Reviews tagging 'Genocide'

Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq

4 reviews

lailybibliography's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective fast-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

5.0

Arqsarniq. I sing for you. Humming shakily at first, thin tendrils of sound. The trepidation dissolves and a throbbing vibratory expulsion of sound emerges. Thicker, richer, heavier. Sound is its own currency. Sound is a conduit to a realm we cannot totally comprehend. 

Devastating, powerful, heartbreaking. I’m genuinely at a loss for words at the horrific beauty of Tanya Tagaq’s Nunavut and the near-mythic, brutal nature of life in the Great North. Humanity stripped to its barest essence, Tagaq describes a world where the material and spiritual coexist in violent harmony; where the Northern Lights are an everyday occurrence intervening in the lives of those living underneath its luminescence. One where the frigid cold and perpetual winter darkness renders lays bare the dispassionate, carnivorous soul of humankind fighting for its survival against foxes and bears and other assorted creatures all desperate to scratch out a sliver of an existence in an unforgiving environment.

The life Tagaq describes would be unbelievable to anybody living outside the Arctic circle. There’s a general air of chaos and danger permeating even the simplest of events. There’s no pretence of innocent to shield children from the cruelties of adulthood. Alcoholism and substance abuse runs rampant, and sexual abuse of children is so prevalent that Tagaq feels insecure when schoolteachers molest her some female classmates before her. There’s a definite whiplash that comes with reading about, say, institutionalized sexual abuse of children, then immediately moving on to visions of ancient folklore rendered in aurorae and astral projections with ancestors and descendants across time.

I could honestly go on and on raving about the gorgeous prose and heart-pounding narrative Tagaq weaves here. This should be considered a modern Canadian classic, required reading in our high school and university curricula. My favourite read of 2024 so far.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Sexual assault, and Pregnancy

Minor: Genocide and Colonisation

theolivetree's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Incest, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Genocide and Racism

sarahaf712's review against another edition

CSA

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Genocide, Forced institutionalization, and Colonisation

ktrecs's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Colonisation

Moderate: Vomit and Cannibalism