A review by ee_lazzari
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton

challenging emotional medium-paced

5.0

I knew it would be a heavy read, but I wasn't really prepared for how heavy. Regardless, it was very, very good. I'll be thinking about it for a long time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment

Moderate: Sexual assault, Alcohol

Minor: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Gaslighting

The oil sands are largely staffed by men who don't spend a lot of time away from work or in regular society. Katie, the protagonist (and author -- this is a memoir) is a woman. There is a lot of harassment throughout. Also, [tw sexual assault]

Beaton writes in a somewhat oblique but still very clear way about the times she was raped, and the experiences follow her for the entire rest of the book. She discusses it with her sister and a friend on two separate occasions, and both of them reveal the same experience. The scenes themselves are not graphic, but it is incredibly present in her mental state and haunts the story from its point forward.

Sexual content:

At one point, Katie goes with the boys to a strip club (they needed a designated driver). The woman on stage is fully nude and recognisable as such, and there is a discussion rather explicitly about the "game" being played: throw coins at her vagina.