Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Die Traumdiebe by Cherie Dimaline

31 reviews

cepbreed's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? No

4.5

“It began as a rumor, that they had found a way to siphon the dreams right out of our bones, a rumor whispered every time one of us went missing, a rumor denounced every time their doctors sent us to hospitals and treatments centers never to return.”

 

So much about this book is traumatizing, it’s so hard to read. I say that, but no matter how evil the atrocities translated onto the paper I couldn't stop reading because of how beautifully Cherie Dimaline writes. Each coming-to story makes my heart physically ache, I feel like I know these characters and each of their lives is so personal to me. Thank you Dimaline for bringing them to life on these pages. I also loved having chapter titles. I feel like so many books forego them these days in favor of just the name of the POV character or nothing at all. Another element essential to the story and my enjoyment of it was all the foreshadowing. While in the dilapidated Four Winds the women of their group tell their stories, all of which are a dark premonition of the events of the following days. Those moments were harrowing. I love how Dimalinen made sure to highlight the voices of those women, and bring awareness to the mistreatment many like them suffer because of their presenting gender. The class on indigenous fiction that I read this book for has opened my eyes entirely to a whole new genre of books. I am unsure if I would've enjoyed this book as much as I did if I read it outside of a classroom context because my professor always offers very valuable insight on certain indigenous traditions that enriched the books meaning. For example the legend of the rougarou and its application to Minerva's story.

 

Minerva being taken absolutely killed me. This kind woman, understand her old age hindered their progress. She trusted in the younger generation to survive and sacrificed everything for them. I don’t have to see my own Harmoni in her to absolutely love the character but I do and it makes me all the more sad to see the consequences of her age. In the same way she is wise and essential to the survival of their culture her health is rapidly deteriorating. I dismissed her character before but now I admire her so much, one scene changed everything for me.

 

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Colonisation, Death of parent, Genocide, Grief, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Animal death, Death, Racism, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Body horror, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Violence, Trafficking, and Misogyny

Minor: Pregnancy

leahkarge's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? N/A

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Violence, Death of parent, Child death, Racism, Colonisation, Grief, Rape, Stalking, Confinement, Death, Animal death, Blood, Genocide, Forced institutionalization, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Cannibalism, Pregnancy, and Medical trauma

alexalily's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Death of parent, Genocide, Colonisation, Child death, and Racism

Moderate: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Murder, Violence, and Blood

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Gun violence, and Animal death

morganpearcy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense fast-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

This is Dystopian Speculative Fiction written by an Indigenous author about Indigenous peoples after the climate crisis reaches a point where the world shuts down and most everything dies. Indigenous peoples all over the world are being hunted by white folx to harvest their bone marrow so that white folx (who have lost the ability to dream and are dying in droves) can dream again and survive.

One of the reasons why I love Dystopian Speculative Fiction so much is because I personally find it profoundly hopeful - the kind of thing I read when I need my faith in humanity restored. This book has moved me in so many ways. I couldn’t put it down. It explores what it is to be human. What it is to survive - and empathy. There are some really good topics explored, including:

- Creating your family of choice.
- Caring for an aging Elder. 
- Protecting children to let them be kids for as long as possible. 
-  Humanity and the motivations of those who have lost theirs. 
- Community repair and harm reduction, even when the world is burning down.
- What it means to have enough.

Highly recommend. Very applicable to today. This book is such a joy to read, and such a great exploration of indigeneity and our humanity. 

Be prepared with a box of tissues. And TW for chapter, “Wab’s Coming-To Story” for sexual assault. Surprisingly, handled delicately - but still very triggering.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Hate crime, Sexual assault, Colonisation, and Cultural appropriation

Moderate: Dementia, Ableism, Animal death, Body horror, Genocide, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Rape, Murder, Sexual violence, Torture, and Trafficking

graciffer's review against another edition

emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Genocide, Violence, and Racism

Moderate: War, Child death, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

Minor: Pregnancy and Animal death

anxiousnachos's review against another edition

dark

4.25

Wow, this was an incredible read. The language and prose itself is genuinely stunning, so so evocative, I am in love with the way Cherie Dimaline writes description. Inspired by the history of colonial trauma and residential schools in Canada, it does have a lot of very horrifying and chilling content, but it also has moments of hope, laughter with family and friends, beauty and dreams. 

Content warnings: violence, blood, gore, eye injury, rape, kidnapping, residential schools, colonial trauma, racism, nonconsensual medical experimentation, torture, pedophilia, death, murder, death of parent, death of loved one, death of child 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Gore, Death, Genocide, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Blood, Child death, Grief, Animal death, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Violence, Murder, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, and Torture

sauvageloup's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

A gripping and beautiful book! 

