Another very unique and touching intergenerational saga.

I didn't love this one as much as The Break; all of the incessant swearing in the first chapter almost totally threw me off.

But, it was beautifully written and once you got 40% into it, felt the audio was pretty unputdownable.

This novel had such a great beginning. The characters were so well drawn, such strong, individual voices. And I did appreciate the attempts at growth toward the end. But overall, the story was so stagnant. The message was, "here is the problem, here is how we ended up in this horrible situation across the generations" but the characters hardly had any agency. The main characters of this narrative were Guilt and Shame. People made bad choices, were bitter and mean to each other, and then at the end it was all hopeful, seemingly just arbitrarily.

The Strangers by Katherena Vermette revisits the character of Phoenix from The Break; however, The Strangers stands alone, and you don’t need to read The Break. The Strangers delves deeper into Phoenix’s story and her family over five years as they struggle with the consequences of their actions within their family and with a system that has failed them.

What are some themes explored?

The Strangers are a multi-generational Métis family living in Winnipeg, Manitoba. While they share pain, struggles, and inherited trauma, they have become strangers to each other. Themes of multi-generational trauma, racism, misogyny, colonialism, anger, rage, and abuse are explored.

Are the characters easy to connect and relate to? Do they change and grow with the conflicts they experience?

There are a few members and stories of the Stranger family to keep track of here, Phoenix, her sister Cedar-Sage, her mother Elsie, and grandmother, Margaret. Each with their own conflicts, fighting to survive in a fractured system. We see some insight into their lives, background, and trauma. While the pace is slow, a lot happens within their own family and outside forces. You need to pay attention to how each woman deals with her pain and struggles rather than the events, and I felt overwhelmed. I found it hard to relate or connect to the characters, and it didn’t feel like the story was going anywhere or moving forward.

There is a lot of growth here with the characters as we see them struggle with their conflicts. It is easy to be sympathetic to the characters knowing what each of the women’s conflicts is and how they affected one generation to another, adding layers and complexity to the story.

Did the story inspire me? Did the stories have me think deeply, challenge my thoughts, and see something different? Or learn anything new?

The story ends in a somewhat hopeful way, and we do see the character’s love, success, and growth, but a lot of focus is on the sadness and pain that comes out as anger and rage. I found it hard to see past that, making it not very inspiring. It did allow me to think about the characters and the struggles they faced; however, it felt like a narrow look at one family’s trauma.

“Margaret used to think this was normal, that all families were made up of so many sad stories, but as she got older, it seemed only Indians, Métis, who had sorrow built into their bones.”

I do think if you are unfamiliar with the themes explored here it will allow you to think deeply, challenge your thoughts, and see something different

Do I recommend it? Yes. I liked The Break a bit more than The Strangers. The Break followed many characters but focused on a single event, making it easy to connect to the story and characters.

THE STRANGERS by Katherena Vermette is a truly sad but important novel. This book tells the story of four generations of women in the Stranger family and how their lives unfold dealing with Indigenous intergenerational trauma, addiction, incarceration, unplanned pregnancies and systemic discrimination. Sometimes it was hard to keep track of who was who as there’s a large cast of characters but the writing flowed nicely to keep the story moving. The main plot takes place over four years and we learn about the past throughout. I enjoyed the straight forward writing and it did feel like a novel grounded in truths. I was on the verge of tears at several moments and the ending made me cry. I listened to the audiobook and the narrator was good although it’s always my preference to have multiple narrators when there’s more than one point of view. I’m so glad to have finally read this book since it was the winner of the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Prize for fiction and longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. I definitely want to read her other book The Break now too.

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada via NetGalley for my advance review copy!

The Strangers is the follow up to The Break. I found the story from Pheonix's side to be interesting and engaging. However, the subject mater of the story is heavy and challenging. I enjoyed The Break more. I don't mean to compare the stories as they both are great. I do feel this can be a stand alone, but there is some important information carryover from The Break. Vermette is a great Canadian writer and I look forward to what she writes in the future.

