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abbyminzer's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
klanca's review
3.0
I don’t really know how I feel about this book. It was good at times and not so good at others. The transitions from one narrator to another and from one time frame to another was sometimes confusing and a bit irritating. Overall worth the read.
aprilcote's review
2.0
I read this because it was on the Time magazine’s top 100 books of 2020. I won’t make the same mistake again. It was depressing, disjointed and trying way too hard to be a literary masterpiece. It took me forever to get through. Page turner it was not. If you want to feel confused and sad and angry while reading grab your copy today.
aleenabeth's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
_lilbey_'s review
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I really liked it overall, but was left feeling off kilter by the two chapters in the middle that did not seem to fit the rest of the narrative- the first from the perspective of Justine's father-in-law and the second that focused on characters who were not found (save for a very brief mention) anywhere else in the story.
It's unclear why we needed Ferrell's perspective on anything, as the story prior focused on mother-daughter relationships.
And while the chapter with Mose, Marni, and Stevie was incredibly engaging, it did not fit the rest of the book. It felt more like a short story that one would find in the New Yorker or Esquire. Perhaps this bothers me more than it should because I really enjoyed this chapter and was hoping to learn more about these characters and how they linked to the MCs but no, the chapter ended very abruptly with no clear sense of closure and that was that. This chapter and my feeling of loss and confusion at not knowing why these characters were important or what happened to them is a major contributor to a 4 star rating vs. 5.
It's unclear why we needed Ferrell's perspective on anything, as the story prior focused on mother-daughter relationships.
And while the chapter with Mose, Marni, and Stevie was incredibly engaging, it did not fit the rest of the book. It felt more like a short story that one would find in the New Yorker or Esquire. Perhaps this bothers me more than it should because I really enjoyed this chapter and was hoping to learn more about these characters and how they linked to the MCs but no, the chapter ended very abruptly with no clear sense of closure and that was that. This chapter and my feeling of loss and confusion at not knowing why these characters were important or what happened to them is a major contributor to a 4 star rating vs. 5.
micahnow17's review against another edition
4.0
This book captured the dry, hard desperation of the time and place very well. Each woman strong in her own way. I found it a good, immersive read.
bsmorris's review
4.0
At first, I was really confused by this novel, and my initial review reflected that. But I rewrote the review because I couldn’t stop thinking about the novel and 24 hours later I had kind of a revelation: the novel is about generational trauma. It follows, to varying degrees, four generations of Cherokee women: Granny, Lula, Justine, and Reney, as they struggle with the abusive relationships they endure. Often these are romantic relationships with men, but the women’s relationships with each other and especially with their Holiness church are also more or less abusive.
Granny’s white husband was abusive; Lula’s husband disappeared, and while she seeks comfort in the church, it also prevents her from getting treatment for epilepsy that could have greatly improved her quality of life; Lula is abusive at times to Justine; Justine and Reney both end up in abusive romantic relationships. The structure is also weird - not exactly chronological, and sometimes veering off into side plots narrated by minor characters. The changes in point of view can be confusing. The last part of the book becomes apocalyptic and starts to feel like science fiction. However, the characters are well-developed, sympathetic, and complex. I really enjoyed the novel and its emotionally evocative style, even as I struggled to understand it.
I read reviews by other readers complaining that despite the characters being Cherokee, there wasn’t “enough culture” for their tastes. My initial reaction was to dismiss those concerns - after all, if the author is Cherokee writing about Cherokee characters, who am I as a white reader to question her depiction of Cherokee culture? And after all, this is only one story, so it doesn’t necessarily speak for all Native Americans or even all Cherokee people.
But I kept thinking about a quote from close to the end of the novel. Here’s where I might get into some spoilers. Justine is thinking about her mother and grandmother: “Granny had been brought up in Indian orphanages and, later, Indian boarding schools. She’d never taught her grandchildren the language beyond basic greetings. She simply said that life was harder for those who spoke it” (p. 182). (Lula, too, attended an Indian boarding school, mentioned on p. 4.) Justine reflects on her lifelong intentions to learn the language that never came to fruition. She thinks about how her daughter has finally broken the cycle of abuse by completely leaving the area.
