Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Round House by Louise Erdrich

25 reviews

reads2cope's review against another edition

4.5

“That old buffalo woman gave Nanapush her views. She told him that he had survived by doing the opposite of all the others. Where they abandoned, he saved. Where they were cruel, he was kind. Where they betrayed, he was faithful. Nanapush then decided that in all things he would be unpredictable. As he had completely lost trust in authority, he decided to stay away from others and to think for himself, even to do the most ridiculous things that occurred to him.”

This book wasn’t what I expected, and as someone who doesn’t typically reach for mystery novels (thank you to the Paperbacks & Frybread Decolonize Your Bookshelf Challenge for taking me here!) I’m so glad I picked it up. It was very uncomfortable to be in the mind of a 13 year old boy, but at the same time I am still reeling from the amount of growth readers get not only from the main character but from the complex web of community he is surrounded by. This is a book that will stick with me for a long time.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Toxic relationship, and Abandonment

Minor: Ableism and Infidelity

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

Graphic: Body shaming, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Car accident

foxglovefairy's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Grief, Stalking, and Alcohol

lisettemarie's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Genocide, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Grief, and Colonisation

pettywhaler's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny informative reflective sad 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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Grief, Murder, and Colonisation

sestout's review against another edition

adventurous 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? No

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Mental illness, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

tiffanykw's review against another edition

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

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Rape, Blood, Car accident, Murder, and Colonisation

Minor: Alcoholism, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Violence, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Colonisation

lorenag5's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

sarahholliday's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

The non-five-star rating is completely down to my personal taste, because this is very clearly a masterpiece of a novel. 

I am definitely a plot-driven person, but I enjoy picking up the occasional character-focused story. Joe and his community are absolutely fascinating, and though at times I wished we could move outside of his limited first-person perspective, it was both haunting and magical to see the events of the novel through his eyes.

What stood out to me the most was the emotional rawness—Erdrich takes readers into the kinds of emotional landscapes that are suffocating and overwhelming, but leads them through in the myriad ways all humans turn to: avoidance, escape, drunkenness, attempts to maintain some sort of control.

I loved Erdrich's style enough that I'm eager to pick up some of her other novels, and I highly recommend The Round House to anyone looking for a deeply-felt story of family, injustice, courage, and friendship.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Racism, Rape, Grief, and Murder

bangishimokwe's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Torture, Blood, Vomit, Car accident, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, and Colonisation