A review by reese_lanier
There There by Tommy Orange

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

5.0

The ending is brutal. As a white person, it teaches me a lesson about the violent history Indigenous people have endured through their varying and ultimately tragic perspectives. When a book makes me cry, my gut reaction is to say the author is being mean, but in this case I can't because it is from the systems of power I benefit from that this story exists to hold a mirror up and show what poverty and genocide do to a people generations deep.