Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq

24 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

mekowaletti's review against another edition

mysterious

4.0

So original and a beautiful perspective and twist of indigenous culture. The audio book included the author throat singing between chapters, another adventure into magical realism that i'm realizing may not be my vibe. But i'm still glad I read it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy and Colonisation

Moderate: Alcoholism

wittchyn's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug use, Suicide, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Colonisation

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Rape, and Suicide attempt

shelise3's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, and Colonisation

kmerrow's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense

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

5.0

No one who can listen to the audiobook should be doing anything but that. I'm sure it is an interesting read, but the audio is something other-wordly. I have never heard someone give themselves entirely to an audiobook in this way, and most if not all chapters are lead out by Tanya Tagaq's throat singing. She imbues the words with so much emotion and her tone shifts appropriately throughout. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to listen to this book read by the author.

Note: it is NSFW or literally any other environment so you want to listen with headphones on or somewhere with thick walls.

That being said, this is undoubtedly the weirdest, most fucked up thing I've ever read. And I mean that as a term of endearment. It also makes it fucking real. This writing is unapologetic. She writes in such a poetic and at times whimsical way, sometimes about truly horrific things. It is fantastical while also dealing with very hard realities like child sexual abuse, which is an overriding theme. It is extremely sexually explicit, whether detailing abuse, consensual sex, sex with animals, and even the northern lights.

If you're easily offended or squeamish, this is not the one for you, but I'd still recommend it to you because it's unforgettable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Grief, and Pregnancy

Minor: Addiction, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, and Colonisation

laurenmiller100's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

3.75

“Fear is learning to run from me. Not the other way around.”

Someone on Goodreads called this book the thorniest of roses, and I have to agree. As others have mentioned, big time trigger warnings on this. It’s vulgar, disturbing, beautiful, brutal, mysterious, magical, and deeply upsetting. Definitely a unique read, but one that I struggled with because the content is so difficult. The plot can be winding, vague, and hard to follow because it’s written as poetry. I don’t have much of a mind for poetry even though I love it, so I don’t know that I really followed all the events of this story. That said, what did make a huge impact on me is the feeling that Tagaq is trying to get across. The ending is beautiful and horrible. Tragic and disquieting. I am glad I read it, and I hope to never read it again.

“We are reverberations of our ancestors and songs of our present selves. It is very quiet in the future as it is in the deep past. The quiet. We always live among the dead. It’s scary but the quiet is our true home. This is why we must make the most of our gristle and meat. We must celebrate being harnessed into our bodies. We are a product of the immense torque that propels this universe. We are not individuals but an accumulation of all that lived before.”

• Characters: 6
• Atmosphere/Setting: 10
• Writing Style: 8
• Plot: 7
• Intrigue: 8
• Logic/Relationships: 4
• Enjoyment: 2

6.2/10 = 3.75 stars

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Alcohol

Descriptions are extremely graphic and disturbing.

a_beautiful_soup's review

adventurous challenging dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Drug abuse, Pedophilia, and Rape

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Incest, Violence, and Colonisation

kodi_rae's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

Part autobiography, part narrative fiction, part magical realism, etc. with some tough themes about SA, trauma, etc. One of the things that makes “Split Tooth” beautiful is the way Tagaq talks about the environment, animal spirits, the northern lights, etc. and how it ties into the narrative and cultural beliefs and practices. I read in other reviews that if you listen to the audiobook she narrates it herself and incorporates throat singing between each section which I imagine would lend itself to a whole new, raw experience. I think it would be worth revisiting. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Colonisation

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Drug use, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Minor: Death, Domestic abuse, Self harm, and Terminal illness

salemander's review against another edition

5.0

gorgeous and so painful. the audiobook was incredible, the throat singing between chapters  just added to the dark and poetic story being told

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, Grief, Pregnancy, and Colonisation

bookishmillennial's review against another edition

slow-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? Yes

• 200 pages, lyrically written (she adds throat singing in between chapters in the audiobook)
• Searing symbolism & magical realism
• story follows a nameless Inuk young woman from Nunavut (extremely close proximity to the Arctic Sea) who navigates so much trauma (food insecurity, sexual assault, teen pregnancy, indigenous land being destroyed, & more!)
• intense ruminations on land, spirit, life, death & identity
• cw: rape, child abuse, alcoholism, colonization, racism 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Racism, Rape, and Colonisation