Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Varkaus by Ann-Helén Laestadius

46 reviews

premature_insecurity's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

En bok alla svenskar borde läsa. Att vi inte lär oss mer om detta i skolan och i samhället känns inte helt rätt

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gore, Hate crime, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Suicide

haileyhardcover's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

August 9th is World Indigenous Peoples’ Day. In anticipation and observance of the holiday, I’ve been spending some time learning about the Sámi people. The only indigenous people of Europe, the Sámi’s ancestral lands are in an area known as Sápmi, spanning the north of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and part of the Kola Peninsula in Russia. During my research, I stumbled upon this book.

Stolen tells the story of Elsa, a young Sámi girl who witnesses the poaching of a beloved reindeer, Nástegallu. This traumatizing event is only the beginning for Elsa, as she grows up and continues to witness against racism and xenophobia, unchecked mental health struggles in her community, climate change, and ever-present threat to their reindeer and, thereby, their very ways of life.

Strong TW for animal torture and death. At several points, I had to just put this book down and cry after reading some of the descriptions; but I still think they were important to include. Though technically fictional, Stolen is inspired by real events, and these are horrific experiences that Sámi   reindeer herders experience. 

There is more than just trauma in these pages, though. While portraying the very real struggles that the Sámi experience, Laestadius, a Sámi woman herself, also clearly wrote this as a love letter to her culture and community. We get wonderful glimpses into culture, food, clothing, tradition. Though my Swedish didn’t come in handy very often, I enjoyed learning some new Sámi vocab words as well!

If you’re looking to broaden your knowledge of other cultures, I highly recommend Stolen. Before I was even halfway through, I pre-ordered Laestadius’ next book, Punished, which is also inspired by the true events of Sámi children taken from their families to state-mandated “nomad schools” - Scandinavian versions of the residential schools that Native American children were forced into in the US and Canada. 

Netflix has adapted Stolen into a movie which was released in April of this year. I’ll be spending my afternoon watching the movie!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Xenophobia, Blood, and Grief

Moderate: Mental illness, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Dementia, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Alcoholism, Child death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infertility, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, Cultural appropriation, and Alcohol

kirjakimalainen's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative 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? No

5.0

An incredible, well written and important book that manages to discuss both current and generational trauma that Sámi people face. The book feels like arctic winter and grief, the writing creates a vivid image of the environment, and very strongly conveys the mood.

The book is very informative on the current reality Sámi people face, and as a nordic person i'm glad i read it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Stalking, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Sexism

franzeerdbeerbacke's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Death, Eating disorder, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infertility, Misogyny, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, Cultural appropriation, and Alcohol

erikaeklund's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide

jayisreading's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

4.0

I know very little about Sámi culture, so this novel ended up being really insightful in learning more about modern Sámi life and the discrimination they face in Swedish society. Laestadius presented a number of nuanced situations for the Sámi community in her novel, such as the challenges of upholding tradition in a time of modernization, generational trauma, as well as gender roles (especially as a reindeer herder). Importantly, though, Laestadius is concerned with exploring the tensions between the Sámi community and non-Sámi community, particularly when dealing with law enforcement. The message is a little heavy-handed, which is that it’s clear she wants to draw attention to the injustices that indigenous peoples face when dealing with authoritative figures.

Structurally, I admit that I had some difficulty getting into this one. I don’t know if it was the particularly short chapters or what, but I was a bit thrown off by the overall pacing of the novel. I think another thing that didn’t quite work for me was that, while situations were explored with nuance, many of the characters themselves lacked complexity. I did feel that Laestadius set the reader up for a good versus evil story with how the characters were depicted. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with this, it did make everything read as somewhat reductive.

One last thing I would add is that this novel is definitely not one for those who get squeamish about animal cruelty and death, as Laestadius does not shy away from describing the horrific killing of reindeer, also adding considerable emotional depth in losing them, especially since reindeer are more than “just animals” in Sámi culture.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Hate crime, Racism, and Grief

Moderate: Bullying, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Car accident

symmetra's review against another edition

challenging dark informative slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Dementia, Suicide attempt, and Colonisation

Moderate: Alcoholism, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, and Sexism

geerbeer's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Heftige omschrijvingen, maar wauw! Voor iemand die de cultuur niet kent is het ontzettend leerzaam en je voelt enorm mee met de personages en dieren in het boek. Elke keer was ik weer in 'awe' over hoe mensen toch prachtig in verbinding kunnen staan met de aarde, haar flora en fauna en al zo snel zien dat het klimaat naar de klote gaat. Ontzettend mooi!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Racism, Blood, Dementia, Grief, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail

ape's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

The way in which the MFC was essentially white knighted out of her own revenge by the ghost of a man really enraged me - but then I had to remember this isn’t the kind of fiction I’m used to.

Not an easy read, and the emotional weight was a lot. I do think it highlights well a lot of indigenous struggles with forced conformity and other plights, which impact tons of indigenous communities around the world… But the description to me meant more of an idealized story, or at the very least some more catharsis, and this didn’t really get there for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

cariboukai's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective sad slow-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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Dementia, and Grief

Moderate: Alcoholism, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, and Alcohol

Minor: Suicide