Meet The Strangers, three generations of Métis women fighting their own demons issued from inherited trauma while navigating the systems that keep failing them. Set a few years after The Break, this multi point of view story follows Phoenix in jail, her sister Cedar-Sage in the foster care system, their mother Elsie who is battling addiction and Margarette, their grand-mother who despite her best effort to break the cycle at a young age, is left angry, bitter and alone.

The author is able to weave a story together like no other, each chapter giving you a better understanding of each character's flaws so it makes it almost impossible to place the blame on any of them.

This books is at time painful to read, filled with raw emotions and injustice. I absolutely devoured The Break and while I really enjoyed this one, I was left with some unanswered questions at the end.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved reading this book! I found the writing to be very insightful and interesting. I was intrigued by the premise and I enjoyed reading it from start to finish.

In Katherena Vermette’s multi-generational novel about the Strangers, a Métis family in Manitoba, we get to know their story as told by the women in the family. Each character is given time to reveal themselves and we get a rich sense of each of the narrators lives, how their family has dealt with generational trauma and how they navigate their lives as Métis people in a white system. Indigenous children are still over represented in the Canadian foster care system and this book touches on a lot of those themes. The author starts the book by reminding the reader of the trigger warnings in the story related to trauma/abuse/suicide, etc., but also that she would like to leave us with a sense of hope and I feel like this was accomplished. I highly recommend.

This is one of those books that is a definite must read. It isn't an easy read but it made me think of of how we treat one another.

I will be recommending this to all of my friends and family so they can feel how I feel.

Thank you to netgalley and publisher. I thought I had written a review beforevnow but I was mistaken..

All thoughts and opinions are my own and aren't influenced by others

As usual, I went into the book knowing nothing about it, probably less than nothing honestly! All I knew was that it was fiction and was written by an Indigenous author.

The book is almost completely driven by the characters and there is not much action at all. I think Phoenix sees the most action and that made her stand out for me. The characters were all incredibly complex and interesting, though I definitely had favourites. Each chapter is titled after who our narrator is so there were definitely times where I turned the page and wished someone else’s name was written across the top.

Our main characters/family are Métis so you learn a lot about the complexity of Métis identity, as well as how each character feels about their identity and history. Some characters are quite disconnected, while others latch onto their Indigeniety wherever they can find it.

There was quite a bit of talk about whiteness in Indigenous communities and people, which as a white native interested me and was very relatable.

My favourite character was definitely Cedar and I really liked Faith too. I related to them the most and really liked getting to be inside Cedar’s head.

I found the book quite slow since it is a lot of inner monologue, which isn’t my personal favourite writing style, but the characters I liked kept me engaged and wanted to find out more.

Overall, I can see why it’s been nominated for so many awards and is on so many lists right now! It tells the story of (mostly) 3 generations of Indigenous women and their lives, including their experiences in today’s world with our current issues- like wearing masks, etc. I highly recommend to anyone wanting to read Indigenous experiences and to people who like character driven books!

"The Strangers" is a not-quite-sequel companion to Katherena Vermette's debut novel, "The Break". While they don't need to be read together, I read them back to back and appreciated the sequence, as there's some character backstory from "The Break" that carries forward. "The Strangers" is a beautifully-written, heartbreaking story about 4 generations of Métis women living in Winnipeg. Narrated through their alternating perspectives, this novel explores themes of race, class, colonialism, intergenerational trauma, abuse, parenthood, addiction, incarceration and the foster care system. Despite it's heavy themes, "The Strangers" ends on a hopeful note. I highly recommend this novel - and look forward to reading any future work by Katherena Vermette.

While I can see why Indigo would nominate this book for its top ten list, it's simply not a read that translates well for people who usually dwell outside of the genre. Anyone looking for contemporary fiction though, especially ones who want them to be timely, relevant, and past the usual impenetrable wall of white, cisgender male writers? I'd easily suggest it to them.

'The Strangers' by Katherena Vermette

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for an e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The characters and storylines were so realistic and well-developed. The author certainly highlights what people of the Metis community around Winnipeg undergo though the generations. We follow four different women of the Stranger family as they experience incredibly tough challenges. We see a glimmer of hope at the end of the book with Cedar-Sage. Hopefully the story will be continued and we will see their relationships evolve.

