Reviews with content warning for Sexism - Sisters of the Lost Nation

This novel highlights the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and 2-spirits as well as other issues faced by Native communities and as such I think it's an important contribution to the genre.

Sadly I just couldn't get into the story. It had so much potential but the plot and characters were underdeveloped and the many time jumps in the beginning made it hard to follow. I also listened on audio and didn't like the narration.

Rather than setting this story in his own tribe and culture, the author chose to create a fictional tribe and incorporated stories from various other nations. I have mixed feelings about this. But at least there's an author's note at the end where the origins of certain elements are credited.

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imstephtacular's review

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

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readingwithcoffee's review against another edition

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dark sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

The ideas in the book are much better then the execution which is boggled down by clunky clumsy writing at times and ironically misogyny for a book inspired by the missing and murdered indigenous women crisis in the Americas.

A lot of this is microcosm of the two sisters story Medina depicts where the younger sister being harmed and cursed by a man she didn’t know is framed to have been actually caused bc she didn’t explicitly “obey” her moral older sister who told her not to come with her with no real reasoning given etc. that even clearly not intentional sexist framing of violence to women as failing of the girl to woman’s approach to life or not heeding other women is deeply harmful. It’s just a book that would benefit a lot for vastly more feminist thoughts which is disappointing.

Also while children have done worse things to each other and have deep social thoughts I thought how they were written fighting or the protagonist didn’t seem how kids would express that violence or commentary which a parts just felt like the author pausing the story to tell us his perspective on various Native American issues instead of something better Integrated into the theme or narrative. The book simply suffers from too much telling vs showing. And also have the protagonist almost never be wrong and making her seem better than other women for not being like them or rejecting anything seem as feminine including just friendships between girls ending for studs to other things that felt catty. Or how the mother passivity felt less taken seriously as a character or depicted less sympathetically then the father who was damaging himself and property in arguments ? Like it seemed like a book about women that only held maybe two in any real esteem.

But I did like how he wrote the favoritism to the son/brother.

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zakura317's review against another edition

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inspiring mysterious sad 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

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