Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Das Leuchten der Rentiere by Ann-Helén Laestadius

54 reviews

haileyhardcover's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

August 9th is World Indigenous Peoples’ Day. In anticipation and observance of the holiday, I’ve been spending some time learning about the Sámi people. The only indigenous people of Europe, the Sámi’s ancestral lands are in an area known as Sápmi, spanning the north of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and part of the Kola Peninsula in Russia. During my research, I stumbled upon this book.

Stolen tells the story of Elsa, a young Sámi girl who witnesses the poaching of a beloved reindeer, Nástegallu. This traumatizing event is only the beginning for Elsa, as she grows up and continues to witness against racism and xenophobia, unchecked mental health struggles in her community, climate change, and ever-present threat to their reindeer and, thereby, their very ways of life.

Strong TW for animal torture and death. At several points, I had to just put this book down and cry after reading some of the descriptions; but I still think they were important to include. Though technically fictional, Stolen is inspired by real events, and these are horrific experiences that Sámi   reindeer herders experience. 

There is more than just trauma in these pages, though. While portraying the very real struggles that the Sámi experience, Laestadius, a Sámi woman herself, also clearly wrote this as a love letter to her culture and community. We get wonderful glimpses into culture, food, clothing, tradition. Though my Swedish didn’t come in handy very often, I enjoyed learning some new Sámi vocab words as well!

If you’re looking to broaden your knowledge of other cultures, I highly recommend Stolen. Before I was even halfway through, I pre-ordered Laestadius’ next book, Punished, which is also inspired by the true events of Sámi children taken from their families to state-mandated “nomad schools” - Scandinavian versions of the residential schools that Native American children were forced into in the US and Canada. 

Netflix has adapted Stolen into a movie which was released in April of this year. I’ll be spending my afternoon watching the movie!
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kirjakimalainen's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative 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? No

5.0

An incredible, well written and important book that manages to discuss both current and generational trauma that Sámi people face. The book feels like arctic winter and grief, the writing creates a vivid image of the environment, and very strongly conveys the mood.

The book is very informative on the current reality Sámi people face, and as a nordic person i'm glad i read it.
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franzeerdbeerbacke's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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erikaeklund's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

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jayisreading's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

4.0

I know very little about Sámi culture, so this novel ended up being really insightful in learning more about modern Sámi life and the discrimination they face in Swedish society. Laestadius presented a number of nuanced situations for the Sámi community in her novel, such as the challenges of upholding tradition in a time of modernization, generational trauma, as well as gender roles (especially as a reindeer herder). Importantly, though, Laestadius is concerned with exploring the tensions between the Sámi community and non-Sámi community, particularly when dealing with law enforcement. The message is a little heavy-handed, which is that it’s clear she wants to draw attention to the injustices that indigenous peoples face when dealing with authoritative figures.

Structurally, I admit that I had some difficulty getting into this one. I don’t know if it was the particularly short chapters or what, but I was a bit thrown off by the overall pacing of the novel. I think another thing that didn’t quite work for me was that, while situations were explored with nuance, many of the characters themselves lacked complexity. I did feel that Laestadius set the reader up for a good versus evil story with how the characters were depicted. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with this, it did make everything read as somewhat reductive.

One last thing I would add is that this novel is definitely not one for those who get squeamish about animal cruelty and death, as Laestadius does not shy away from describing the horrific killing of reindeer, also adding considerable emotional depth in losing them, especially since reindeer are more than “just animals” in Sámi culture.
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symmetra's review against another edition

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

3.0

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geerbeer's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Heftige omschrijvingen, maar wauw! Voor iemand die de cultuur niet kent is het ontzettend leerzaam en je voelt enorm mee met de personages en dieren in het boek. Elke keer was ik weer in 'awe' over hoe mensen toch prachtig in verbinding kunnen staan met de aarde, haar flora en fauna en al zo snel zien dat het klimaat naar de klote gaat. Ontzettend mooi!
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ape's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

The way in which the MFC was essentially white knighted out of her own revenge by the ghost of a man really enraged me - but then I had to remember this isn’t the kind of fiction I’m used to.
Not an easy read, and the emotional weight was a lot. I do think it highlights well a lot of indigenous struggles with forced conformity and other plights, which impact tons of indigenous communities around the world… But the description to me meant more of an idealized story, or at the very least some more catharsis, and this didn’t really get there for me. 
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cariboukai's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective sad slow-paced
  • 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? No

4.5

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esmeloa's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

What a story. I was drawn by the cover and its reindeer being cut in parts.
It's such a complex, intricate web of human relationships and feelings that it's hard to describe.
I never knew about the Sámi people before reading this book, and reading it prompted me to do some research and watch the movie ''Sámi blood" which was somewhat complementary to this book - the MC is a little girl who wants a different life, where the MC of Stolen is a little girl who wants nothing else than being a reindeer herder.
One small complaint with this book is that it felt a bit long and repetitive towards the second part,
with reindeer repetively being killer one after the other
, but I understood this narrative choice during the last chapters of the story. The ending had me crying in a way I really didn't expect - it was absolutely cathartic.
The scenes with Elsa talking to Ljungblad, finally revealing what she kept for 11 years (and 370 pages) and hearing him reply "yes, actually I do" when she asked if she believed them... just wow.

Another complaint, much more personal and probably missing the point, is how human centered the story felt at times. This is a story about humans so it makes sense - I just couldn't help feeling for the reindeers who are ultimately used by humans, whether as means to hurt the Sámi people or as means of survival for them. It was definitely a painful read as someone who does not eat meat and is strongly against animal cruelty.
Other than that I did find the book fantastic, very skillfully written and really informative.
I really liked the discourse on female roles within the community as well, and all female characters with their unique minds and ways to cope were rather well portrayed in my opinion - I actually felt for Anna-Stina,
especially when criticized by her mother, depicted as shallow for wanting the housewife life - although maybe that's her own way to cope. Because what about her grief? She's not been a great friend to Elsa perhaps, but I did feel like the story did not explore this character enough - the why and the what's going on inside her mind.
whose relationship with her mother was also really interesting to follow.
This book will definitely stay in my heart and in the person I become, and I'm very grateful for it.
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