A poetic insight into the spirit of an ancient worldview. Sometimes challenging, in a good way, for the whitefella reader. ( )

I received a copy of this book from LibraryThing's Early Reviewers.

Taboo by Kim Scott follows a young woman, Tilly, as she grows into her chosen identity as a member of the Noongar of Western Austalia, as well as a fictionalized account of the generational trauma that followed a (less fictionalized) massacre of Noongar people dating to 1880. The narrative jumps between a gathering of Noongar including Tilly and her twin uncles which coincides with the opening of a "Peace Park" to memorialize the aforementioned massacre, and Tilly's personal struggles and traumas which led her to the gathering.

I need to start by admitting this book took me a long time to finish. I picked it up and put it down after only a few pages at least three times in the first 100 pages. Part of this is likely due to some formatting issues I was having with my ereader where I couldn't increase the font size, but I can't discount this was a difficult narrative to contextualize. I was rebuffed by the prose style, which I found a bit dreamy and requiring some interpretation, and by a set of cultural norms, events, and slang I'm unfamiliar with. I would say I had to read a bit of this book before I understood how to read this book.

All that being said, I'm glad I kept at it. I think that prose style is very effective in conveying Tilly's emotional state. I think the immersion in the cultural norms, events, and slang improved my own immersion in the story. I'm not particularly interested in revealing any plot, but regarding the story itself: there were some painful scenes of white people being racist that felt like they'd been pulled from the author's own life, and after then I couldn't help but feel the tension every time Tilly and her family interacted with white people. Additionally the trauma Tilly experiences is horrific, and I had really mixed feelings about how the rest of her family dealt with the perpetrators of those acts, but all of that that felt painfully real. This was a tough but vital read. ( )

I was interested in this book because I thought it would give me some insight into another culture...specifically the indigenous Aboriginal people of Australia. However, as I got into it, it was hard for me to follow the story. It's about a girl who was taken from the culture and then reintroduced to her relatives she does not know.

It's rare that I never finish a book I've started, but after getting about 1/3 of the way through, I decided it wasn't for me. It is an ebook, so I hope to pick it up again some day and finish it. ( )

I will say first that I received a copy of this book through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program, and I'm grateful to the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

This was a really interesting read--I'm far more familiar with settler colonialism in north and central America than I am with it in Australia, so this was an interesting and fairly welcoming introduction into Aboriginal literature. It feels dream-like in some places, and some of the sensory details, especially from Tilly as she starts to kind of emerge from her trauma. It's really beautiful, though I got nervous in the last third. I'd say if you're new to indigenous literature altogether, this is a really solid place to start--like I said, it's approachable, and it balances trauma and recovery really nicely. ( )

I found this book interesting, insightful and eye opening. The language and content was difficult at times, but overall I found myself engaged with the story. I did find having two characters with the same name a bit confusing however, and did draw me out of the story on occasion. ( )