Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
This one was just ok for me, I thought the story was engaging and I kept wanting to read more to find out how it ended but I am not sure if it is one I will remember in a month or two. We follow Virgil Wounded Horse who is raising his teenage nephew and is an enforcer on a reservation in South Dakota. Virgil is hired to find out who is bring drugs onto the rez and decides to take on the task when his nephew overdoses on heroine. At times this story lost me with pacing of the story, I felt like we would go pages with not much happening. I was also not a fan of the ending, I need more then an ambiguous ending, I needed facts and follow up.
A stellar debut novel. A great premise lures you in (a behind the scenes enforcer/vigilante who punishes those who commit crimes on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in SD but slip through the cracks in the US legal system due to unfair laws and jurisdictional issues as well as indifference by authorities.
Once you're hooked--and you will be after Chapter 1--the author brings you on a dark, gritty tour of reservation life and the struggles most Indians deal with daily simply to survive. His characters are fresh and real, and the stark setting of the South Dakota/Nebraska plains reinforces the desolate nature of the story.
The author's dialogue rings true to life and he doesn't sanitize the lives of his characters. They're flawed and make mistakes, and some are crooks, and some are trying to succeed and do the right thing against the odds.
This is an early contender for my Best Read of 2021.
Once you're hooked--and you will be after Chapter 1--the author brings you on a dark, gritty tour of reservation life and the struggles most Indians deal with daily simply to survive. His characters are fresh and real, and the stark setting of the South Dakota/Nebraska plains reinforces the desolate nature of the story.
The author's dialogue rings true to life and he doesn't sanitize the lives of his characters. They're flawed and make mistakes, and some are crooks, and some are trying to succeed and do the right thing against the odds.
This is an early contender for my Best Read of 2021.
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
fun, and also edifying. felt like it was doing outreach to non-indigenous readers through a crime novel. would love to see more from these characters.
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Racism, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
3.5 ⭐️ & my first audiobook ! i wonder if my rating would change actually reading it … idk if i can get jiggy with audiobooks but we’ll see.
it was a good book, it kept me hooked but was pretty predictable. i appreciated being able to learn about and understand native american culture. i also loved the food aspect of it all. this book dealt with tough topics that ruin our communities but i loved seeing everyone try their best to persevere instead of giving up at the hands of evil & corruption
it was a good book, it kept me hooked but was pretty predictable. i appreciated being able to learn about and understand native american culture. i also loved the food aspect of it all. this book dealt with tough topics that ruin our communities but i loved seeing everyone try their best to persevere instead of giving up at the hands of evil & corruption
As is nearly always a good thing in a mystery/thriller, the prose of this novel was easy for my #2020brain to digest, and the pacing was quick. That said, the book is not "easy" because it it portrays characters and life on the Lakota Rosebud reservation in a way that felt true to me (caveat: my experience is mostly form working on community health research with a few Native American tribes, including a few weeks in South Dakota on Lakota land with Lakota collaborators). David Heska Wanbli Weiden's desire to accurately portray the life and people on the Rosebud shows, at least to me. There is the tension between joy and despair, old and new, community and corruption. There is also the wry and sometimes dark humor that I have come to love and associate with many indigenous folx. I'm also glad to have read an #ownvoices mystery/thriller that takes place on Indian land, as opposed to yet another Hillerman book, which despite critical acclaim and popularity, are still culturally appropriative.
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Listen, I finished this a while ago, but it is still on my mind, and a book I am regularly recommending. I love any book that takes me to places and people I don't know about (or haven't expeirenced). Any book that has so much as a sentence, sentiment, or paragraph, chapter etc that makes me stop in my tracks and reread and think is exactly what a book should do. So, read it, learn something, and Im ging to leave you with a quote that has done what I hope all books do, make you think and cultivate empathy and understanding.
"Back in the time before Columbus, there were only Indians here, no skyscrapers, no automobiles, no streets. Of course, we didn't use the words Indian or Native American then; we were just people. We didn't know we were supposedly drunks or lazy or savages. I wondered what it was like to live without that weight on your shoulders, the weight of the murdered ancestors, the stolen land, the abused children, the burden every Native person carried."
"Back in the time before Columbus, there were only Indians here, no skyscrapers, no automobiles, no streets. Of course, we didn't use the words Indian or Native American then; we were just people. We didn't know we were supposedly drunks or lazy or savages. I wondered what it was like to live without that weight on your shoulders, the weight of the murdered ancestors, the stolen land, the abused children, the burden every Native person carried."