Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger

52 reviews

alyssasaurus's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional informative mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

This book was lovely and informative. The magical nature of the world brought into stark focus the reality of the deep-seeded racism and constant threat of violence Native Americans face every day. That, plus all the other horror elements, made this an uncomfortable read, and it was worth every second I spent spent on it. I very much recommend this book to anyone and everyone, for an adventure, for cultural understanding, and for the wonderful depictions of a loving dog. 
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emily_mh's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This was such a delight to read!! It really reminded me of the game Night in the Woods. I adored the author’s writing style; the dialogue gave off a real arthouse film vibe which was really unique. But also, she effortlessly wove together so many strands of story and character, but all in the direction of telling a murder mystery?? Masterfully done!! The plot was also well-paced and held my attention throughout. Ellie was a wonderful main character: she was clever, determined, and thought outside the box, so it was really refreshing to read from her POV. Jay as a side character was so much fun, and the friendship between the him and Ellie was joyful. Finally, the illustrations in the chapter headings were absolutely gorgeous, and I loved how they ended up weaving in with Ellie’s storyline.  
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peachmoni's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious sad 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? No

5.0

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kalehouse's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious reflective fast-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? No

4.25

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morganperks's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious 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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lumorise's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

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fromjuliereads's review against another edition

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

3.0

I have had a hard time putting together my thoughts after finishing this novel. This is not a subgenre that I typically read - neither urban fantasy nor magical realism, as I believe that is often what this story is categorized as. I feel like I have to not consider that for my review then, but it should be acknowledged.

I so wanted to love this book. I know it is a book that so many people love, and it has been quite hyped. But I'm wondering if the hype made it slightly disappointing for me because my expectations were just too high... 

Okay, things I liked:
- The stories about Six-Great! They were fantastic and I thoroughly enjoyed them. I actually wish there had been more stories and things we got to learn about Six-Great! They were my favourite parts of the novel for sure.
- The Indigenous lore was woven in very well and was so interesting to have included throughout the story.

Unfortunately, the number of things I disliked was a bit longer...
- The characters felt quite underdeveloped. I never felt an attachment to them or like I cared about what happened to them, because that connection was never built with developing the characters fully. I tend to prefer round, developed, character-driven stories. I can get into plot heavy stories, but the characters have to be developed more than I felt these ones were. Especially the cousin. We are meant to care about the resolution behind his murder, but this is a character we have no connection to and know nothing about... we don't even meet the character alive.
Just as a side note off this as well, I found it odd that Ellie and Jay are best friends, but don't know these big things about each other's lives... And it was VERY confusing when we had Ellie as the POV throughout the entire story to suddenly be thrown into one chapter from her mother's POV, a side character who had very small moments through the rest of the story...
- Which leads into the other thing I disliked - there were a couple side plots that seemingly did nothing to further the plot or even be integral to the story. All of the parts with conversations and updates about Ronnie's wedding and the story that the mother tells felt slightly unnecessary to the story... Not to mention the humour just constantly fell flat. There was one line where I think it was to help assert Ellie's asexuality, where Ronnie suggested she could bring a zucchini as a wedding date? I think it was supposed to be funny but it wasn't... I thought it was so strange.
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hmatt's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I really, really liked the world this novel is set in, but I don't feel like the book did it or the story itself justice. A lot of the narrative seemed rushed, to me, as if it tried to pack too many details into too short of a story. At times, especially in the second half of the book, I wondered whether I had accidentally skipped a sentence or two of exposition.

The world seems so rich with magic and slight differences to "ours", and I can see why the author wanted to explain it all, but maybe some of the inclusions were unnecessary and distracted from the plot.
For instance, I don't think the repeated inclusion/descriptions of the fae and fairy rings is fundamental to the story besides as a convenient tool for Jay et al to use for getting around fast. Similarly, I don't think the fake-psychic plot point really furthered the narrative.
Instead, I wish the author had used this space to expand on Ellie's reactions and feelings during the climactic scenes. This part of the book really lost me
, because you had a teenage girl witnessing mass death and destruction happening around her and she's like... cracking cheerleading jokes with her best friend? Sorry, that doesn't seem plausible
.

I have some mixed feelings about the teeny tiny ace rep happening. I want to be happy that it's in there at all, but once again I feel like it was a rushed inclusion. It's not delved into in any detail, which is almost worse (to me) than not having named representation at all. Further, because the book doesn't go into any detail, an uneducated reader could be forgiven for equating asexuality with aromanticism - because the small inclusion appears to conflate the two. This frustrated me.

Beyond this, I did really enjoy the story. I liked how it wove it Lipin Apache culture and didn't shy away from confronting the ongoing effects of colonization. The characters' behaviours mostly aligned with their age, which is something that, if untrue, can really turn me off a YA read. However, I felt that the dialogue was a bit stilted and some of the exposition read as more middle-grade than YA. This made for a bit of a mixed-experience read.
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longlost's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

im gonna be thinking about this book for weeks
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immovabletype's review against another edition

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Personal triggers.
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