Reviews with content warning for Blood - Winter Counts

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden

20 reviews

voxelbee's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

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brookey8888's review

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dark emotional informative mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This started off really strong, but then I lost interest with where the story went. I loved learning more about Indian customs and beliefs. I also thought it was great/important that the author talked about how the feds literally do nothing to help in cases and the drug problems. I just wish this focused more on his vigilante stuff.

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davidbythebay's review

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adventurous emotional mysterious reflective 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? Yes

5.0

I have a hard time with mystery and thriller books. Often I find them predictable and slow. Not here. Yes, I did guess a few twists but not anything major. That alone impressed me. But further than that, I found the writing accessible and clear. I struggled with some of the Lakota words and would have liked a pronunciation guide and glossary, but that’s me. They were defined either directly or contextually which was enough to know what was going on.

The writing was fast paced and flowed so beautifully. It was rich and I could see and smell and taste and hear everything Virgil Wounded Horse and the other characters experienced. It was so beautifully done.

I would like to see the author write more in this world with these characters. (Prequels? Sequels? Just tangential loosely related novels? Whatever.) The ending is open for further stories just enough to be enticed. And the definitive fates of certain characters are not known and I would like to see what happened there, but I am sufficiently happy with how it was all handled. Not every string needs a bow, just a loose knot is enough.

I am always interested in the spiritual aspects of different cultures and religions. This had such a beautiful amount of spiritual events that I will absolutely be reading more about these and other Indigenous peoples. I thought it was not only a wonderful look into a culture that is generally glossed over in white American schools, but also a history that is seldom told. I learned about the Battle of Little Big Horn in school and that there were numerous casualties with the Indigenous population suffering great losses. I never heard the perspective of it being a genocidal slaughter like it is expressed here. I had my hunches, but never knew about these events enough. I’ve always wanted to read more Indigenous history and culture and now I am excited to begin soon.

I highly recommend reading this is you love mysteries, thrillers, family dramas, and even justice and philosophical texts as there is enough to discuss and explore more. And that feeling of joy and wanting to explore topics more is the highest praise I think a book can ever be given. Five stars.

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kerrygetsliterary's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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opinionsofawolf's review

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dark emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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kachina's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

I don’t wanna give this a bad star rating but idk I felt like I had some qualms w this book.

As a fellow white Indigenous (and Oceti Sakowin) relative, I just felt like so much of this book played into strange colonizer stereotypes.

Something in the spirit of it felt...off. I think there’s a lot of nuanced discourse around whiteness and Indigeneity, and a lot of uncomfortable learning, too.

So much of this felt like a white Native pity fest. Not to dismiss the nuances of the particular pain of being ostracized from your own community, I know that pain well, but it feels so centered in this book in a weird way that implicates other non-white or white passing Natives in a way that feels like something an author of this age should’ve grown out of by now.

I also felt like there was some weird lateral oppressive stereotype deployment in terms of how Latinx folks were portrayed but that’s a whole other can of worms.

In all; I wanna support fellow Indigenous creators and writers, but outside of my work this book has really put to the forefront for me how much I don’t think I’ll be reading cishet, white male stories in the future.

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