Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Das Leuchten der Rentiere by Ann-Helén Laestadius

25 reviews

oliveyou814's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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abicaro17's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Elsa is only 9 years old when Robert threatens to kill her if she tells anyone he killed her reindeer. As a Sámi in Sweden, Elsa and her family face xenophobia all the time but it gets increasingly worse as they begin to report the reindeer poaching they experience. Starting when Elsa was 9, reindeer in her family's collective begin to show up decapitated, mutilated, and missing body parts. Their reports go unsolved and the tension causes rampant issues within their family and collective. I think this book was really interesting when it was focusing on the main points of the book but it often went off topic and droned on. Once the book hit 80% it ramped up and I really enjoyed it. Even when it was slow I was hooked. 
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ruthmoog's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective tense medium-paced

4.75

Somehow this book brings souch complexity and intersectionality, into a clear perspective. It's topical and political, whilst being heartfelt and expressive, reflecting on the impacts of racism, animal cruelty, sexism, mental health, climate change, cultural change, childhood trauma, corruption... And it's told in such an open honest way, without romanticising Sámi or first Nations people.

I think the story will stick with me like a 5* read.
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teacupsandfirereads's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious slow-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? No

4.5

This story popped up when I was looking for a new indigenous-based read. The fact that it was based on a population - the Sámi - that I knew little about really intrigued me, along with the storyline. Originally written in Swedish, the English translation was well done and I felt it carried the emotions and story line with it. The atmosphere definitely gave it the feel of being a winter read. Though not the warmest of stories, it still felt cozy - like you should be reading it beside the fire with a warm drink. This story did not shy away from intense details of the realities and injustices, that though Sámi based, are very similar to those of other indigenous populations. The main character was strong - in her thoughts, in her actions, in her being, and I really appreciated that. This is a story I feel will stick with me for aa long time. Maybe not in detail, but in the feelings.
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eemadeeberry's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative sad slow-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

4.5

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corsetedfeminist's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This book reminds me of an Appalachian ballad: filled with love of the land and culture, family, purposefully ineffective police, murder, and grief. 
It details the coming of age of a Sami girl, beginning on the day she finds her reindeer butchered by a neighbor who is not a tribe member. The rest of the books shows her growing up, the changes in her family, and her ongoing battle to force the police to treat the slaughter of her tribe’s reindeer seriously. 
It begins with a deeply traumatized little girl, and ends with an even more traumatized, but brave and determined woman. I think Elsa is one of the most honest characters I’ve read in awhile, which comes with the author’s comfort with showing a story that doesn’t have a happy ending. The police never really come to care about the concerns of the Sami, climate change is affecting the village they live in, her family is deeply dysfunctional and everyone in her family has mental health issues, and the future of the reindeer herds is still up in the air… but there she stands, strong, proud, and tragic. 
This isn’t a story of overcoming trauma, it’s a story about how sometimes life is just messed up and we have to survive it. 
Beyond the raw beauty of the portrayal of Elsa and her family and friends, the racism and oppression of the Sami people is in stark contrast to the deeply loving portrayal of Sami culture in a way that makes the descriptions of oppression hit even harder, such as the scenes where Elsa’s grandmother’s dementia causes her to relive her days in boarding school. 
In short, this is a poignant story about Indigenous suffering and grief, but still balanced with strength and somehow not without hope. 
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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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realityczar's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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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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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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