Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-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:
No
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism, Slavery, Suicide, Colonisation, Classism
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Forced institutionalization, Trafficking, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Deportation
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This concept had potential, but the execution is just plain bad. The worldbuilding is paper thin to the point that there are barely any descriptions of how things look. I think this is supposed to be in a tropical climate maybe? Besides the social system it might as well take place in North America even though this is allegedly an alternative world with floating islands. Even the names are unoriginal and just straight up the same as they would be in our world (Freeman for the free Black people wow how did she decide on that one...)
As for the story, it's pretty disjointed and contains a LOT ofteenage pregnancy which I did hate but maybe that's a me problem. There are also some questionable scenes that need some unpacking like her entire relationship with Rowan. This book really went for the 80s movie trope of girl telling boy a story about her sexual assault and then the boy is like "yeah now's about the right time to Have Sex". And the consent is just as dubious.... Here's a direct quote:
As for the story, it's pretty disjointed and contains a LOT of
"You're beautiful," he whispers.
I smile with my lips pressed tightly together, pain pressing between my legs. I open my mouth, ready to scream or cry, or shout for him to stop, but I clasp my hand over my lips and hold it back in instead.
I was expecting this to be treated as the violation that it was, but nope... Come on man I thought we were past this as a society! And then of course she
Also maybe I'm dumb but I never really understood the intricacies of the economics in this world. Do Sossi children have extra debt just from being born? If not then shouldn't they get redemption freedom whenever their parents do because their parents have no debt to pass on to them? So why is it only children under 5?
Also it seems like the "subs" objectively have the right idea since there's no chance of getting out of debt anyways and they get to stay with their families. They aren't portrayed as that badly off either? They even have extra money lying around to get the protagonist to pick up their checks for them lol. But somehow the protagonist never stops believing it's "shameful" to take money from the government which is actively making up reasons to steal from people like her. It really made me wonder what the author was trying to say about welfare like this was so strange.
And don't met me started on the Woman Who Wept thing which they threw in during the last 50 pages.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
Moderate: Child death, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicide, Pregnancy, Colonisation
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Trafficking, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail
I really enjoyed this book, a work of fiction that rings true in so much of what we know exists, still, in our world.
Elimina was taken out of the Gutter and lived with her Mother on the Mainland. When the Mother dies, she’s taken to an Academy, where she learns she has a debt which she’ll likely never pay, and she doesn’t belong in the Mainland or in the Gutter.
Her friends face their own fates, but she eventually becomes pregnant, then escapes to the Gutter with her baby instead of having him surrendered to the state, which other girls faced.
In the Gutter, she finds some family and is reunited with some friends, but also discovers the Network that’s trying to fight for freedom.
I like that this story isn’t tied up with a happy bow, or with a finality, but with an unknown, an ongoing fight.
I felt the rage of helplessness for the Gutter people, stuck in a system that keeps them down for no reason. There are themes similar to the experience of indigenous people in our society, and the perceived violence and threat by Gutter people, again, is much like the plight of BIPOC in general.
It’s a sad truth, but is presented with a layer of fiction that still gets the point across well.
GPL
Elimina was taken out of the Gutter and lived with her Mother on the Mainland. When the Mother dies, she’s taken to an Academy, where she learns she has a debt which she’ll likely never pay, and she doesn’t belong in the Mainland or in the Gutter.
Her friends face their own fates, but she eventually becomes pregnant, then escapes to the Gutter with her baby instead of having him surrendered to the state, which other girls faced.
In the Gutter, she finds some family and is reunited with some friends, but also discovers the Network that’s trying to fight for freedom.
I like that this story isn’t tied up with a happy bow, or with a finality, but with an unknown, an ongoing fight.
I felt the rage of helplessness for the Gutter people, stuck in a system that keeps them down for no reason. There are themes similar to the experience of indigenous people in our society, and the perceived violence and threat by Gutter people, again, is much like the plight of BIPOC in general.
It’s a sad truth, but is presented with a layer of fiction that still gets the point across well.
GPL
This was really quite good. And deeply sad - but isn’t it though? Would recommend to anyone wishing for a “fictional” and simplified understanding of colonialism, systematic discrimination and intergenerational trauma. I agree with other reviews that it read more like a YA novel but that didn’t detract from the story or message for me.
Wow, I don't really know what else to say, but wow.
This book pulled me in from the very beginning, I couldn't put it down.
This book pulled me in from the very beginning, I couldn't put it down.
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This book hurt to finish but it was a book I think everyone should read. Very well written and heartbreaking.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Racism
2.5⭐ there wasn't anything wrong with the book (on the contrary, it explores very relevant topics in a well-thought-out way) but I wasn't hooked and it took me weeks to get through it
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.5 stars
A painful story set in a fictional world where the indigenous population has been segregated and forced to pay their colonizers a life debt that springs from a lost rebellion fought generations ago.
Refelecting heavily on our own experience with Western colonization, the Mainlanders in Gutter Child have created and enforce a society where the invisible chains of systemic racism are made manifest, and the existential debt levied on the indigenous people of colour (or "Gutters") is made real and accountable.
None of the things that happen to the main character, Elimina, will seem too far fetched. Richardson has taken what we now see as the familiar and insidious results of colonization on indigenous and people of colour, and simplified them down to their most basic elements of systemic racism and poverty, and loss of individual and cultural identity.
But it isn't all sadness. Elimina's journey causes her to reevaluate and, in many cases, reinvent her identity. I loved a particular chapter where Elimina has her hair done for the first time, and the woman issues an invitation to her look for beauty in her own reflection rather than the reflection of others.
This is also a story about creating family and a sense of home as a key aspect of finding identity. In the end, Elimina finds that she has the power to make this happen, and she doesn't need to fulfill someone else's idea of her in order to find freedom and be happy.
Gutter Child is simple yet complicated, difficult and painful yet ultimately filled with hope and love.
A painful story set in a fictional world where the indigenous population has been segregated and forced to pay their colonizers a life debt that springs from a lost rebellion fought generations ago.
Refelecting heavily on our own experience with Western colonization, the Mainlanders in Gutter Child have created and enforce a society where the invisible chains of systemic racism are made manifest, and the existential debt levied on the indigenous people of colour (or "Gutters") is made real and accountable.
None of the things that happen to the main character, Elimina, will seem too far fetched. Richardson has taken what we now see as the familiar and insidious results of colonization on indigenous and people of colour, and simplified them down to their most basic elements of systemic racism and poverty, and loss of individual and cultural identity.
But it isn't all sadness. Elimina's journey causes her to reevaluate and, in many cases, reinvent her identity. I loved a particular chapter where Elimina has her hair done for the first time, and the woman issues an invitation to her look for beauty in her own reflection rather than the reflection of others.
This is also a story about creating family and a sense of home as a key aspect of finding identity. In the end, Elimina finds that she has the power to make this happen, and she doesn't need to fulfill someone else's idea of her in order to find freedom and be happy.
Gutter Child is simple yet complicated, difficult and painful yet ultimately filled with hope and love.