Pros:
- the writing is gorgeous! if i highlighted books, it would be filled with highlighter. Some sentences and metaphors were just stunning, it's really poetic whilst still being grounded, brutal without being gratuitous, and really poignant too. The plot was perfect too, enough happening to keep it moving without it being rushed, the final twist totally surprising me.
- the characters were perfect too, especially Miigwans, Rose and the narrator, Francis/Frenchie himself. The trauma they've been through is obvious though not leaned heavily on, and Frenchie's crush is a reminder that he's still so young.
- the worldbuilding is original and brilliant, hugely awful but with hope through the Native Americans' survival.
- i loved the inclusion of Story, the language, the reverence the younger ones show their elders and the learning and how the community pulled together. I've never read a book by a Native American but this was a brilliant reason for why I should find more of them.
(- the worldbuilding and beautiful language reminded me loosely of Station Eleven, and that can only be a very good thing!)

Cons:
-

I wasn't too impacted when RiRi died... i don't rly know why, whether it was a fault with me or the writing. Was much more impacted when Miigwans and Isaac were reunited at the end <3

- sometimes the worldbuilding verged on a bit too tell-y for me and a little unoriginally presented maybe? but it was a minor detail

(not a pro or con, but I was suprised by how often the narrator/author used 'Indians' to describe themselves. I really thought that was considered a slur and Native American the "proper" term? something to look into i guess)

Overall, a wonderful book, i think maybe my first 5 star of the year, definitely want to read more by this author!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Colonisation, Blood, Violence, Child death, Death of parent, Grief, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Forced institutionalization, and Abandonment

Moderate: Rape, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Gore, Addiction, Murder, Death, Death of parent, and Mental illness

Minor: Torture and Pregnancy

overall tone is hopeful, but some brief but very heavy bits, particularly with the sexual assault

booksthatburn's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

THE MARROW THIEVES speculates that, given the opportunity and incentive, settlers would do what they’ve always done and steal the very dreams from the bones of Indigenous people in a last, desperate attempt to save themselves. And it won’t work. It’s not dystopian, nor apocalyptic, but five-minutes-in-the-future speculative  fiction because the necessary backstory is the real history that’s already happened. The “generic dystopia” version would include a factory tour and a lot more gore, rather than this (much better) story of a community trying to stay together. It’s wholly uninterested in gazing at the machinery of pain, but is focused on community, memory, and surviving long enough to have a chance at thriving.

The term "found family" is both accurate and inadequate for the character relationships. They're the remnants of a much larger and more complex community which was hunted, shattered, and even now is pursued. They were part of a community generally even before they found each other specifically, and now they're all they have left. Frenchie lost his parents before the novel opens, and loses his brother in the opening chapter. He finds a group of traveling Indigenous people, on the move in order to stay alive. I like Miig as a leader, he's doing his best and focusing on teaching the younger ones what they'll need to know. He and Minerva are working to pass on their culture, balancing the need to understand with the maturity of the individual children. 

A lot of the worldbuilding is conveyed though stories, either “Story” told nightly by Miig, or the characters’ “creation stories”, each person’s own history of how they came to be with the group. It lends a ponderous air to these details, where the reader’s desire to know more synchronizes with Frenchie’s hunger for any scrap of connection he can get. From the premise, I anticipated a scene in the factories, detailing the dystopia through voyeuristic gaze into the mechanisms used to cause their suffering. It doesn’t do that, thankfully, it stays focused on the characters, their journey, and their community. The physical bits of worldbuilding are in the places they pass through, the abandoned structures, and the garbage on the ground, the detritus that marks the wreckage of the world that was and the dangerous other people who also inhabit it.

I love the way the plot is unhurried. The endless travel is devoid of meaningful landmarks except for detritus. The pivotal scenes mostly hinge either on encounters with others or from stories. This changes toward the end after an encounter irrevocably changes the status quo and prompts them to change how they're running. I love the ending, it would be the best part if not for how great the rest of the book is.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping and Genocide

Moderate: Sexual assault, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Animal death, Murder, Death, Rape, Gun violence, Cannibalism, and Child death

Minor: Drug abuse, Sexual content, Ableism, Excrement, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Drug use, Confinement, Vomit, and Death of parent

caseythereader's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Rape

ivana's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Death, Forced institutionalization, Murder, and Racism