Reviews with content warning for Death - The Round House

Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Round House by Louise Erdrich

25 reviews

yourbookishbff's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This is my first by Louise Erdrich, and I know I'll read more. As beautifully written as it is devastating, this premise is dark - a mother is brutally raped and nearly murdered, escaping - just barely - with her life at the very start of our story. With the discovery of the crime, the lives of every person in her orbit shift radically. This is written in first-person through the perspective of her thirteen-year-old son, Joe, and you can feel in every scene how he teeters between childhood and adulthood, at times falling into silly Star Trek games and juvenile inside jokes with his best friends, and at others, resenting his parents for the fall-out from the crime as he tries to unravel the mystery himself. Joe's fears, anxieties, resentment, curiosity, and growing self-awareness are deeply painful to read as an adult, as we see the aging effect of childhood trauma and the ripples of the crime in every part of his life.

Joe's personal liminality is reflected in Erdrich's depiction of life on the reservation. We take long detours through Catholicism and the local church and see the ways in which colonizing religions have influenced various people and families in their tribe, and we sense the disharmony of these traditions and their own. In the end, as Joe journeys toward revenge, he finds himself seeking reassurance and validation in both Catholic and Ojibwe tradition, alternately leaning on stories of Sins Crying out for Vengeance and the wiindigoo. Erdrich sets the crime itself in just such a liminal space - occurring, in part, within the Round House, a sacred space for the Ojibwe, but occurring in part at an intersection of tribal and "fee" lands. This liminality becomes the crux of the injustice in our story, and Erdrich shows us how the very real lack of sovereignty for Indigenous communities undermines their ability to protect themselves and their lands, and how it has specifically betrayed Indigenous victims of sexual violence.

There is so much that can be said about how Erdrich builds the narrative - the lack of quotation marks that give it a stream of consciousness feel at times, the storytelling woven throughout, the anecdotal detours, the wide cast of characters and the decision to confine the story to Joe's point of view. Altogether, these decisions create a world haunted by many ghosts, one in which we can see the ripples of action and inaction across people and generations, and one in which justice feels illusory.

Content Warnings

nicoleisalwaysreading's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad 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

Content Warnings

lydiamcleod's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

Moving, deeply sad, tragic, and hopeful at the same time. A whole meal of a book.

Content Warnings

andrewhatesham's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

taylorlanxon's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Content Warnings

tiffanykw's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad 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

4.0

Content Warnings

annreadsabook's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

THE ROUND HOUSE is a real masterpiece of a novel, one that examines deep violence perpetrated against Indigenous women and the many obstacles that prevent survivors and their families from seeing something remotely approximating justice. In this book we have Joe, the son of a tribal judge who takes matters into his own hands after his mother is horrifically attacked, and over the course of the novel Joe is forced to grow up beyond his years. Erdrich considers the lengths we will go to fight for the ones we love, the limits and definitions of “justice,” and the lasting bonds of community.

This is an absolute classic and a must-read, particularly for those in the legal profession or for those who are interested in learning about how the tangled web of legal systems in the US interfere with Indigenous sovereignty. I’ll be thinking about this book for a long time. Queen Louise can do no wrong.

Content Warnings