wouldn’t offer her and her mother services offered to other Mainlanders. We learn that Elimina has been bald her entire life because her (white) mother did not know how to care for her adoptive daughters (Black) hair. There is a deeply moving scene when Elimina first arrived at the academy and has her hair done my a Black woman for the first time, and isn’t forced to just shave her head.
After some time spent at the Academy, Elimina attends the Hiring Fair as the headmasters assistant. It is hard to read this scene without likening it to chattel slavery. Gutter youths are hired off to wealthy Mainlanders to work off the “debt” they owe them. (This debt is bogus but something all Sossi must endure). The debt is something most Sossi never get free of, and most of the money they make goes to anyone but themselves, including debt managers and the headmasters of the academies they were raised at. It is important here to note that far as I can tell, these academies are used only for free labour and to train Gutter children to enter the workforce. There is even a point where Elimina’s good friend goes to auction, sold to the highest bidder.
When Elimina learns she’s pregnant, she is sent to a home for “troubled” girls. At this home, the Academy aged girls carry their babies, only to have the “property” reclaimed by the Mainland government whether these girls want the baby or not. The infant will be sent to a junior academy, where they will grow up without parents, or any connection to their people. There is one particularly brutal scene where Elimina’s friend tries to keep her own baby, only to have the baby stolen from her arms and to be arrested.
The injustice continues when Elimina enters the Gutter. This is where the majority of Sossi live, and those who never leave the Gutter for an Academy and the workforce have very little hope of paying off their debt and earning their freedom. The Gutter is kept separate from Mainland society, behind a wall, and all the wealth is basically channeled out. The Sossi people do not have doctors. They do not have good schools. They do not have good jobs. We see that many Sossi elect to get subsidy cheques rather than work as they have at least then guaranteed income and can house and feed their families, even if each cheque adds to their debt so greatly that even their grandchildren have no hope of paying off their debt.
At the end of the novel, a small altercation between two Sossi friends turned into a police shooting that killed four. The media on the mainland showed it as a riot that the police were finally able to quell, however four individuals were unfortunately wounded and later succumbed to their injuries. The reality was that the Mainland Guard opened fire on a crowd of Sossi who were having a community meeting, and those four people were gunned down in the street.
The struggles faced by Elimina and the Sossi people in this book are struggles that BIPOC people face every day, especially in North America. The Mainlanders came from another part of the world, colonizing traditional Sossi land and pushing them out of space they had always lived, and eventually into a very small amount of their original land where they had inadequate healthcare, education and job availability. The Mainlanders actions caused huge inequity between Sossi and Mainlanders and created a system where it was virtually impossible to advance from their indebted status. These are experiences that specifically Black and Indigenous people in Canada and the USA speak about and are often ignored or silenced. While it was incredibly emotional to confront the injustice happening in this book, Richardson tied it with the real world, lived experience of BIPOC people in a deeply accessible and moving way. This book is important, and I can definitely see it being one taught in classrooms for years to come.