I thought about the side plot that shows Justine’s white father-in-law Ferrell’s point of view, in which he neglects his wife to death and never calls Justine by her name - she is always “the Indian.” The side plot about the lesbian couple assaulted by meth addicts, and the later mention of Jett, the high school football player that Reney makes out with once, who “turned into a meth head.”
And I finally realized that this novel is about generational trauma. It’s fundamentally based on the trauma inflicted by a white society that tried to erase Native American culture through orphanages and boarding schools and how that abuse started the cycle of abuse that many Native Americans are unable to free themselves from today. In my eyes, the fundamentalist church that many characters in this novel turn to for comfort merely perpetuates the abuse by oppressing women and forcing all its members into a narrow-minded set of rules that even prevents them from accessing basic health care. Both white and Native American men in the novel continue to abuse and denigrate Native American women. If there aren’t “enough” stereotypical markers of Native American culture here for some readers, it’s because the white supremacy that permeates our culture has robbed generations of Native Americans of their own language and traditions. This is the reality of life for some Native Americans in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. I could write so much more about other themes in the novel, but this seems like the most important one to highlight in my review.
Many thanks to Grove Atlantic for the free book. I’m so happy to have been introduced to Kelli Jo Ford and I can’t wait to see what she writes next.
Granny’s white husband was abusive; Lula’s husband disappeared, and while she seeks comfort in the church, it also prevents her from getting treatment for epilepsy that could have greatly improved her quality of life; Lula is abusive at times to Justine; Justine and Reney both end up in abusive romantic relationships. The structure is also weird - not exactly chronological, and sometimes veering off into side plots narrated by minor characters. The changes in point of view can be confusing. The last part of the book becomes apocalyptic and starts to feel like science fiction. However, the characters are well-developed, sympathetic, and complex. I really enjoyed the novel and its emotionally evocative style, even as I struggled to understand it.
I read reviews by other readers complaining that despite the characters being Cherokee, there wasn’t “enough culture” for their tastes. My initial reaction was to dismiss those concerns - after all, if the author is Cherokee writing about Cherokee characters, who am I as a white reader to question her depiction of Cherokee culture? And after all, this is only one story, so it doesn’t necessarily speak for all Native Americans or even all Cherokee people.
But I kept thinking about a quote from close to the end of the novel. Here’s where I might get into some spoilers. Justine is thinking about her mother and grandmother: “Granny had been brought up in Indian orphanages and, later, Indian boarding schools. She’d never taught her grandchildren the language beyond basic greetings. She simply said that life was harder for those who spoke it” (p. 182). (Lula, too, attended an Indian boarding school, mentioned on p. 4.) Justine reflects on her lifelong intentions to learn the language that never came to fruition. She thinks about how her daughter has finally broken the cycle of abuse by completely leaving the area.
I thought about the side plot that shows Justine’s white father-in-law Ferrell’s point of view, in which he neglects his wife to death and never calls Justine by her name - she is always “the Indian.” The side plot about the lesbian couple assaulted by meth addicts, and the later mention of Jett, the high school football player that Reney makes out with once, who “turned into a meth head.”
And I finally realized that this novel is about generational trauma. It’s fundamentally based on the trauma inflicted by a white society that tried to erase Native American culture through orphanages and boarding schools and how that abuse started the cycle of abuse that many Native Americans are unable to free themselves from today. In my eyes, the fundamentalist church that many characters in this novel turn to for comfort merely perpetuates the abuse by oppressing women and forcing all its members into a narrow-minded set of rules that even prevents them from accessing basic health care. Both white and Native American men in the novel continue to abuse and denigrate Native American women. If there aren’t “enough” stereotypical markers of Native American culture here for some readers, it’s because the white supremacy that permeates our culture has robbed generations of Native Americans of their own language and traditions. This is the reality of life for some Native Americans in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. I could write so much more about other themes in the novel, but this seems like the most important one to highlight in my review.
Many thanks to Grove Atlantic for the free book. I’m so happy to have been introduced to Kelli Jo Ford and I can’t wait to see what she writes next.