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A review by prettycloud
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
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
4.75
This book feels like the pandemic: just when you think you've found the rhythms of normal life, you feel the uncertainty as threads come loose bit by bit until the whole thing unravels. It's a powerful look at the way that unraveling gave people in the US a new understanding of our own complacency, caused people to question the facts of life we'd come to accept. The energy that flowed into anti-racism work in that summer of 2020 feels vibrant and real in this book without being too trite. And it does not shy away from the nuances of systemic and interpersonal racism!
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, and Alcohol
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Xenophobia, Trafficking, Pregnancy, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Racism, Colonisation, and War
This book addresses the horrors of colonialism and historic wrongs, but it doesn't twist the knife or delight in violence. The characters in the present experience common experiences during the first year of COVID, from generalized pandemic anxiety to police violence and hospitalization from the virus . The main character had previously endured police and other violence during her incarceration, which she describes in the beginning of the book and which forms part of a later conflict. No one in the present tense of the book abuses drugs or alcohol, but the main character's mom was an addict and neglected her, and she does describe this.