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This book deals with difficult topics, but the author never loses sight of the humanity of her characters. The characters are believable, and even the "villains" elicit some empathy from the reader.

Set in Winnipeg and dealing with issues many Indigenous people in the city face, this novel reveals the closeness of family, and the way families, especially the women, support one another during crises.

I had a few problems with this book. It's slow-paced. There are a lot of characters, and it can be difficult to keep track of them, although the author does provide a family-tree diagram. It takes the reader out of the story, though, to have to flip back and forth to look at it. This difficulty is compounded by the story being narrated through several characters' points-of-view. Finally, there is sometimes too much detail that seems significant but isn't. e.g. In one instance, a character is trying to think of his language teacher's name. ("Ben. That was his name. Ben. Ben what?") Then Ben never figures in the story again, nor does the character's memory difficulty have any importance. I feel this book could have used more editing to cut out extraneous and confusing detail like this and help the story move along more smoothly.

Overall, though, this was a good read, and Ms. Vermette is an author I would read again.

Had I been aware of the subject matter of this book, I probably wouldn't have picked it up (saw it at a used book store, and the title rang a bell, so I bought it). That would have been a shame, since I would have missed out on a well-written story with characters who are so well-drawn, it's hard to believe they aren't real.

The Girls is the story of craniopagus twins (joined at the head). With the guidance and love of their "Aunt Lovey" and "Uncle Stash," they face their challenges with aplomb, mutual caring, and and a remarkable lack of self-pity. They touch everyone who knows them, whether those be characters or readers.

I picked up this book at a bookstore sidewalk sale, thinking it would be a light beach read. Well, it was light all right--too light.

Romance is not my favourite genre, but I can enjoy it if it's well-written and not too cliché. Unfortunately, that was not the case for this book, although my first clue might have been the name of one of the characters: "Jewel Fairchild."

The characters in this book were so shallow and silly, I might have wanted to shake them had they been the least bit believable.

But then, this is not my genre, and there are clearly readers who enjoy this sort of fiction, so I won't say more.

I enjoyed the author's style, especially the use of the 2nd person. The story and characters were well-developed, but I felt that the revelations at the end weren't well foreshadowed and made some of the other events and revelations less believable and more puzzling. I'm not sure what the author was trying to get at with this book, really. However, there was enough to like that I would read other works by this author.

This is a fun read about an Indigenous detective named Thumps Dreadful Water. Mysteries are not my favourite genre, but King is one of my favourite authors, so this is the second Dreadful Water mystery I've read. I enjoy the quirky characters.

This is a book of fairy tales applied to modern life--or, more specifically, modern life on the edge--with elements of homelessness, poverty, addiction, abuse, etc.

It's well-written, although some of the stories seemed to be strange just for the sake of strange. However, I fail to see the point, frankly.

This is one of the best stories I've read recently.

This book is aimed at young adults, but older adults who like fantasy will enjoy it, as well. This is fantasy with an Indigenous twist, incorporating elements of First Nations worldviews.

I liked that the protagonist was not only Indigenous but also female. That's rare these days. The story is told both from her viewpoint and her brother's, so those young men who don't want to read "girl" books should enjoy this, also.

This is the first in a series, and I look forward to reading the next one.

I've marked this as "read," but only because I have no plan to come back to it. I read the first part and so disliked what happened and the main character's response to it that I don't want to read anymore. Even though I heard Yann Martel speak about this book and his process in writing it, I fail to see the point. I rarely quit a book, but I have no wish to finish this one.

I was anxious to read this book after hearing Tracey Lindberg speak at a Wordfest event. Lindberg is clearly an intelligent, creative, and articulate woman. This shines through in her writing.

Lindberg takes liberties with the language, and sometimes I really enjoyed that, such as when she mashes words together. (I do that in my own writing.) At other times, the meaning was too muddied for me, though, and I found it confusing.

Lindberg's characters were believable, and their circumstances depressingly so, and that's where I had trouble with the book. Although I think the subject matter is important, and it's a story that should be told, I find it very disturbing.

Also, the book was slow at times. This was due to the state Birdie was in, but it did drag a bit.

Lindberg is a strong talent who clearly has deep stories to tell. I hope to read more from her, but my soul first needs to heal from reading Birdie.

This book was well-written, but I disliked the story. I don't care at all for stories that have ghosts or children dying. The narrator alluded to [b:The Lovely Bones|12232938|The Lovely Bones|Alice Sebold|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1312524577s/12232938.jpg|1145090], which clearly influenced Robertson, and I intensely disliked that story, also.

I was also dissatisfied with the outcome of the story. I felt bad for the woman Gideon was seeing in the city when Alice finally wakes up to Gideon's strengths and his love for her and the girls. By then, I felt that she didn't deserve him, and I also felt that the woman in the city (whose name I've already forgotten), did not deserve to be dumped like that. I also felt that Gideon wasn't the sort of person who moved on easily, but when he did, he also wouldn't easily change his mind.

For this and many other reasons, I found this story disturbing. I may read a book by Robertson again, but I will be careful to learn more about the subject matter before I do.

Johnston depicts the life of a man with Down's syndrome with compassion, humour, authenticity and love. Many of us will recognize Dave and be reminded of our own brother, sister, aunt, or uncle. Johnston also shows how, with support and tolerance, someone like Dave can contribute to a household or community, but he also shows the challenges and worry that can go with being the parent of a person who is different and who can be a target. In doing so, Johnston also shows us the struggles and issues of reservation life under the old Indian Agent system.

I really liked the way Johnston used Dave's manner of speaking to create a character we could see and hear in our minds' eyes and ears. I also liked how Johnston allowed us to empathize with Dave, especially in his idolization of his brother, "Back-a-haw", who always took pains to include him and help him learn.

We can all learn from Crazy Dave and his family.