Reviews with content warning for Torture - Trickster Drift

Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Trickster Drift by Eden Robinson

9 reviews

the_wistful_word_witch's review

challenging dark emotional reflective 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

4.0

Well, if you were expecting things to improve for Jared in this second book in the trilogy, you'd be mighty wrong!

Most of the book is spent watching Jared navigate the world as a recovering alcoholic. He manages to land on his feet, getting into college despite all odds, and starts building a life for himself. And you start hoping that things are going to stay good for poor Jared, who really is a sweet kid that got dealt a really shitty hand in life. Until the worst happens and forces him to take on his Trickster mantle. And shit starts speeding back downhill in a matter of mere chapters.

While being incredibly detailed and wildly imaginative, this book left me feeling more exposed and raw than the first one. I can't even imagine where the last book is heading...

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annemaries_shelves's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

4.0

I read 250 pages this weekend and couldn't put it down.

I think I enjoyed this one even more than the first, which is unusual for a sequel in a trilogy series. As with the first, the plot is slow to build and the integration of Indigenous worldviews and mythologies (coy wolves, Tricksters, witches, etc.) really pays off by the end.

The characters were my favourite. Robinson did such a great job showing Jared's character development as he navigates sobriety, family, school, and a stalker, and the side characters were so wonderful, that it all made up for the limited plot. (Mave, Kota, Dent, and Eliza/Shu are my faves)

I appreciated the build-up to the reveal of Jared's heritage and abilities along with the mysteries of his scary interdimensional nexus of a bedroom. The tension also kept slowly ratcheting up with David's stalking - he's truly one of the scariest villains I've read in a while, because he's so human in his evil.

Overall, I really liked this entry into the series and can't wait to read the final installment (eventually).

CW: sobriety and alcohol use disorder/addiction, stalking, violence, blood and gore, torture

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toriwatson's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious tense 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

3.5

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gailbird's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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

4.0

It’s been a year since Jared almost died after going on a crazy bender with his girlfriend and mistakenly broadcasting his presence to a group of disgruntled, shapeshifting otters. He lost a toe and his girlfriend, and committed to sobriety so nothing like that could ever happen to him again. Unfortunately, he’s still a son of the trickster, drunk or sober. And the otters aren’t the only ones looking for someone with as much mojo as he is proven to have. He attracts magic and spirits like lint to a sock, no matter how many times he dutifully smudges his apartment.

Moved out of party city (aka his mom’s house), Jared is enrolled in university, looking to make something of his life, reconnecting with grandmothers, old and new, and dodging his mother’s psychotic ex who is stalking him. A ghost who loves Doctor Who, a grandma with a reptile under her skin and a wolf pack for relatives, a doorway to an interdimensional pocket universe painted on the bedroom floor by a paranoid artist named Edgar Six… Jared never knew living with his aunt could be this much fun. Until things start trying to eat him, of course.

Jared’s journey picks up without much fanfare, beginning slowly while he navigates uncertain housing in Vancouver and gets settled in with his mom’s sister, who doesn’t believe in magic but believes in civil disobedience for social change. It is, as always, an eclectic group of characters living in his aunt’s apartment complex—cousins, step-siblings, a zombie ghost, the usual—providing some really fun colour and personalities for Jared’s third-person limited perspective to comment on. Though a large portion of the book is seemingly uneventful plot-wise, there is a thread of tension running through it as, not only is Jared being openly stalked, but he is also maintaining his hard won sobriety. And, like in the first book, the supernatural menace emerges with a vengeance at the end, culminating in a showdown in another universe.

Jared is the type of guy I would like as a friend—down to earth, randomly cooks and cleans, wicked dry sense of humour. A good listener who also knows how to just be in someone’s company without having to chat. His struggles with his family, his addiction, his power, and, tied in with them all, his identity are really compelling and although he doesn’t always know what the right thing to do is, he keeps going.

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