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The Circle
The Circle | Katherena Vermette
8 posts | 8 read | 2 to read
From the award-winning and #1 bestselling author of The Break and The Strangers comes a poignant and unwavering epic told from a constellation of Mtis voices that consider the fallout when the person who connects them all goes missing The concept was simple. You sit a bunch of people in a circleeveryone who hurt, everyone who got hurt, all affectedand let them share. Some people, it helped them heal, for sure. Others went in angry and left a different kind of angry. Learned how the blame belonged on the system, the history, the colonizer, the big things that were harder to change than one bad person. The day that Cedar Sage Stranger has been both dreading and longing for has finally come: her sister Phoenix is getting out of prison. The effect of Phoenixs release cascades through the community. M, the young girl whom she assaulted, is triggered by the news. Her mother, Paulina, is worried and her cousin is angryall feel the threat of Phoenixs release. When Phoenix is seen lingering outside the school to catch a glimpse of her son, Sparrow, the police get a call to file a reportbut the next thing they know, she has disappeared. Amid accusations and plots for revenge, past grievances become a poor guide in a moment of danger, and the clumsy armature of law enforcement is no match for the community. Cedar and her and Phoenixs mother, Elsie, continue down different paths of healing, while everyone in their lives form a circle around the chaos, the calm within the storm, and the beauty in the darkness. Fierce, heartbreaking, and profound, Vermettes The Circle is the third and final companion novel to her bestsellers The Break and The Strangers. Told from various perspectives, with an unforgettable voice for each chapter, the novel is masterfully structured as a Restorative Justice Circle where all gatherboth the victimized and the accusedto take account of a crime that has altered the course of their lives. It considers what it means to be abandoned by the very systems that claim to offer support, how it feels to gain a sense of belonging, and the unanticipated cost of protecting those you love most.
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MysticFaerie
The Circle | Katherena Vermette
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4⭐️/5⭐️

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mcctrish
The Circle | Katherena Vermette
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Third book in Katherena Vermette‘s trilogy about the Stranger Family. IMO you should read these close together because there is quite a list of characters who are all connected and appear in the 3 books, sometimes more prominently in 1 than the others, but they pop up again and again. The ending is heartbreaking and full of hope at the same time. The series feels like real life

dabbe What a view! 🤩🤩🤩 2mo
Tamra I am hoarding the 2nd on my shelf! 😉 I see her most recent is up for the Giller Prize. (Controversy, I know.) 2mo
ShelleyBooksie I wanna be on that lake! 2mo
See All 10 Comments
TheSpineView The lake is so relaxing! 2mo
JuniperWilde Nice - I love a good lake in Ontario 2mo
mcctrish @dabbe it was glorious to read there 2mo
mcctrish @Tamra I was saving them too, nothing like an author visit to motivate me 😆 2mo
mcctrish @ShelleyBooksie I want to be back there (edited) 2mo
mcctrish @TheSpineView it is so relaxing ❤️❤️ 2mo
mcctrish @JuniperWilde Ontario has some good ones 2mo
55 likes10 comments
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xicanti
The Circle | Katherena Vermette
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Duffy took his reading buddy duties very seriously while I devoured THE CIRCLE. It didn‘t hit me quite as hard as the first two interconnected books in the sequence (THE BREAK and THE STRANGERS) but it‘s still a powerful examination of how one event reverberates through all the characters‘ lives. I‘m so glad I lucked into an Express copy, as I forgot to place a hold pre-pub and there‘s currently 159 people waiting. Vermette‘s super popular here.

dabbe #darlingduffy 🖤🐾🖤 5mo
BethM Love it! 5mo
Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks Hey Duffy 🖤🐾 5mo
31 likes3 comments
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Creadnorthey
The Circle | Katherena Vermette
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A fantastic read and fine fitting third book of the Stranger family saga. Vermette uses the different voices to quilt a story that remains true to the characters she has created and the colonized world they live in. Here ideas of family can help heal but also be twisted to exact and justify heartbreaking revenge. A beautifully realized story.

Tamra I keep forgetting this is a trilogy! Must get the second. 12mo
Creadnorthey @Tamra they are so powerful and I wouldn‘t be surprised that they can stand alone. 12mo
jlhammar I loved The Break. Looks like they will finally be publishing The Strangers in the US in March so will definitely be continuing with this saga next year. 12mo
11 likes3 comments
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Lindy
The Circle | Katherena Vermette
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This realistic polyphonic novel is set in Winnipeg & crafted in 22 different, mostly Indigenous, voices showing how a wide variety of people can be affected by one event: a young woman is released from jail and immediately goes missing. It‘s the third in an interconnected trilogy, not really a series, yet best read in order starting with The Break. Powerful, sad, and also hopeful. #CanadianAuthor #LGBTQ

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Lindy
The Circle | Katherena Vermette
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I looked up KC Adams, the artist whose work appears on the cover of the tagged novel, and learned that she created a huge circular piece that is very similar to the one on the book jacket. The large piece is the floor of a roundhouse. More here: https://www.kcadams.net/page67.html

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Lindy
The Circle | Katherena Vermette
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If anyone knows how to get past trauma, to deal with it, it‘s Indigenous folks. They sure have had the practice.

32 likes1 stack add
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Mpcacher
The Circle | Katherena Vermette
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This is the third & final book in a series that features a Metis family dealing with life and the traumas of being poor and Indigenous in today's world. Told in multiple POV, I would have benefited from a family tree chart to keep track of everyone. In spite of that, it was still a very powerful, thought provoking and sad story and one that is worth a second read. It is also a poignant reminder that we don't all start life from the same point. 4/5