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Black Apple
Black Apple | Joan Crate
14 posts | 10 read | 15 to read
A dramatic and lyrical coming-of-age novel about a young Blackfoot girl who grows up in the residential school system on the Canadian prairies.Torn from her home and delivered to St. Mark’s Residential School for Girls by government decree, young Rose Marie finds herself in an alien universe where nothing of her previous life is tolerated, not even her Blackfoot name. For she has entered into the world of the Sisters of Brotherly Love, an order of nuns dedicated to saving the Indigenous children from damnation. Life under the sharp eye of Mother Grace, the Mother General, becomes an endless series of torments, from daily recitations and obligations to chronic sickness and inedible food. And then there are the beatings. All the feisty Rose Marie wants to do is escape from St. Mark’s. How her imagination soars as she dreams about her lost family on the Reserve, finding in her visions a healing spirit that touches her heart. But all too soon she starts to see other shapes in her dreams as well, shapes that warn her of unspoken dangers and mysteries that threaten to engulf her. And she has seen the rows of plain wooden crosses behind the school, reminding her that many students have never left here alive. Set during the Second World War and the 1950s, Black Apple is an unforgettable, vividly rendered novel about two very different women whose worlds collide: an irrepressible young Blackfoot girl whose spirit cannot be destroyed, and an aging yet powerful nun who increasingly doubts the value of her life. It captures brilliantly the strange mix of cruelty and compassion in the residential schools, where young children are forbidden to speak their own languages and given Christian names. As Rose Marie matures, she finds increasingly that she knows only the life of the nuns, with its piety, hard work and self-denial. Why is it, then, that she is haunted by secret visions—of past crimes in the school that terrify her, of her dead mother, of the Indigenous life on the plains that has long vanished? Even the kind-hearted Sister Cilla is unable to calm her fears. And then, there is a miracle, or so Mother Grace says. Now Rose is thrust back into the outside world with only her wits to save her. With a poet’s eye, Joan Crate creates brilliantly the many shadings of this heartbreaking novel, rendering perfectly the inner voices of Rose Marie and Mother Grace, and exploring the larger themes of belief and belonging, of faith and forgiveness.
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review
angieinwonderland
Black Apple | Joan Crate
Mehso-so

This was a promising plot. I give it 3 stars for the Canadian element, for bringing some terrible behavior to light whether "well intentioned" or not, and tackling the religious piousness. I wanted and needed more. Also the French words thrown in added nothing. I felt the ending was rushed and lacking.

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Bertha_Mason
Black Apple | Joan Crate

"Night, thirsty, drank up the dregs of the day."

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Bertha_Mason
Black Apple | Joan Crate

"She looked out the window at the sun, yellow as urine seeping into the white sheet of winter."
Today in odd similes.

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Bertha_Mason
Black Apple | Joan Crate

"Each night, the sun trimmed a piece of dark cloth from its hem."

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Bertha_Mason
Black Apple | Joan Crate

"The next day, the sun was just an old yellow scab stuck on the classroom window. Rose Marie wanted to peel it off and find the real sun underneath, bright and warm."

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ClairesReads
Black Apple | Joan Crate
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Mehso-so

I wanted to like this, but on the whole I didn't. Two stars because it could have been an important text about residential schools and their impact on indigenous culture. Only two stars because the characters were flat, plot was weak and it failed to realise its significant potential.

BookMusings Aw too bad. I want to read this though. 7y
ClairesReads @BookMusings it wasn't terrible- I was just expecting more 7y
bookaholic1 I feel the same way, once I put it down, I find it hard to pick up 4y
ClairesReads @bookaholic1 glad it wasn‘t just me 4y
35 likes4 comments
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ClairesReads
Black Apple | Joan Crate
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Smashing through the library books

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DaydreamingBookworm
Black Apple | Joan Crate
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Bailedbailed

I usually stick through a book, especially a book about the residential school system. But after examining principles of truth and reconciliation, I cant get through the problematic perspectives in this novel. There's an awful racist head nun who begins this journey to see her students as humans. The novel centers around a student who fulfills too many archetypes. Although this is written by a Metis author, this novel does more harm than good.

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Jenshootsweddings
Black Apple | Joan Crate
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Pickpick

I haven't read a book set in my city, but I've read many fantastic books set in Canada. This one is a well written but sad fictional story of a very real issue in Canada's history. A good place to start if you're just discovering the horror of residential schools, or a good addition to what you already know. #setinmycountry #readjanuary #readcanada

SpiderCrafts I'm looking to read Black Apple, thinking of the downtown Toronto Mackenzie House painting memorials. It's a sad history, hopefully more known and told with books on the residential school stories. 7y
55 likes7 stack adds1 comment
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Paula.hollohan
Black Apple | Joan Crate
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Pickpick

Residential Schools. Great characters. All the flaws. High school reading.

1 like1 stack add
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Jenshootsweddings
Black Apple | Joan Crate
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Morning reading! Slow going, yet enjoyable. Different than anything I've read lately, which is nice. #switchitup

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Jenshootsweddings
Black Apple | Joan Crate
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I'm reading while the smallest member of the Terror Squad snores.

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brenna
Black Apple | Joan Crate
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Pickpick

A beautiful book about the complex and disturbing intersections of humanity of the residential school system. Rose Marie is seven when she arrives at school, but her life and grief are complicated by her rich spiritual gifts. A truly stunning novel.

brenna I don't know why the author is wrong in the tagged book! It should read Joan Crate. 8y
Matilda It's a little glitch they're working on it (I sinks we broke them lol) 8y
6 likes2 stack adds2 comments