biobooksbirdsnerd's review
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying, Sexual violence, Mental illness, Rape, Violence, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Stalking, and Sexual harassment
traa's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
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
laurenkimoto's review
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.5
Memoir - heck yes
Graphic novel - heck yes
A book about Canadian issues - heck yes
A memoir about Canadian issues in the form of a graphic novel - fuck yes
Graphic novel - heck yes
A book about Canadian issues - heck yes
A memoir about Canadian issues in the form of a graphic novel - fuck yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Gaslighting, Classism, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Death, Car accident, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence
khourianya's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
4.0
A sad but necessary account of what the working and mental health conditions of the Alberta Oil sand were like. It’s not an easy read, but it’s important.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Drug abuse, and Drug use
ee_lazzari's review
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
5.0
I knew it would be a heavy read, but I wasn't really prepared for how heavy. Regardless, it was very, very good. I'll be thinking about it for a long time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual harassment
Moderate: Sexual assault and Alcohol
Minor: Gaslighting, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts
The oil sands are largely staffed by men who don't spend a lot of time away from work or in regular society. Katie, the protagonist (and author -- this is a memoir) is a woman. There is a lot of harassment throughout. Also, [tw sexual assault]Spoiler
Beaton writes in a somewhat oblique but still very clear way about the times she was raped, and the experiences follow her for the entire rest of the book. She discusses it with her sister and a friend on two separate occasions, and both of them reveal the same experience. The scenes themselves are not graphic, but it is incredibly present in her mental state and haunts the story from its point forward.Spoiler
At one point, Katie goes with the boys to a strip club (they needed a designated driver). The woman on stage is fully nude and recognisable as such, and there is a discussion rather explicitly about the "game" being played: throw coins at her vagina.kelly_e's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Title: Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands
Author: Kate Beaton
Genre: Graphic Novel Memoir
Rating: 4.50
Pub Date: September 13, 2022
T H R E E • W O R D S
Observant • Humane • Eye-opening
📖 S Y N O P S I S
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands is author Kate Beaton's graphic memoir. As a young woman from Atlantic Canada, Kate, newly graduated with an arts degree and student loans to repay, decides to leave home, heading west to work in the oil sands. Over a span of two years, she details the trials and tribulations of her time there - the emotional, the physical, and the environmental impacts.
💭 T H O U G H T S
Shortlisted for Canada Reads 2023, Ducks was the first of the four remaining contenders, which I had yet to read, that I decided to pickup (I've read Greenwood). And upon finishing I am convinced it was the perfect place to start.
Ducks details Kate's traumatic and isolating experience working in the camps - from working in a male dominated industry filled with misogyny and sexism, to the harassment she endured, to people coming and going, and to being so isolated and spending nearly all of her time indoors. Yet this graphic memoir is so much more than that. The author focuses on the bigger picture - the culture of camp life, the isolation, the lack of environmental respect, the people, the community, the environmental impact, and how little disregard companies had for Indigenous lands. Even the title is a testament to the ecological disasters as a result of the oil sands.
The graphics are dramatic, a stark reminder of what power and money has done (in this case the oil industry), not only to the land but to its people as well. Kate effortlessly conveys the emotional realities of camp life through facial expression and body posture. And the graphics contrast camp life with the vast and beautiful landscape of Alberta.
Although, Ducks paints a fairly negative picture overall, it isn't all bleak. Kate shares small moments of tenderness with some of the the people she encounters. There were some who kept an eye out for her and were willing to help her, and it is there where I really felt the humanity of this book.
I am looking forward to watching the Canada Reads debates in March, and think Ducks has the potential to go the distance. It's definitely a book that will open your eyes, leave you reflecting and shift your perspective.
📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• Canlit devotees
• graphic novel enthusiasts
• readers looking to expand their perspectives
🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S
"Everything's ruined, our lives around our lands are ruined, our water, the air, everything. Their almighty dollar comes first. That's pretty sad. You can't eat money."
