#bc it was so goddamn familiar in the midst of learning about this horror plot and how it mixed with cree culture

[solarisposting]

I just read a goodreads book review that made me angrier than any inconsequential thing has made me in a WHILE. I loved the book, and I'm not a good critic of novels (or anything); I'm decent at analysis to be fair, but I like a read or I don't (on a spectrum of course).

But good goddamn, this review reeked with pretension and was written like the most unbearable food or music critic's diatribes. Adult character is lost in life, makes stupid choices out of grief/running away from issues/thinking distance from community will help/doesn't act logically as a character in a horror plot? Childish and not very bright! A large bustling family coming together for a major cultural and spiritual threat and asking the same damn questions over and over again, repeating the same arguments, etc.? Tiresome and muddled! Bro is your family (bio or chosen) totally chill? Have you never at least seen (in media or in others' lives) annoying family members beating dead horses for days on end out of concern and love and lack of knowing how else to help???

Dude I dunno, it just felt like legitimate criticisms one might have if they dislike a book or parts of its structure, but then those criticisms were a molehill buried beneath a mountain of hating some super fuckin' flawed characters making wild and awful choices in a time of grief and isolation. Screaming!!!!

#this was a review about Bad Cree by Jessica Johns which i gave five stars btw #i am unreasonably pissed lmao #it was like...just. gripes for the sake of bitching and being unhappy woth a short read that didn't hit typical horror benchmarks. dumb. #it's about multiple generations of cree women in the same family and naturally had a LOT to do with the cumture #and experiences and practices and just. daily lives of cree women mixed with A Horror Plot #but i was still sooo reminded of the chaos and aggravation and love and power and hurt and again love #of when the women on my mom's side of the family congregate #and the connections and rifts and stories memories legends among us all that get passed around rather than #passed down because it all feels so circular. we all repeat ourselves endlessly lmao #like this made me yearn for my family because i saw and felt them in this cast of characters #i'm not indigenous or canadian but i still saw myself and my family in this book and it was such a unique experience #bc it was so goddamn familiar in the midst of learning about this horror plot and how it mixed with cree culture #im emotional and tired and not explaining myself well. but JESUS i cannot wait for Johns to publish her next work #ann with an ie