I wish that I had read 'The Break' first, as this may have explained some things that weren't covered. I look forward to reading it soon, as well as any new ones by this author.

#TheStrangers #NetGalley

I will blame the cover for being very misleading about this book. I found the novel to be too serious and depressing.

This is another wonderful book from Katherena Vermette. It's such a sad, but hopeful novel, as we follow three generations of Strangers through their many struggles. It’s hard to think of all the people out there stuck in the system, unable to get the help they need.

Never have I wanted so much for characters to find the love and acceptance they need and desperately want. Every one of the women followed in The Strangers broke my heart. Strength and weakeness, love and rage, loneliness and belonging... there were times when I had to step away because I needed to really digest what I had just read and experieced.

This book is hands-down one of my favourite of the year. It is a raw account of the sorrows and joys of Indigenous and Metis women and families, and the heavy burden of intergenerational trauma. What makes the The Stranger so compelling, is that it is also a story of hope and futures and found identity. I can't stop thinking about what is next for each woman on her journey.

If you read one book this year, this should be it.

This is a gorgeous followup to The Break, Katherena Vermette's first novel. The writing is beautiful, and it provides the backstory for the Strangers, the family responsible for much of the trauma in The Break. The awards buzz this novel received was well-deserved—a deeply touching story about intergenerational familial trauma under settler colonialism, written incredibly well.

The Strangers by Katherena Vermette was one of my most anticipated books of 2021 and it did not let me down. This is considered a companion novel to Katherena Vermette’s debut novel The Break. The linking character is Phoenix Strangers.
If you have already read The Break, then you already know the character of Phoenix and will have her background. You will understand more about her. If you read The Strangers first, reading The Break next might answer some questions and fill in some gaps for you.
Phoenix is part of the youngest generation and we meet her while she is incarcerated. She gives birth to a baby, Sparrow that she will most likely never see. There is another Sparrow in the story, sometimes referred to as The First Sparrow and that is Phonex’s sister who has died.
Phoenix has another sister named Cedar who has been living in foster care and goes to live with her father that she doesn’t know and his wife.
Phoenix and Cedar’s mother Elsie is dealing with addiction and has neglected caring for her children. And the third generation is Elsie’s mother Margaret who is married to Sasha and is not a nice man at all.
Although this novel, like The Break, deals with heavier topics such as domestic abuse, identity as a Metis, mental illness, addiction, foster care, and incarceration, I found this story a little easier to follow.
The way the story is told, you can see the threads of intergenerational trauma, feel the desire of all the women to want something more for themselves. I loved the relationship between Cedar and her father. I love how he knew who she was and they had a beautiful connection.
There is a play on words with the title. The women’s last name is strangers. Cedar Strangers, Phoenix Strangers, Elsie Strangers but they are also strangers in many ways to each other. The story might be about their brokenness but more importantly it is about how they long to maintain connections with each other.
I thought this story was beautifully written. A heads up that there is a lot of language in this novel so if you don’t like swearing, then this might be one to avoid.
This is one of the most compelling books I've read this year.

This book started off full of F bombs which I don’t like but the story and the way they intertwined were beautiful and heartbreaking. I love a book that takes you into someone’s world to make you understand them better and this book did that for me. Elsie, Phoenix and Cedar all lead very different lives and this book shows both how the path of your parents can lead you on the same path or if your like Cedar, a new path full of hope.

3.5 stars

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review (even though I preordered the book the day before my request was granted!).

This is Katherena Vermette's second fiction book after The Break. I feel like I would have rated this book higher had I not been thinking about The Break the whole time I read this as The Break is one of my all-time favourite books! Probably didn't help I read this over a few weeks at the beginning of a school year either.

The Strangers follows a few generations of a family. Vermette deftly crafts beautifully well-rounded and multi-dimensional characters. Many heavy topics are covered: addictions, foster care, racism, child apprehension, and solitary incarceration.

All in all, a very beautiful book that changed my perspective on things.