Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton

18 reviews

marysespieces's review

challenging dark emotional informative tense fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Alcohol, Cursing, Sexual assault, Racial slurs, and Infidelity

vixenreader's review

dark emotional funny hopeful informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.75

The great Canadian graphic novel, it is an exploration of what people will put up with when they need to take care of themselves, and how others will take advantage of those because of their lack of resources. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Sexual violence, Mental illness, Cursing, Sexual harassment, Rape, Sexual assault, Misogyny, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Colonisation, Racism, Drug use, Drug abuse, Animal death, Bullying, Alcohol, Classism, Death, Emotional abuse, and Xenophobia

Minor: Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, and Ableism

Be aware that the novel does explore workplace abuse, hardship, and harassment. If you got out of a bad job, please read with care.

graceesford's review

adventurous dark funny reflective fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Sexism, Sexual assault, Rape, Cursing, and Misogyny

Moderate: Mental illness

readersreadingnook's review

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative sad fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cursing, Sexism, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Rape, and Body shaming

Minor: Drug use and Addiction

thunderdone's review

challenging sad slow-paced

2.5

In general, I wish Kate Beaton would use less dialogue and more varied compositions in her panels. While I think the story is a pertinent and fascinating to explain that world she inhabited, I think more parallels could have been drawn with the ducks. I think I'm wanting more Alison Bechdel in her work, with stronger leaning on symbolism. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Cursing, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Sexual assault and Rape

pam_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Misogyny

Moderate: Racial slurs, Injury/Injury detail, Excrement, and Infidelity

Minor: Car accident, Alcohol, Animal death, Addiction, Colonisation, Death, and Cursing

traa's review

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Alcohol, Stalking, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Infidelity

Moderate: Mental illness, Grief, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Car accident, Classism, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Colonisation, Cursing, Drug use, and Gaslighting

Minor: Blood, Body horror, Fatphobia, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Cancer, and Excrement

jlye's review

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

3.25

This is hard to rate without sounding super judgmental because it is a very personal, vulnerable account of Kate Beaton’s time spent in the oil sands. I grew up in Newfoundland and graduated from university the same year as Beaton. I too felt bitter that I worked so hard for a degree that couldn’t get me a job. The job market was shit and every fresh graduate was underemployed and saddled with debt. However, there were options other than the oil sands to make money and pay down student loans quickly. A lot of people with arts degrees went overseas to teach English and were back home within two or three years debt-free. Everyone had heard horror stories of camp life, sexual harassment, cocaine, injury and death at Fort Mac. I was surprised by Beaton’s naivety about life in the camps and her decision to go there. Teaching overseas paid well and it was a job that didn’t result in losing your soul or compromising your ethics. I know this sounds judgmental, but I guess I just I have a hard time understanding why a woman with a liberal arts degree would choose such a difficult path.

What I appreciated the most from the book were the perspectives of the people who were in the oil sands because they truly had few other opportunities. The people who were displaced after the mines and fisheries were shut down out East. They had families to support and many only had a grade school education or no education. Unlike Kate Beaton, those guys were there because they had to be. Those guys were there for the long haul, contrasted starkly with Beaton’s youth and what we know will be a bright future ahead. 

I am disappointed that the book dedicated only a few frames to the impact the oil sands has had on Indigenous communities. The epilogue mentions that sexual abuse targeted towards Indigenous women is even worse in Fort Mac and at the camps.  This book is receiving so much National attention, and I get this is a memoir focused on a white woman’s experience in the oil sands, but Indigenous voices on such important issues deserve more than a footnote.

“The almighty dollar comes first. At the cost of our lives - as long as they get their money”. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Stalking, Body shaming, Sexual harassment, Death, Misogyny, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Drug abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Addiction, and Cursing

daniellejp16's review against another edition

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Rape, Drug use, Addiction, Cursing, Mental illness, and Stalking

pewter's review

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

We Cape Bretoners have always had to live in two places for the sake of the almighty dollar, and this story just feels so validating. This deep yearning from home is portrayed lovingly and carefully by Beaton in lyrics and accents, alongside of a deeper fear of losing one's self to a place. Frightening and phenomenal - this is a must read for anyone who's had to leave home, but also for those of us who have empty seats at the table. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment and Sexual assault

Moderate: Sexual violence, Rape, Sexual harassment, and Sexual assault

Minor: Addiction, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Cancer, Cursing, Gaslighting, Violence, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Mental illness, Colonisation, Stalking, Rape, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Bullying, Car accident, and Grief