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alysses's review against another edition
5.0
The author has chosen a very unique way to tell this story. Dear reader, you must practice patience. I was completely confused for the first 50%. I literally said out loud "I've been paying attention. What the heck is going on? How do I not know what is going on?" I refused to give up on the read though. Trust that it all comes together in the end and it is a beautiful story.
Nina's tenacity in piecing together stories, learning a language that many have worked so hard to destroy and make disappear, and keeping that language alive inadvertently and purposefully.
Our people are in a constant cycle of resistance in every way.
Nina's tenacity in piecing together stories, learning a language that many have worked so hard to destroy and make disappear, and keeping that language alive inadvertently and purposefully.
Our people are in a constant cycle of resistance in every way.
robynjhip's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
erine's review against another edition
4.0
I read [b:Elatsoe|49089632|Elatsoe|Darcie Little Badger|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1581002562l/49089632._SX50_.jpg|71388826] at a furious pace and finished after a long night of reading. This took me a few tries and was a long, slow start. Part of my challenge was in the two, very separate, storylines. They eventually intertwine, but it took a long time before I suspected how and even longer before they actually met in the middle. I found it difficult to keep both storylines straight at the beginning. Just to be clear, that's not a criticism. I liked both Oli's exodus from home AND Nina's exploration of her family tree, and once I could see where we were going it was much easier to bounce back and forth.
There's also a sense here of reading a translated book. Darcie Little Badger roots her stories so well in Lipan Apache context, but there are moments when my white mental perception of the story seemed just a hair out of sync. Reading translated literature sometimes feels like the book is shaking out my mental sheets, getting the cobwebs out. And despite being written in English, I had a similar feeling with this story.
Oli is a cottonmouth leaving home, traveling through a dangerous forest, trying to make a life for himself. He slowly makes friends as he explores his new surroundings and learns more about his neighbors. Things are going well until his best friend gets sick, which happens when their animal counterparts on Earth are severely endangered. Nina is a human who loves her family history and the old stories of animal people. When the opportunity to solve a family medical mystery coincides with an opportunity to help a ragtag crew of animal people, she leaps at it.
The action builds slowly and steadily and ends in a fairly satisfying crash of worlds and storylines.
There's also a sense here of reading a translated book. Darcie Little Badger roots her stories so well in Lipan Apache context, but there are moments when my white mental perception of the story seemed just a hair out of sync. Reading translated literature sometimes feels like the book is shaking out my mental sheets, getting the cobwebs out. And despite being written in English, I had a similar feeling with this story.
Oli is a cottonmouth leaving home, traveling through a dangerous forest, trying to make a life for himself. He slowly makes friends as he explores his new surroundings and learns more about his neighbors. Things are going well until his best friend gets sick, which happens when their animal counterparts on Earth are severely endangered. Nina is a human who loves her family history and the old stories of animal people. When the opportunity to solve a family medical mystery coincides with an opportunity to help a ragtag crew of animal people, she leaps at it.
The action builds slowly and steadily and ends in a fairly satisfying crash of worlds and storylines.
quicksilver's review against another edition
4.0
This was a good book! I enjoyed the varying viewpoints of the “real” and reflecting world characters. Overall the characters were interesting and the concepts of shapeshifting animals managed to be original and yet worked in folklore and traditions in a way that was respectful. It featured juvenile characters, but managed to not be a juvenile story. This was a read from the DPL universal book club, and I’m so glad I read it on a whim.
ddesmoyo's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
nahal3's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
reflective
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? It's complicated
4.0
jebba_debba_doo's review against another edition
3.0
I really wanted to like this book. It had cool characters, but the pacing was slow for 2/3rds of the book and then everything happened at the very end. I didn’t understand why the animal spirits needed false forms that looked like humans. That didn’t make sense other than to allow them to communicate with humans.
bioniclib's review against another edition
5.0
This was such a funny, magical, heartwarming story. It's filled with mischievous characters and lovable characters and just plain fun characters. The Reflecting World is a fantastic take on traditional Apache lore. The multiple languages involved shows how simplistic European colonizers lumping all Natives together was.
Darcie has such a fantastic imagination and writing style that it almost doesn't matter if the plot isn't very involved.
Darcie has such a fantastic imagination and writing style that it almost doesn't matter if the plot isn't very involved.
2000s's review against another edition
4.25
First, thanks to Mandi, a children's librarian I met who recommended this book to me. The worldbuilding was delicious, absolutely my favorite part of this book. I loved the sense of whimsy and adventure in the spirit world, so I really enjoyed the first half, while the second half was more fast-paced plot.
I didn't love Nina's influencer talk, and her storyline felt a bit unfinished, but I thought her role in the story was interesting, as the character who has access to both the animal world and the colonized "human" world and its issues such as climate change.
I didn't love Nina's influencer talk, and her storyline felt a bit unfinished, but I thought her role in the story was interesting, as the character who has access to both the animal world and the colonized "human" world and its issues such as climate change.
l1ndz7's review against another edition
3.25
Cute fantasy story with some folklore. I didn’t really understand how the two POVs, one a spirit animal, and another, a girl named Nina connected until the very end. I wish the connection was made earlier in the book because it really started to drag starting from the middle to end. I had no idea this was the same author who wrote Elatsoe. Very excited to get to that after reading this!