A review by black_girl_reading
Sacred Smokes by Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.

4.0

A series of stories about coming of age as a young Indigenous youth in Chicago, the books is full of adventure, violence, friendships, and survival. This book was really good. It wasn’t like anything I’ve ever read. The writing was brusque. It was honest. Sometimes it was brutal. It was often funny (laugh or cry funny - those cops) But there was a lot of warmth of remembrance there. I’ve never read happy stories of Chicago (I’m thinking of Samantha Irby here too), but people still write with such warmth about their struggles there. Contemporary, urban, coming of age in a hard world Indigenous lit. It’s 🔥. Check it out.