Review: Red River Girl: The Life and Death of Tina Fontaine

Red River Girl: The Life and Death of Tina Fontaine by Joanna Jolly
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was an engrossing account of the possible life and death of Tina Fontaine, an indigenous teenaged Canadian female. Heartbreaking and ultimately disappointing, it introduces the reader to the ongoing assault against indigenous females in Canada, which, according the book and some online commentary, continues to be swept aside as unimportant. Tina Fontaine's story inspired more activism and appears to continue to be borne as the flag for the undefended, dead, indigenous females in Canada. My prayers are with you.

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Review: The Living

The Living by Matt de la Pena
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was pleased to see a 'different type' of book by this author, whose gritty young adult novel We Were Here was amazingly good. This appeared to be a science fiction and/or adventure story. I wondered if he'll grown into the James Patterson type of author: no genre is a mountain that cannot be climbed.

The book took a long time to get to any action or adventure. I was a third of the way in before the earthquake hit, which was all over the book jacket. There was a lot of build up with the protagonist Shy's relationships. There was a superquick development of attraction between a formerly disliked rich, spoiled female passenger, Addie, and working-class Shy, while they were adrift on a rescue raft after their cruise ship sank. A bit melodramatic: "I think I could love you".

Overall, it was fine for an escapist story but I wish the story wasn't so uneven. I will still likely read the next book, because the cliffhanger ending forces me to do so.

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