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4.15 AVERAGE
4.15 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
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:
Complicated
Sort of wild--I listened to this and I think it helped...it's got a fairy tale like quality that made it good to hear read aloud (with different narrators). A dust bowl story, heavy on magical realism—prarrie witches meet sentient scarecrows amidst dust storms and lots of darkness.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
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:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-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:
Complicated
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Well, that was disappointing. I have loved everything by this author so far, and this one had a strong start! But it very quickly became a heavy-handed lecture on atoning for the sins of the past.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
This book was so beautiful. For me, it was all about what it means to be a person with pioneer/pilgrim heritage that is grappling with the collective, chosen memory loss of what it took and what was done to steal this land, at great cost to others, for a misguided “dream”. I love Russell’s play on a modern day biblical Job-in-reverse with Harp. And the haunting but timely message that- if we sacrifice everything, including our memory- and we do prosper, it means nothing and is empty when we don’t have an inclusive community of other humans to share it with. Some of the historical touch stones such as the history of Zintkála Nuni and the homes for unwed mothers were new to me. It made me even more reflective on the history that was familiar (but only as an adult) to me, such as the boarding schools. This book, to me was also about love. And mothers. And women. And found family. And being brave enough to try face a hopeless landscape ahead but dare to dream of a different kind of future. How it takes a magic camera (art) imagining something better than what we built on. Something better than before. But we have to remember. “Nothing can change be changed until it’s faced”. It’s hard to hope and sometimes it hurts, but that’s how I felt when I finished this one. Hopeful. ❤️
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
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:
No
It took me awhile to read this, but dang is it well worth the ride. The first 100 pages or so are a little slow going, but once it fully revs up, this really hits hard until the end. A beautiful, lyrical Southern Gothic tale of what happens when we forget--willfully and otherwise--our history, and what we owe those we've hurt through our forgetfulness.
Weaves in some really cool historical stuff that I only had a passing knowledge about before reading--the Resettlement Administration and its photographers, the Dust Bowl, and more. It's a kind of inverse Great American Novel, where it's great, and about what it is to be American, and it's certainly a novel, but primarily about how America's history is a violent and calculated, a history that's mostly been forgotten in favor of a whitewashed, curated one.
Weaves in some really cool historical stuff that I only had a passing knowledge about before reading--the Resettlement Administration and its photographers, the Dust Bowl, and more. It's a kind of inverse Great American Novel, where it's great, and about what it is to be American, and it's certainly a novel, but primarily about how America's history is a violent and calculated, a history that's mostly been forgotten in favor of a whitewashed, curated one.
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes