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3.45 AVERAGE
3.45 AVERAGE
I think I would have enjoyed fewer voices and more differentiation among them, but I liked the way the historic/mythic and present was interwoven.
"In the fifteen years since their teenage son, Ray-Ray, was killed in a police shooting, the Echota family has been suspended in private grief. The mother, Maria, increasingly struggles to manage the onset of Alzheimer’s in her husband, Ernest. Their adult daughter, Sonja, leads a life of solitude, punctuated only by spells of dizzying romantic obsession. And their son, Edgar, fled home long ago, turning to drugs to mute his feelings of alienation.
With the family’s annual bonfire approaching...Maria attempts to call the family together from their physical and emotional distances once more. But as the bonfire draws near, each of them feels a strange blurring of the boundary between normal life and the spirit world. Maria and Ernest take in a foster child who seems to almost miraculously keep Ernest’s mental fog at bay. Sonja becomes dangerously fixated on a man named Vin... And in the wake of a suicide attempt, Edgar finds himself in the mysterious Darkening Land: a place between the living and the dead, where old atrocities echo."
I've rated this as 3.5 stars, but rounding up since that rating isn't available. Chapters are divided per for protagonists. The foster child is a precocious thoroughly engaging character who could have had his own book. I enjoyed the dynamics between Maria, her husband Edgar, and the foster kid. The beautiful prose of the Cherokee ancestor, Tsala was an addition that enriched the story. However, I did not feel the same way about Sonja and Edgar's storylines. I found myself wanting more about the perpetrator, the police officer than was given in one chapter.
With the family’s annual bonfire approaching...Maria attempts to call the family together from their physical and emotional distances once more. But as the bonfire draws near, each of them feels a strange blurring of the boundary between normal life and the spirit world. Maria and Ernest take in a foster child who seems to almost miraculously keep Ernest’s mental fog at bay. Sonja becomes dangerously fixated on a man named Vin... And in the wake of a suicide attempt, Edgar finds himself in the mysterious Darkening Land: a place between the living and the dead, where old atrocities echo."
I've rated this as 3.5 stars, but rounding up since that rating isn't available. Chapters are divided per for protagonists. The foster child is a precocious thoroughly engaging character who could have had his own book. I enjoyed the dynamics between Maria, her husband Edgar, and the foster kid. The beautiful prose of the Cherokee ancestor, Tsala was an addition that enriched the story. However, I did not feel the same way about Sonja and Edgar's storylines. I found myself wanting more about the perpetrator, the police officer than was given in one chapter.
Strange, moody book about a family haunted by their son's death and the Cherokee "Trail of Tears". Maybe too deep for me, but I think Megan might love it. Some hallucination-like chapters left me bewildered, as did the hints of re-incarnation and mystical healing, not to mention some of the extreme strategies for coping with loss. At what point can the past become the past, and what form of healing is possible?
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was a hard one for me to rate. It is more of a 3.5 rating.
It was a sad, but beautiful story. However, at points it switched too quickly between the different characters and was sometimes hard to follow.
This would be one of those books I read a second time. I think I would be able to follow the story much better having already read it!
It is definitely worth the read!
It was a sad, but beautiful story. However, at points it switched too quickly between the different characters and was sometimes hard to follow.
This would be one of those books I read a second time. I think I would be able to follow the story much better having already read it!
It is definitely worth the read!
While this book lacked direction and a clear plotline, there was a magic to it that I could not tear away from. Native stories and mysticism were woven into the parallel stories of these family members, highlighting the Cherokee peoples' emphasis on spiritual connections between ancestors, the living, and land. The author subtly made connections between the haunting reality of generational/cultural trauma and its impact on native and indigenous peoples, something that I felt could have been more explicit or direct.The themes of addiction, abuse, racism, mental illness, and familial disconnection in this book are no small topics -- topics that are no doubt the result of ancestral (and current) trauma.
Overall a great read. I find myself inspired to continue seeking out indigenous voices and stories to educate myself further on the beliefs of our native tribes, as well as how native bodies have suffered and continue to do so.
Overall a great read. I find myself inspired to continue seeking out indigenous voices and stories to educate myself further on the beliefs of our native tribes, as well as how native bodies have suffered and continue to do so.
The literal only good thing about this book was the revelation that Vin’s Dad is the one that shot Sonja’s brother. I sorta liked Edgar’s storyline because it was super eerie but like did any of it even happen? There’s almost no actual plot, it’s extremely disjointed and none of it makes sense.
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
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