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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
My brother and I grew up hearing different Native American legends, which has lead him to write some and for me to read about some. It was interesting to read about the crota and it was especially interesting to read of the native medicine people. My great grandma was often called a curandera, so it was nice to read about similarities of what I was told. Overall I would say it was a well written book.
Action packed and bloody adventure story with a nasty ancient monster. Crappy representation of women. Edit: Also worth noting the particularly nasty description of the death of a dog at the hands of the creature. I was able to skim over it, but thought potential readers should be aware.
At one dream sequence point in this book, the titular monster holds a baseball and catchers mitt in its clawed hands and growls menacingly, "Anyone for baseball?"
Crota. You're hard to love and kinda easy to strongly dislike.
Up until a few hours before writing this review, I was planning on maybe being generous and giving this book three stars and calling it a day. That was before I discovered the Tribal Alliance Against Frauds and found that Owl Goingback very likely has absolutely zero Native American ancestry and is a fraud. This fact recontextualizes the entire book for me.
While I was reading it, I felt like such an asshole for the amount of eyerolling and cringing I was doing at all the stereotypical "Native" things. Peace pipes, sweat lodges, vision quests, great spirits, etc. Despite knowing that the book was written by a Native American author, something just felt so hokey and pulpy about the whole thing. To say that I felt vindicated upon learning that Goingback is a fraud would be a hell of an understatement.
But, enough about that and onto the book itself. It's just ok. Very predictable with fairly flat characters. There's a wife and son who may as well not exist for how little they give to the story. Honestly, it does feel a bit Jaws like at times, what with a sheriff investigating brutal killings in his rural community.
The two things that save this story from being absolute bottom tier trash for me is that it has some really gnarly kills, and the underground sections legitimately feel creepy with their claustrophobia.
Will not be revisiting this or seeking out any other Owl Goingback books. I suggest you do the same.
Crota. You're hard to love and kinda easy to strongly dislike.
Up until a few hours before writing this review, I was planning on maybe being generous and giving this book three stars and calling it a day. That was before I discovered the Tribal Alliance Against Frauds and found that Owl Goingback very likely has absolutely zero Native American ancestry and is a fraud. This fact recontextualizes the entire book for me.
While I was reading it, I felt like such an asshole for the amount of eyerolling and cringing I was doing at all the stereotypical "Native" things. Peace pipes, sweat lodges, vision quests, great spirits, etc. Despite knowing that the book was written by a Native American author, something just felt so hokey and pulpy about the whole thing. To say that I felt vindicated upon learning that Goingback is a fraud would be a hell of an understatement.
But, enough about that and onto the book itself. It's just ok. Very predictable with fairly flat characters. There's a wife and son who may as well not exist for how little they give to the story. Honestly, it does feel a bit Jaws like at times, what with a sheriff investigating brutal killings in his rural community.
The two things that save this story from being absolute bottom tier trash for me is that it has some really gnarly kills, and the underground sections legitimately feel creepy with their claustrophobia.
Will not be revisiting this or seeking out any other Owl Goingback books. I suggest you do the same.
This book was a lot of fun! I'll be reading more from this author in the future :D
This is by far the worst structured audiobook I've come across. The TOC indicates 10 chapters, which doesn't reflect the actual contents. Chapter 1 consists of Chapter 1 and part of Chapter 2; Chapter 2 contains the second half of Chapter 2, Chapter 3, and part of the next chapter. For those of us who like to read to the end of a chapter, this is very aggravating.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No