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tales_told_in_gold's review
dark
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Trafficking, Child death, Bullying, and Drug abuse
Moderate: Alcoholism and Adult/minor relationship
Minor: Racism, Physical abuse, Addiction, Sexual content, Sexual assault, and Kidnapping
minimicropup's review
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
The Energy: Sympathetic, compassionate, questioning
The Scene: 🇺🇸 A (fictional) Takoda Reservation in Louisiana, USA
The POV: We dive into the life of a high school senior and housekeeper at the new casino resort whose world starts unraveling over 36 intense days.
🎬 Tale-Telling: Third-person observational style where we are closely following our MC, Anna. I liked the writing style and how it had me feeling connected without intruding on the story to explain everything. We’re shown Indigenous experiences and stories in a way that felt relatable and authentic.
👥 Characters: Not a character driven story, but it has intricate family and sibling dynamics so if you don’t care about the characters or aren’t curious about their futures, it could be a lackluster read. I liked how we saw the little ways decisions snowball out of hand. And how Anna sometimes puts herself in danger but it makes sense as we get to know her, and she's consistent and does get scared sometimes.
🤓 Reader Role: Invited guest. I felt like I was walking around with Anna, sitting at their dining room table or hanging on the couch, trying to figure out the mystery and navigate the scenes.
🗺️ Ambiance: Unsettling, ominous, heavy, even depressing. The family home, the hotel casino, and even the school all felt so real and the interactions and character behaviours, even for peripheral, captured all the little looks and changes in body language.
🔥 Fuel: Who can Anna trust? Who is friend and who is foe? What happened to her sister and who may be involved? What is all the sketchy stuff going on at the hotel suites? At its heart, the story is more of a mystery about the disappearances of young girls wrapped in contemporary fiction about life on the Reservation and the effects of the casino and resort on the community.
🚙 Journey: Steady pace with conclusive endings and character development. I sometimes felt lost, but that was largely me losing track of what happened between non-linear chapters.
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🐕 Howls: The non-linear timeline where the 36 days are presented out of order had me keeping a mental log of events to remember if something happened before or after an incident or reveal. Have a physical book to flip through meant it was minor, but often pulled me out of the story.
🐩 Tail Wags: The atmospheric tension, balancing the mundane with a sense of foreboding, intertwining Indigenous lore and symbolism seamlessly without info-dumping.
----
Mood Reading Match-Up:
- Contemporary fiction about family struggles, sibling secrets, and growing up too fast
- Hints of Indigenous folklore and creature feature spirits
- Heavy and symbolic horrors about being ‘different’, Indigenous histories and experiences
- Reflective, exploratory themes about connection, belonging, fitting in, growing up, growing apart, being different, storytelling, preservation of the past, grief, loss, corruption, and vulnerability
Content Heads-Up: Missing persons. Physical and domestic abuse (boss to employee, spouses against each other). Bullying (rejection, ostracizing, teasing; on page). Racism (insinuated, brief; on-page). Sexual assault (forced, grooming, trafficking; descriptive, recall). Animal death (wildlife, roadkill, shooting rodents). Self-harm (momentary, brief). Alcohol and cannabis use.
Rep: Indigenous American characters and cultural experiences. Two-Spirit and cisgender. Heterosexual.
👀 Format: Hardcover
“Reviews are my musings 💖 powered by puppy snuggles 🐶 refined by my AI bookworm bestie ✨”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying and Racism
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Alcohol, and Physical abuse
Minor: Self harm and Animal death
pathologicalreader's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Bullying, Death, Addiction, Blood, Drug abuse, Adult/minor relationship, and Kidnapping
Minor: Trafficking, Vomit, Racism, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Slavery, Transphobia, Excrement, Infidelity, Physical abuse, and Car accident
imstephtacular's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Bullying, Drug abuse, Addiction, and Drug use
Moderate: Body shaming, Classism, Cursing, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Blood, Alcoholism, Animal death, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Alcohol, Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, and Sexism
Minor: Trafficking, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit
abby271's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Blood, Bullying, Alcohol, Death, Kidnapping, and Drug use
Minor: Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Child death, Adult/minor relationship, Trafficking, and Rape
ec_tyche's review
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
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
4.75
The only part about this book I didn’t like was the way it jumps around in the timeline. Other than that, I really enjoyed how this book was meaningful while still remaining a thriller novel. I loved that Two Spirits was included in this as well, it made it feel inclusive in a new way for me. I also loved reading about other Native pieces such as the folklore and beliefs that were included in this book. The ending was really great, I thought as was the authors note.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Self harm, Death, Murder, Addiction, and Racism
Minor: Drug use, Physical abuse, and Sexual assault
coltonchase_'s review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Violence, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Trafficking, and Murder
vmh's review
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Addiction, Murder, Death, Racism, and Rape
starrysteph's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Sisters of the Lost Nation is a heart-wrenching mystery following an outcast fighting for her identity and the life of her little sister. A haunting, enraging, captivating debut.
Anna is a young Native girl struggling to find a place where she belongs. She’s haunted by childhood campfire stories and teenage girls who have never come home, her vicious peers turn high school into torture, and she has growing suspicions about her boss at the casino.
When her little sister Grace goes missing, Anna has to channel all her strength to bring her home. But between the boundaries of rez police, the sneering & haughty town cops, and the piles of missing person flyers that have never been resolved - it feels like an impossible job.
Medina beautifully incorporates storytelling, memory, and myth. Anna is fascinated by legends and traditions of the past, and fights to keep them alive while using them to make sense of her current reality. This is a mystery/thriller novel with a small splash of horror: Anna believes she is being stalked by a supernatural entity.
I found Anna to be an immensely likable main character – she’s both fierce and forlorn as she matures throughout the pages. Her family dynamics were equally compelling: smoldering parents who can’t quite communicate, her overlooked and invisible disabled Gran, her eager younger siblings, and Anna always there to reliably clean up their messes.
The back-and-forth timeline was very confusing at first to follow, and I didn’t really fall into flow with the book until close to halfway through. I almost wish it had been told entirely chronologically. But once it clicks … it clicks. It was impossible to turn away from the pages.
This is a story about monstrous legends … and the real, all-too-human villains that haunt Native communities.
It’s an emotional piece - and while the characters and events were fictional, the trauma of missing & murdered indigenous women is incredibly real. It will enrage you and devastate you.
CW: death, murder, racism, bullying, violence, physical abuse, self harm, sexual assault, suicidal thoughts, trafficking, gore, animal death, addiction, drug use, child abuse, pedophilia, transphobia
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(I received a free copy of this book; this is my honest review.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pedophilia, Child death, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Trafficking, Self harm, Racism, Child abuse, Transphobia, Death, Murder, Bullying, Violence, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Gore, Animal death, Addiction, and Drug use
haleyreads32's review
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Physical abuse
Moderate: Trafficking and Racism
Minor: Addiction
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