Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

22 reviews

madzie's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Cultural appropriation, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Addiction, Police brutality, and Abandonment

Minor: Animal death, Drug use, and Alcohol

superstormnora's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

The voice of Tookie is strong and blunt, and I appreciated the look through another experience of the year of the pandemic. The connection that Tookie gains to the people around her reminds me to be present. 

the ending was unexpected with Flora, but I was going to really be mad at the book if Pollux died, so I’m glad he didn’t

 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Hate crime, Racism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Grief, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, Colonisation, and Classism

laurasullivan's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders and Cultural appropriation

Moderate: Death, Hate crime, Mental illness, Police brutality, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Animal death, Drug use, Racism, Slavery, and Suicide attempt

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

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

deenmachine's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective 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

ONLY Louise Erdrich could make me enjoy reading about the pandemic. Surprisingly light-hearted and funny, it was an absolute joy to read, from start to finish. I enjoyed reading Tookie and Pollux's relationship so much, I wanted to live in it. And it's such a treat to read about Minneapolis this way and feel like a secret insider, knowing all the settings so well. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation

Moderate: Drug abuse, Police brutality, and Abandonment

____emily____'s review

emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Genocide, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Medical content, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, and Colonisation

prettycloud's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring 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

4.75

This book feels like the pandemic: just when you think you've found the rhythms of normal life, you feel the uncertainty as threads come loose bit by bit until the whole thing unravels. It's a powerful look at the way that unraveling gave people in the US a new understanding of our own complacency, caused people to question the facts of life we'd come to accept. The energy that flowed into anti-racism work in that summer of 2020 feels vibrant and real in this book without being too trite. And it does not shy away from the nuances of systemic and interpersonal racism!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Xenophobia, Trafficking, Pregnancy, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Racism, Colonisation, and War

This book addresses the horrors of colonialism and historic wrongs, but it doesn't twist the knife or delight in violence. The characters in the present experience common experiences during the first year of COVID, from generalized pandemic anxiety to

police violence and hospitalization from the virus

. The main character had previously endured police and other violence during her incarceration, which she describes in the beginning of the book and which forms part of a later conflict. No one in the present tense of the book abuses drugs or alcohol, but the main character's mom was an addict and neglected her, and she does describe this.

rei_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, and Cultural appropriation

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Alcohol

Minor: Abandonment

julianship's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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

Cannot rec this one highly enough. This is the emotional catharsis I didn't know I needed for 2020; the book is lovely and challenging, and George Floyd's death and COVID are front and center, but this isn't an Issue Novel. It never feels never heavy or hopeless. As always Erdrich's characters are rooted in love: for each other, for their community, for the hard-won beauty of being alive. Please read this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction and Confinement

Moderate: Police brutality and Abandonment