Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Elatsoe

Loved the world building - the book is driven by its magical realism, combining a very familiar world of high school and family matters with a fantastical world of ghosts, vampires, fairies, and wizards. The influence of Ellie's (and the author's) Lipan Apache heritage made the story particularly intriguing. My favorite scene in the book involved the author turning vampire mythology on its head

by having Ellie's mom use her ancestral tie to the land to banish the vampire

. This would be a good book for middle grade readers interested in fantasy.

Nevertheless, even for a middle grade book, much of the writing felt crude. The book is packed with superfluous dialogue and detailed paragraphs that suck all the excitement out of a scene and don't progress the plot. The endless light-hearted dialogue between Ellie and Jay not only dragged on, but made me confused about their relationship - if they're best friends, why do they talk like they barely know each other? They constantly share facts about themselves to each other that, if they've been friends since they were little, one would expect they already know. Even outside of the Ellie and Jay conversations, so much of this book is filled up by long, drawn out conversations that often summarize scenes you've already read.

The ages of the characters also confused me. Despite being 17, Ellie and Jay are written to be quite juvenile. Even Ronnie and her friends act as if they're young teenagers even though they're college-aged. Ellie's juvenile personality and her fluffy chatter with Jay wouldn't be so annoying if it didn't affect the pacing - but because she never seems worried about the stakes of any of these seemingly 'dangerous' situations she's in, even the most climactic scenes aren't suspenseful at all. I'm never worried because I know Ellie will live to relate the entire situation back to her mom in the next chapter.

This is also a personal preference, but I just can't take long chapters without any sort of break, especially when the characters move from one scenario to another. I don't need the filler paragraph of "So Ellie grabbed some food and her dog and put on her clothes and got in the car. Her mom turned on the GPS and turned on the engine. They drove for 4 miles..." Just add a break and jump to the next scene.

Tl;dr a very interesting premise and main character are bogged down by overly wordy scenes and flat relationships.

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pastelkerstin's review

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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alyssasaurus's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional informative mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

This book was lovely and informative. The magical nature of the world brought into stark focus the reality of the deep-seeded racism and constant threat of violence Native Americans face every day. That, plus all the other horror elements, made this an uncomfortable read, and it was worth every second I spent spent on it. I very much recommend this book to anyone and everyone, for an adventure, for cultural understanding, and for the wonderful depictions of a loving dog.

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emily_mh's review

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This was such a delight to read!! It really reminded me of the game Night in the Woods. I adored the author’s writing style; the dialogue gave off a real arthouse film vibe which was really unique. But also, she effortlessly wove together so many strands of story and character, but all in the direction of telling a murder mystery?? Masterfully done!! The plot was also well-paced and held my attention throughout. Ellie was a wonderful main character: she was clever, determined, and thought outside the box, so it was really refreshing to read from her POV. Jay as a side character was so much fun, and the friendship between the him and Ellie was joyful. Finally, the illustrations in the chapter headings were absolutely gorgeous, and I loved how they ended up weaving in with Ellie’s storyline.

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