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colormecaro's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
As someone who is interested in language and the effects it has on how people think and see the world, I loved this book. As a speaker of different languages (although the languages I speak are nowhere near as complex and full of meaning as many an indigenous language), I appreciated the way in which this book illustrates how words can’t simply be translated. They hold a whole other dimension which is shown in the dictionary chapters of the book. By losing indigenous languages we lose all the knowledge they hold.
Apart from the language aspects, learning more about a culture that has seen the cruelest hardships feels very important. When I was 4 years old, I became fascinated with Australia (mostly its animal world) and as a 6 year old read the stories of the Dreaming (aboriginal origin stories). I was probably too young to reckon with the dark past of Australia, but this feels like a full circle moment. It all ties into my current interests and feelings about the world. I am on a mission to read more indigenous literature from around the world and this was a prime example of my why.
Graphic: Genocide, Racism, and Colonisation
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Sexual content, and Police brutality
Minor: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Hate crime, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder
anniereads221's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
5.0
The three points of view as follows is:
August centred POV in the third person
Grandfathers dictionary
And a letter is being written by a reverend of the ex-missionary
When it throws you into the story of August going back to her family home in massacre Plains to go to her grandfather's funeral. She hasn't been home since she was sent to Britain and stayed. She wants to find her grandfather's dictionary that he was seen writing before his death. But with that, she also has the memory of her sister in her mind as her sister went missing when she was a child.
The more we learned, the more I was intrigued and was enjoying the journey of this book.
I feel like this book won't be for everyone, as the POVs prove. But I am so glad I decided to reread it and understand how it all fitted together properly in the end.
I am glad I started with this book for 2024 after my rereads of the Monk and Robot series
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Genocide, Pedophilia, Racism, Violence, Grief, Murder, and Colonisation
Moderate: Eating disorder
holly_133's review against another edition
- 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
4.25
Graphic: Child death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexual assault, Grief, and Colonisation
madetofly's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Colonisation
Moderate: Child death, Drug use, Racism, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, and Murder
Minor: Addiction and Alcoholism
rhi_'s review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Racism and Colonisation
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Pedophilia, Violence, and Murder
Minor: Rape, Sexual violence, Forced institutionalization, and Police brutality
penguinsquack's review against another edition
5.0
Moderate: Child death, Death, Eating disorder, Genocide, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Terminal illness, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Colonisation
skudiklier's review against another edition
- 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
4.75
Graphic: Death, Eating disorder, Genocide, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, and Colonisation
Moderate: Alcoholism, Cancer, Child death, Cursing, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol
Minor: Ableism, Animal death, Suicide, Vomit, and War
dylan2219's review against another edition
- 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
3.5
These aspects alone make The Yield a book that should be widely read, as well as an "Australian" text that is deeply world-historically significant, but it does more than restore a language and a culture that has experience so much loss. It is a new, postcolonial spin on a classic Australian narrative of the harshness of the land and our relationship to violent memory. This time, however, Indigenous Australians are centred in the story as primary subjects, rather than ancillary/foils to white colonists, and violence is seen as sustained as a consequence of colonisation, displacement, neglect, and disenfranchisement. The loss of land, rather than its acquisition, is the locus for violence and conflict, here seen in the very relevant dispute of a mining company attempting to acquire the Gondiwindi family's property. We discover that this property - like all property in Australia - has a complicated and often contradictory history of its own. Winch interrogates what land means to many Indigenous people after it has been seized for so long, and the emotional and psychological difficulties of reclaiming it and defending it.
I did have some structural problems with the book, namely that August is not a particularly compelling or well-developed character, and the plot takes probably too long to kick in (basically not till the final third). Things are wrapped up a little too quickly, with some very weak explanation as to why, because so much time has been spent meditating before Winch needs to build to her climax. This might be due to the complex three-strand narrative that Winch is working here, which I found compelling even if it makes things much slower. The dictionary passages are easily the best thing in here, especially the way they comment on the contemporary narrative, link Greenleaf's narrative to the present, and give us insight into the history of Massacre and the Gondiwindi family.
Still, The Yield is an immense, significant book that is brilliantly, evocatively written, and is doing incredible things. It's rare to come across a writer who is not only innovating in what novels and "Australian" writing can do, but is genuinely changing history.
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Racism, Violence, Grief, and Colonisation
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, and Eating disorder
nonistoni's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Genocide, Slavery, Grief, Cultural appropriation, and Colonisation
Moderate: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Racism, Kidnapping, and Murder
belindapancake's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Genocide, Hate crime, Incest, Pedophilia, Racism, Slavery, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, and Colonisation