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kalynwebb's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
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? Yes
5.0
z_brarian's review against another edition
4.0
Once I started, I couldn’t put this book down. All Dinah wants is vengeance against Gabriel Gates, for her mother, her brother and the people of the Ozarks. Along the way, she also has to decide between loving her best friend and falling for a boy, Johnny, who saves her. The story takes place in the near future, after the Third World War, nothing sci-fi about it, except self driving cars. This was a strong #ownvoices novel, one for all HS libraries.
cedarwishes's review against another edition
dark
hopeful
tense
medium-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
5.0
gabriele_queerbookdom's review against another edition
5.0
DRC provided directly by the author in exchange for an honest review.
Representation: pansexual polyamorous white protagonist, queer German-Dominican tertiary character, Dominican tertiary character, white German tertiary character, queer Lakota Oglala tertiary character, Ghanaian tertiary characters, queer Ghanaian tertiary character, tertiary characters of colour, queer tertiary characters, asthmatic tertiary character.
Content Warning: violence, death, grief, loss, alcohol, mention of slavery, mention of genocide, mentions of colonialism, bullying, kidnapping.
The Ballad of Dinah Caldwell by Kate Brauning is an astounding near-future thriller story about grief, loss, guilt and the ways to overcome it, family, love and the forms justice takes.
Dinah Caldwell is a seventeen-year-old girl living in the Ozarks. When her father abandoned the family after the failure of his garage, Dinah felt like she needed to fill the void he created on top of running their farm with her mother. After years of barely surviving, Gabriel Gates, a local profiteer, starts hounding them for their well, even resorting to physically assaulting her mother. When she comes home one day after helping out her neighbours, she finds her mother dead on the floor and that man on her house’s porch. Alone, homeless and with a bounty on her head, she takes refuge on the mountains with the help of a fellow unfortunate soul; her only thought: seeing Gabriel Gates dead.
Frankly, while I expected to enjoy this book, I did not anticipate loving it this much, but I am really happy I did. I was so captivated by the story that I managed to flash through it in only two sittings (I am honestly still unsure how I did it, because I am usually a slowcoach even with my favourites books), which for people who know me as a reader, is an exceptionally unusual event. I loved so much the narration’s fluidity and the alternation of those moments of suspense and emotionality. Dinah is an extraordinary character, a relentless girl who would do anything for her family and friends and who is not going to be subdued by a ruthless and immoral man.
The Ballad of Dinah Caldwell is definitely an outstanding story that I recommend with my whole heart!
Representation: pansexual polyamorous white protagonist, queer German-Dominican tertiary character, Dominican tertiary character, white German tertiary character, queer Lakota Oglala tertiary character, Ghanaian tertiary characters, queer Ghanaian tertiary character, tertiary characters of colour, queer tertiary characters, asthmatic tertiary character.
Content Warning: violence, death, grief, loss, alcohol, mention of slavery, mention of genocide, mentions of colonialism, bullying, kidnapping.
The Ballad of Dinah Caldwell by Kate Brauning is an astounding near-future thriller story about grief, loss, guilt and the ways to overcome it, family, love and the forms justice takes.
Dinah Caldwell is a seventeen-year-old girl living in the Ozarks. When her father abandoned the family after the failure of his garage, Dinah felt like she needed to fill the void he created on top of running their farm with her mother. After years of barely surviving, Gabriel Gates, a local profiteer, starts hounding them for their well, even resorting to physically assaulting her mother. When she comes home one day after helping out her neighbours, she finds her mother dead on the floor and that man on her house’s porch. Alone, homeless and with a bounty on her head, she takes refuge on the mountains with the help of a fellow unfortunate soul; her only thought: seeing Gabriel Gates dead.
Frankly, while I expected to enjoy this book, I did not anticipate loving it this much, but I am really happy I did. I was so captivated by the story that I managed to flash through it in only two sittings (I am honestly still unsure how I did it, because I am usually a slowcoach even with my favourites books), which for people who know me as a reader, is an exceptionally unusual event. I loved so much the narration’s fluidity and the alternation of those moments of suspense and emotionality. Dinah is an extraordinary character, a relentless girl who would do anything for her family and friends and who is not going to be subdued by a ruthless and immoral man.
The Ballad of Dinah Caldwell is definitely an outstanding story that I recommend with my whole heart!
dbogen47's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I think this book is misadvertised in some ways. While I think it’s nice to see mainstream poly rep, I wish the relationship with Kara was more fleshed out. I think the relationship with Johnny made up too much of the book, especially given that the premise of the book is such a potentially interesting plot and had a lot of opportunities to explore the very cool themes and issues it raised if the story wasn’t so focused on a romance plot line. Also it played into the very overused chosen one girl trope of the 2010s dystopian YA and I don’t think it was done particularly well
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, and Abandonment
Moderate: Gun violence and Violence
troetschel's review against another edition
4.0
I knew going in it was a near future dystopian, which I'm a complete sucker for. I didn't realize it was queer, and I was totally surprised by the romantic ending.
