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3.45 AVERAGE
3.45 AVERAGE
I've been craving a book like this - a book filled to the brim with Native lore. Aside from Ernest (whose perspective we never read from,) all of the characters are pretty well developed.
Edgar, the youngest sibling, is a drug addict. Drug usage isn’t romanticized and addiction is touched on in a very real way. It isn’t overly elaborate, but it’s enough to make it clear that addiction does not make you a bad person even if it causes bad choices.
Sonja, the eldest sister, is definitely a strong female character. She is unabashed about sexuality and has no desire to be in a committed relationship. She does have some creeper vibes that threw me off a little bit, but it’s acknowledged in the book.
Maria, the mother, has a lot of mental health issues that are brought up early on and addressed in a positive way. They are not hidden or romanticized.
Other things to note that are pretty obvious once you’ve read it - some gay rep that wasn’t overly prominent as a plot device, blatant racism against Natives (and brown skinned people as a whole,) and police violence. The racism is a hide part of the narrative and police violence plays into that. It’s the whole beginning of the trauma the Echota family experiences.
Overall, the writing was beautiful and easy to read. I found it compelling and every time I set this book down I couldn't stop thinking about it. There are so many layers to this story - mythology combined with present day. There were plot twists that I wasn't expecting and some that I did. I would absolutely read this again and I look forward to reading other works by Hobson.
I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Edgar, the youngest sibling, is a drug addict. Drug usage isn’t romanticized and addiction is touched on in a very real way. It isn’t overly elaborate, but it’s enough to make it clear that addiction does not make you a bad person even if it causes bad choices.
Sonja, the eldest sister, is definitely a strong female character. She is unabashed about sexuality and has no desire to be in a committed relationship. She does have some creeper vibes that threw me off a little bit, but it’s acknowledged in the book.
Maria, the mother, has a lot of mental health issues that are brought up early on and addressed in a positive way. They are not hidden or romanticized.
Other things to note that are pretty obvious once you’ve read it - some gay rep that wasn’t overly prominent as a plot device, blatant racism against Natives (and brown skinned people as a whole,) and police violence. The racism is a hide part of the narrative and police violence plays into that. It’s the whole beginning of the trauma the Echota family experiences.
Overall, the writing was beautiful and easy to read. I found it compelling and every time I set this book down I couldn't stop thinking about it. There are so many layers to this story - mythology combined with present day. There were plot twists that I wasn't expecting and some that I did. I would absolutely read this again and I look forward to reading other works by Hobson.
I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This book will stick with me for a while. I loved the magical realism woven into the story - it left me with many questions. My heart aches for Maria and all she has gone through. I hope the ambiguous ending is really a happy ending for her.
I wanted to like this book and started off liking it but I only kept reading at the end because I was close and curious how it would end. I liked some of the mythology but found as it went on, it got really repetitive and I didn’t really understand how it aided the story.
This one was pretty disappointing to me; mainly many of the themes or plot points never felt fleshed out. The reader is repeatedly told the messages they should take without the work of showing us why or what it means. The writing was also stiff and almost juvenile in its simplicity and awkwardness that I had a hard time staying in the world of the novel.
challenging
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Solid storytelling, if a bit choppily pieced together. I listened to the audiobook and some of the male narrators read woefully without emotional inflection, so I had to rewind a few times when my ears glazed over from boredom. Interestingly, Hobson nails the story when told from Maria’s and Sonja’s perspectives, and I love how those characters are fully voiced. My rating of the story alone is 3/5 stars but it gets an extra star for the strong auntie narration.
DNF at 50%. Writing style not for me. Bizarre and disjointed and not in a good way. Just not my book.
The moment I picked up this book I couldn’t put it down. A beautifully written novel about loss, grief, and finding hope again. This is a book that I will be wanting to re-read again.
I found the chapters told by the spirit moving, but the other chapters felt underdeveloped. I was told feelings and characterization more than shown. I wanted to like this story. It has so much potential to be beautiful, and books that navigate grief in an authentic way are important to me, as someone who lost her sister suddenly at a young age. However, this story didn’t resonate with me, except for the Tsala chapters. It felt unresolved but not in a particularly poignant way.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I thought the video game premise was interesting - I hadn't encountered that plot before (chilling). It was also very sad, but some of the magical realism was uplifting.