Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden

29 reviews

orireading's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

This was disappointing :// pretty predictable storyline and one-dimensional protagonist. There were a few beautiful scenes but it mostly read like fan fiction. It was interesting to learn more about Lakota culture tho!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Violence, Gun violence, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Child abuse, Death of parent, War, Torture, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Sexual violence

Minor: Addiction, Miscarriage, and Incest

tinytrashqueen's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Violence, and Torture

Moderate: Child abuse, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, and Death of parent

Minor: Rape and Sexual assault

voxelbee's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Drug abuse, Child death, Addiction, and Murder

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Grief, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Medical content, Physical abuse, Racism, Terminal illness, and Torture

Minor: Racial slurs, Colonisation, Bullying, Car accident, and Genocide

caidyn's review against another edition

dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Wow, what a read. This is a snippet of modern life on reservations with the incoming of drugs. It tackled racism and not being enough, whether Native or White. I really appreciated the addition of nonfiction books that I'll definitely be picking up in the future as further reading!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Drug use, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Racism, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Domestic abuse

maregred's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark inspiring mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Bullying, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Drug abuse, Drug use, Death of parent, and Colonisation

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Racism, Suicide attempt, and Suicide

thebookbabe's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use, Alcoholism, and Death of parent

brookey8888's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Bullying, Car accident, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Torture, and Violence

davidbythebay's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying

Moderate: Blood, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Drug abuse, and Gun violence

Minor: Death of parent, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

spiderwitch's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Addiction, Racism, Gun violence, and Violence

Moderate: Murder and Death of parent

Minor: Genocide and Child abuse

readundancies's review

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-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? No

3.75

I don't read crime thrillers all that often, so for the first half of the novel I found myself questioning why I wasn't as engaged as I felt I should've been. 

Am I just not into crime thrillers? The jury's still out on that.

Because the second started to pick up in pace and that's when I started to become more emotionally invested.

It was definitely a slow start though. The pacing was slow throughout the first half and it was a lot of establishing the characters and the community. The characterization was fine, but not very deep; I felt like I didn’t really get to know some of the characters the way I’d have liked to. I also had a hard time connecting with the characters because I'm not a very spiritual person, but that's on me. From a learning perspective? I was fascinated and excited to learn about the Lakota way of life, the customs that are followed, and how they interpret the world around them. Getting to hear from a Lakota perspective in Virgil’s character was eye-opening and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I wasn't 100% sold on Marie and Virgil as a couple. It just seemed a little too easy between them because they were overly comfortable with one another. In contrast, Virgil and Tommy’s friendship was great. Even though at times it seemed more like Virgil was using Tommy as an informant, they shared a genuine connection, and Tommy’s levity really did a solid job of offsetting the increasing strife in Virgil’s life.

I appreciated the high level of action as everything went down towards the end, and would definitely recommend this to anyone who wants to read more stories with a focus on Indigenous and First Nations peoples.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Child abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Death, Drug use, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, and Violence