Readers should know that there is a fair amount of traumatic death as well as several memorable instances of explicit violence. There's also on page sex that is, in my personal opinion, a really good example of how YA sex should be handled when an author chooses to include it. It felt like an earnest exploration of sexual agency that was vulnerable and real, and teens deserve that kind of honesty.
Setting-wise, I really appreciate a slow apocalypse, and that's what you get here. A real apocalypse is most likely going to be this kind of gradual acceptance of inexorably worsening conditions that you don't have any real control over, even as some of the trappings of prosperity persist. Tablets and mesh WiFi networks alongside cold showers because you don't have the fuel to heat water, prescription medicine and bootleg moonshine. And of course, some rich asshole with zero empathy to exploit everyone around.
Dinah's helpless rage is palpable and honestly, it resonates with me. I'm mad every day about the cruelty and callousness that is built in to capitalism, and Charlotte County is that system just shrunk down. I'm also really glad Gates died at the end. There was a moment where it seemed like it would take the high road and try to shoehorn in the sanitized kind of court justice that doesn't really exist, and it would have soured me on the whole book. Even though I think the ending was a little neat and optimistic in a couple ways (at least where it came to the shifting of power in St. George) it was still a pretty satisfying wrap up.
Readers should know that there is a fair amount of traumatic death as well as several memorable instances of explicit violence. There's also on page sex that is, in my personal opinion, a really good example of how YA sex should be handled when an author chooses to include it. It felt like an earnest exploration of sexual agency that was vulnerable and real, and teens deserve that kind of honesty.
Setting-wise, I really appreciate a slow apocalypse, and that's what you get here. A real apocalypse is most likely going to be this kind of gradual acceptance of inexorably worsening conditions that you don't have any real control over, even as some of the trappings of prosperity persist. Tablets and mesh WiFi networks alongside cold showers because you don't have the fuel to heat water, prescription medicine and bootleg moonshine. And of course, some rich asshole with zero empathy to exploit everyone around.
Dinah's helpless rage is palpable and honestly, it resonates with me. I'm mad every day about the cruelty and callousness that is built in to capitalism, and Charlotte County is that system just shrunk down. I'm also really glad Gates died at the end. There was a moment where it seemed like it would take the high road and try to shoehorn in the sanitized kind of court justice that doesn't really exist, and it would have soured me on the whole book. Even though I think the ending was a little neat and optimistic in a couple ways (at least where it came to the shifting of power in St. George) it was still a pretty satisfying wrap up.
araskov's review against another edition
5.0
"He had bought everything and paid for nothing, but he would pay for her family.
She'd stop his heart. She'd take his lungs. She'd break his neck for what he'd done."
This is a powerful story of grief caused by a money hungry titan who has all the power in his hands over Dinah's community. Her family, friends, neighbors - they can all barely survive with his hand in any profits they can create.
Dinah struggles to take care of her family and puts so much weight on her shoulders. Every day is a struggle, but she loves her family and would fight to the bitter end for them.
When all of that is taken from her, she is ravaged by grief and seeks revenge, but has no care for her own survival and goes down a reckless path.
Needless to say, I was gripping my copy tight as I journeyed with her down a path of discovering her true strengths, survival skills, and love. Love for herself, for her best friend, for the one who saved her when nobody else would.
I will be reading more of Brauning's work thanks to the experience I had with Dianh's Ballad.
She'd stop his heart. She'd take his lungs. She'd break his neck for what he'd done."
This is a powerful story of grief caused by a money hungry titan who has all the power in his hands over Dinah's community. Her family, friends, neighbors - they can all barely survive with his hand in any profits they can create.
Dinah struggles to take care of her family and puts so much weight on her shoulders. Every day is a struggle, but she loves her family and would fight to the bitter end for them.
When all of that is taken from her, she is ravaged by grief and seeks revenge, but has no care for her own survival and goes down a reckless path.
Needless to say, I was gripping my copy tight as I journeyed with her down a path of discovering her true strengths, survival skills, and love. Love for herself, for her best friend, for the one who saved her when nobody else would.
I will be reading more of Brauning's work thanks to the experience I had with Dianh's Ballad.
micaelas's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
disnelyse's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
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? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, and Murder
Moderate: Blood
Minor: Vomit and Medical content