Author: Kate Beaton
Genre: Graphic Novel Memoir
Rating: 4.50
Pub Date: September 13, 2022
T H R E E • W O R D S
Observant • Humane • Eye-opening
📖 S Y N O P S I S
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands is author Kate Beaton's graphic memoir. As a young woman from Atlantic Canada, Kate, newly graduated with an arts degree and student loans to repay, decides to leave home, heading west to work in the oil sands. Over a span of two years, she details the trials and tribulations of her time there - the emotional, the physical, and the environmental impacts.
💭 T H O U G H T S
Shortlisted for Canada Reads 2023, Ducks was the first of the four remaining contenders, which I had yet to read, that I decided to pickup (I've read Greenwood). And upon finishing I am convinced it was the perfect place to start.
Ducks details Kate's traumatic and isolating experience working in the camps - from working in a male dominated industry filled with misogyny and sexism, to the harassment she endured, to people coming and going, and to being so isolated and spending nearly all of her time indoors. Yet this graphic memoir is so much more than that. The author focuses on the bigger picture - the culture of camp life, the isolation, the lack of environmental respect, the people, the community, the environmental impact, and how little disregard companies had for Indigenous lands. Even the title is a testament to the ecological disasters as a result of the oil sands.
The graphics are dramatic, a stark reminder of what power and money has done (in this case the oil industry), not only to the land but to its people as well. Kate effortlessly conveys the emotional realities of camp life through facial expression and body posture. And the graphics contrast camp life with the vast and beautiful landscape of Alberta.
Although, Ducks paints a fairly negative picture overall, it isn't all bleak. Kate shares small moments of tenderness with some of the the people she encounters. There were some who kept an eye out for her and were willing to help her, and it is there where I really felt the humanity of this book.
I am looking forward to watching the Canada Reads debates in March, and think Ducks has the potential to go the distance. It's definitely a book that will open your eyes, leave you reflecting and shift your perspective.
📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• Canlit devotees
• graphic novel enthusiasts
• readers looking to expand their perspectives
🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S
"Everything's ruined, our lives around our lands are ruined, our water, the air, everything. Their almighty dollar comes first. That's pretty sad. You can't eat money."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Car accident, Sexual harassment, Rape, Medical trauma, Misogyny, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Infidelity, Racial slurs, Racism, Death, Cursing, Animal death, and Colonisation
Minor: Drug abuse, Alcohol, Addiction, Sexual content, and Drug use
rachaeln__'s review
challenging
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Drug use, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment
thebacklistborrower's review
challenging
dark
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
“Thank goodness, no!” was my exclamation to my mum, who suggested I must have had similar experiences in my career in engineering as Kate had in Ducks. At that time, I was approximately half way through, and after a duology of harrowing scenes, I’d paused my read. But by the end of the book, I had seen more of my experience than I expected. Weeks later, and I’m reflecting on the very last panels still.
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands is a graphic memoir written and illustrated by Kate Beaton, who, like many other Antlantic Canadians, went to work in the oil sands after getting her arts degree. Spending a total of two years there between 2007 and 2009, with a year in Victoria in the middle, she wrestles with the emotional, physical, and environmental toxicity of the work. The title is a reference to a mass poisoning of migrating ducks at the Syncrude plant, but its not hard to draw the line between the ducks and the workers who both suffer-- and die-- from the greed of corporations trying to wring every dollar of profit out of their operations.
At first, Kate is deep in the fields, one of only a few woman working amongst hundreds of men. She’s on full display, and the men don’t use innuendo when talking about her. Its this level of misogyny I’m grateful to not have experienced. In the second half, however, she’s working an office job, and it's there I see my experience: not the obvious misogyny of creeps, but the insidious, casual chatter that has women question whether they are being uptight, or overreacting, or trying to determine what is worth stepping out of line to challenge. She learned, as I have, that in some situations, you just keep quiet and move on. Not only can you not fight every battle, but to try would be social suicide, and in her case, even dangerous.
Kate shows that good people can be bad people when put in bad places. Friendly folk can be misogynists, and many people don’t see it that way. This book can, and will, shift those perspectives.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Sexual harassment, Racism, and Sexual content
Moderate: Rape
shaunnow38's review
dark
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Sexual harassment, and Sexual content
Moderate: Rape
Minor: Drug abuse
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