Reviews tagging 'Cannibalism'

Bad Cree by Jessica Johns

21 reviews

bookworm_by_blood's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cannibalism

violetbooklover's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Grief, and Colonisation

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Cancer, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Chronic illness, Cursing, Genocide, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexual violence, Vomit, Police brutality, Cultural appropriation, and Classism

zombiezami's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Racism, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Cannibalism, Stalking, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Chronic illness, Confinement, Drug use, Genocide, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Car accident, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

beccaburchett's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Blood, and Grief

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug use, Racism, Terminal illness, Vomit, Cannibalism, Car accident, and Alcohol

dragongirl271's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, and Cannibalism

theverycraftyvegan's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

This book is so beautifully written and deeply haunting. It made my scalp tingle a few times. 

Mackenzie is a young Cree woman who is suddenly able to take things from her dreams and bring them into the waking world. Her dreams are of the past and they are trying to tell her something. 

Her best friend encourages her to talk to her family about what she’s going through and after a phone call with one of her aunties she knows she needs to go home. 

As Mackenzie starts trying to mend her relationships with her family they all begin to learn they have more in common than they ever realized. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Blood, Cannibalism, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Cancer, Child death, and Vomit

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Colonisation

alice52's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Gore, and Grief

Minor: Cannibalism

caseythereader's review

dark emotional tense fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Blood, Cannibalism, and Injury/Injury detail

prairieraven's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

5.0

A book about the powerful elders and Aunties and community connection and the bonds between family and community. This is a beautiful and cryptically dark story about a Grief stricken young Créé Woman haunted by her dead sister, plagued by nightmares and followed by crows. She starts bringing objects from her dreams back to reality with her and she realizes she's in more trouble that she thought. The book is gripping, haunting and layered with connectivity with profound character growth.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Child death, Death, Drug use, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

kelly_e's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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

4.25

Title: Bad Cree
Author: Jessica Johns
Genre: Magical Realism
Rating: 4.25
Pub Date: January 10, 2023

T H R E E • W O R D S

Beautiful • Haunting • Layered

📖 S Y N O P S I S

Mackenzie, a Cree millennial, wakes up in her one-bedroom Vancouver apartment clutching a pine bough she had been holding in her dream just moments earlier. When she blinks, it disappears. But she can still smell the sharp pine scent in the air, the nearest pine tree a thousand kilometres away in the far reaches of Treaty 8.

Mackenzie continues to accidentally bring back items from her dreams, dreams that are eerily similar to real memories of her older sister and Kokum before their untimely deaths. As Mackenzie’s life spirals into a living nightmare—crows are following her around and she’s getting texts from her dead sister on the other side—it becomes clear that these dreams have terrifying, real-life consequences. Desperate for help, Mackenzie returns to her mother, sister, cousin, and aunties in her small Alberta hometown. Together, they try to uncover what is haunting Mackenzie before something irrevocable happens to anyone else around her.

💭 T H O U G H T S

Bad Cree was already on my TBR, yet it definitely got bumped up the list after landing on the 2024 Canada Reads shortlist. Marketed as a horror, I really wasn't quite sure what to expect, but a few bookish friends told me it wasn't 'horror' in the typical sense of the genre.

With poetic writing, I was instantly hooked by the opening scene of this deeply atmospheric and urgent story. Advancing at a slow meander, it was absolutely disturbing and unsettling at times, yet each of the characters were so real, leaping off the page. There is so much beyond the brutality - an underlying thread focusing on familial (particularly female) bonds, grief and generational trauma. Delving into the very real horrors POC continue to face as a result of systemic oppression, the social commentary never takes over.

I really appreciated getting to know more about Cree traditions and customs, the connections to the spiritual and natural worlds, and the role of dreams. Jessica Johns does a fabulous job portraying the isolating nature of grief - not only from death, but from the impacts of industrialization and colonization as well. Everything was just very well done to not detract from the plot.

Bad Cree is an exceptional and gripping debut from a rising Indigenous voice. It took me by surprise, and I will be keeping an eye out for what Jessica Johns is working on next. I suspect this one will fair quite well in the upcoming Canada Reads debates happening March 4th-7th. If I had to pick a winner, this would likely be it. Regardless of how it does, I definitely think this is one book all Canadians should read.

📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• readers looking for something different
• realistic horror enthusiasts
• anyone looking for a new author

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"One thing they don’t tell you about when someone you love dies because of a sickness is that death happens in a million different ways in the lead up to the actual moment."

"That might be the worst thing about death: it doesn't stop anything. The world keeps moving, even though the pain is just as real as the day it settled in." 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Mental illness, Violence, Vomit, Murder, and Colonisation

Minor: Cancer, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent

sibling death