Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

The Round House by Louise Erdrich

7 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. 

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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

lydiamcleod's review against another edition

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual violence, Murder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Death and Religious bigotry

audreyolejasz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

2.0

The main character is kunda of a pervert...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Hate crime, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Murder, Alcohol, 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

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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

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

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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

sam_fielder_137's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.25

I was mostly just bored. Since the main character is telling the story as an adult lawyer who's married, when we got to the climax, I knew everything would be okay. The stakes were low. The crime happened, they knew who did it. It was about justice, but didn't dive a lot into that aspect. I think the word "breast" was in the book more times than "justice" which is saying something. It was disturbing to read about a 13 year old boy's infatuation for his aunt, and the payoff for that was much too low.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Hate crime, Racism, Grief, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Eating disorder and Kidnapping

danah_kmt's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Racism, Rape, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Death, Religious bigotry, and Alcohol