Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Sisters of the Lost Nation by Nick Medina

5 reviews

minimicropup's review

Go to review page

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. 
 
----
🐕 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 ✨”
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

imstephtacular's review

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

alexisgarcia's review

Go to review page

dark mysterious reflective sad 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

3.5

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

a_crow_in_the_sky's review

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional 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

4.75

This book was absolutely wonderful with its commentary on a lot of issues. The only thing I felt It lacked was closure. We never get to see if justice is given to the victims and perpetrators which is historically a huge issue in native American crime and violence, but the story that was actually put on the page was absolutely fantastic, thrilling, and complex.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

abby271's review

Go to review page

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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
More...