Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

16 reviews

sheriffrockyraccoon's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

Another addition to my 5 star reads! Louise Erdrich deserves all the accolades she’s received and more for her writing.

This story hit close to home. As it takes place throughout the beginning of the pandemic and George Floyd protests, I truly felt the confusion and terror the characters experienced. I felt comforted, too, not only by their reactions but their conclusions about the world they live in. I fell in love with the characters, especially Tookie, our protagonist. She’s sarcastic, pessimistic, and scared. She also is loyal, self-aware, and brave. Erdrich brought this character to life and gave her such a well-rounded story I truly felt as if I was reading a memoir.

My only complaint- and it is minor- is the random perspective changes to include Hetta and Pollux. While they were interesting, I didn’t feel they added much to the novel and messed a little bit with the pacing of Tookie’s story. Overall, though, this did not change my opinion about how much I loved this book and am proud to display it on my 5 star shelf.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the “human condition” and spirituality in general. There is a wonderful mix of superstition and science that doesn’t discredit the other, rather it embraces that confusing gray area where they both exist. It is also Native American literature, which I am always thrilled to read and learn more about. Overall, for anyone interested in American Lit I consider this a must-read.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Hate crime, Mental illness, Racism, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

shoshin's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful 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

This was my first Erdrich book, and I regret that it took me so long to get to her despite all of the good things I have heard. 

I picked the book as part of a reading challenge, to read a book set on my favorite city. I didn't realize that it was partially set during COVID and the uprising. Hearing about the loss of life and the loss of places I love is still a punch in the gut. I should have realized but somehow still wasn't ready when it came. 

I listened to the audiobook, and I could listen to Erdrich all day. Amazing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, and Abandonment

rae1019's review against another edition

challenging emotional

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Pandemic/Epidemic

scmiller's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny informative 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Medical content, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Trafficking

hollyprickles's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, and Pandemic/Epidemic

feebles640's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad slow-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Gun violence, Hate crime, Grief, and Colonisation

Moderate: Alcoholism, Confinement, Drug abuse, Racism, Police brutality, Cultural appropriation, and Abandonment

Minor: Child abuse, Rape, Sexual content, and Suicide attempt

hilaryreadsbooks's review against another edition

4.0

I loved how THE SENTENCE explores sentences in all their forms, hauntings in all their forms. Tookie, a bookseller at a Minneapolis indie bookstore, finds herself haunted by the ghost of Flora, a former bookstore customer and Native “wannabe.” As Tookie begins to uncover the reasons for the dead’s discontent, she also begins to unveil another layer of hurt and grief from years of being incarcerated, mirrored by the reckoning happening in the streets of Minneapolis.

A sentence. When issued by a judge, it holds the power to imprison a woman behind bars, to change her life, to subject her to the brutality of police, guards, the system. When chanted by crowds of people all over the world protesting police violence against Black and brown bodies, it holds the power to change minds, legislation, and fates. When printed on the page, its power can come from the truth it reveals: sometimes ugly and with the ability to kill.

What does it mean to be haunted? Not all hauntings end happy. And sometimes we do what we need to do to move on, to choose our own sentence: to not be sentenced, but to pull apart what a sentence can be. “Ghosts bring elegies and epitaphs, but also signs and wonders. What come next? I want to know, so I manage to drag the dictionary to my side. I need a word, a sentence. The door is open. Go.” 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, and Police brutality

emory's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective slow-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

Some of the most completely fleshed out and realistic characters in anything I've read in recent memory. Beautiful writing and wonderful plot 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Racism, Police brutality, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, and Colonisation

farenmaddox's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective slow-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? It's complicated

2.0

I genuinely feel like this is two different novels regrettably smashed into one. There is one book about indigenous identity through the lens of the bookstore and the employees who work there and the ghost, and there is a second book about indigenous identity through the lens of the current events of the Coronavirus pandemic and BLM protests, and to my mind this novel tripped over itself in trying to be both books at once. There were too many threads to follow and they all suffered from being crowded together.

In some ways, it's very reflective of real life that the story which was happening to the characters was interrupted and re-prioritized by the pandemic and by George Floyd's death, and some people may find this to be a really profound message. But to me this is not how a novel works and the story I thought was being told in the end, wasn't told properly due to the sharp turn into current events in the second half and then the sudden scramble to resolve the ghost story at the end.

I also think there is some nitpicky things that are coloring my opinion - the amount of attention given to the author self-insert character bothered me more than I can say, and the brief lapses into a different point-of-view character were glaring and weird and unnecessary, contributing nothing to the narrative and not even regular enough to seem deliberate. These things may not bother another reader.

 Overall, I would still really like to read more of Erdrich's work, because there was so much potential in this book, some very compelling passages and a charmingly dark humor. But The Sentence missed the mark for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Racism, and Police brutality

Moderate: Child abuse and Death of parent

franceselsie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, and Drug abuse