Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty

35 reviews

llams's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

These were short stories that followed characters over time. They were sad, human, and eye opening to experiences of indigenous folx living on Reservations

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Dementia, Grief, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Miscarriage

rnorthie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

4.0

This is a hard book to rate. The writing was beautiful and I loved the challenge of piecing the stories together and the last 2 stories were amazing (in a sad tragic way). I think in general some of the stories weren’t my favorite but it didn’t take away from the intrigue they slowly built up to the last two stories. Definitely worth a read.

Check content warnings!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse

Moderate: Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Infertility, Terminal illness, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Car accident, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual assault

toasterstrubes's review against another edition

adventurous emotional lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Drug use, Sexual assault, and Vomit

mercerhanau's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I started listenings to the audiobook on a friend’s recommendation (can't remember who?) without actually reading the back-of-book-type introduction at all. I think I went into it expecting something more supernatural/horror, which is not exactly what this book delivers (in the usual way). I set myself up for genre disappointment, so take my review with a grain of salt.

It’s a reflective set of stories, looking at slices of life from the narrator as a child, teenager, and mid/late 20s, looking back from later in life. Lots of drinking and suffering from drug addition, wanting to get clean. Depressing, occasionally funny, a LOT of scenes with varying degrees of nausea, dry heaving, and vomit. Unpleasant. But there are also scenes of tenderness that help flesh out the characters.

The title (and a couple references to zombies) encouraged me to look for what could be “horror” or the supernatural in stories that otherwise feel like a fictionalized memoir. Animal presences serve as metaphors that connect interpersonal struggles to the natural world in all its power, chaos, and… stenches.

More thoughts on real-life "horror": SPOILERS / Content Warnings

Horrors of caterpillar corpse carpets, decaying snapping turtle smell, miscarriage, child deaths, postpartum depression, having a dead twin (like a teratoma?), feeling responsible (sort of) for a sick infant’s death while still a child yourself, social services knocking incessantly at the door while home alone with one’s sister’s baby (feels like a zombie movie), dementia resurrecting ghosts/memories of long-dead relatives, witnessing physical and sexual violence, car crash, feeling disconnected from one’s body and mind in the throes of drug addition and withdrawal.

Feels like an important story to tell. Nuanced representation of a deeply interconnected Native community and family. The writing style and characters didn’t resonate with me, and that’s okay! I definitely see why other people love the book.

Cf. / Reminded me of themes in…
- Wellness, by Natan Hill:

psychologically shifting stories and guilty uncertainty about what really happened during a childhood tragedy.

- The Only Good Indians, by Stephen Graham Jones:

Indigenous perspective on spooky pregnancy stuff. The horror of nature (esp. animal-related). Losing contact with indigenous knowledge that might have helped prevent/dispel the horror.

- Every Drop Is a Man's Nightmare, by Megan Kamalei Kakimoto:

More spooky reproductive/fertility stuff, whether supernatural or just things that happen to human bodies that aren’t talked about thanks to patriarchy keeping reproduction a mysterious, taboo subject. Complex feelings about family dynamics, both tender and cruel.

- This Thing Between Us, by Gus Moreno:

curses, generational trauma, feeling haunted by lost loved ones and/or forces beyond our understanding. Losing one’s mind a lil bit. Gore. Technology running amok, sometimes in subtle ways: Grammy’s car radio turns on by itself, like the Itza (Echo Dot equivalent) in TTBU.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, and Vomit

Moderate: Child death, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Blood, Dementia, and Car accident

Minor: Animal death, Infertility, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Medical content, and Pregnancy

kaywhiteley's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-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

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Racism, and Vomit

Moderate: Child death and Miscarriage

Minor: Sexual assault and Car accident

bkwrm1317's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

3.75

Talty’s collection of connected short stories is intense, real, and dark. Reflecting on the reality of an Indigenous Tribal Penobscot family and some of their connections brings you to witness their humor, grief, addiction, culture, food, economic reality, and more. 

Pacing medium-slow made it harder for me to get through (and short stories aren’t my fave). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction

Moderate: Child death, Sexual assault, and Colonisation

Minor: Vomit

sundayfever's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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

4.5

Dark but good read. Collection of short stories strung together. Nice to read an indigenous story set here in Maine. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Vomit, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Violence, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Colonisation

lilias's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

I started reading 𝘕𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘙𝘦𝘻 purposefully. It was the night they caught the mass shooter whose name I’m omitting, and I wanted to read a book that was quintessentially Maine. Author Morgan Talty is a Penobscot writer. He teaches at UMaine Orono, which is where my husband went to school.
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I am also reading haunting or horror books this month and thought this was a horror book because of the title. It’s not! I mean, yes it deals with the horrors of marginalization, poverty, and addiction, but it wouldn’t be found in the horror section.
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I found myself smiling at moments and cringing at others. Talty’s characters are very human, sometimes unbearably so. Family, friendship, and love are themes that move them along with and against each other. This book broke my heart and at the same time satisfied my urge to want to read something beautifully Maine.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Drug abuse, and Racism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Vomit, Dementia, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

_sam_m's review against another edition

sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Violence

Moderate: Child death and Vomit

towardinfinitybooks's review against another edition

Not in the right mood, I may try again at another time.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Vomit