A review by brucefarrar
Trail of the Dead by Joseph Bruchac

5.0

Lozen and her family have just escaped the compound where they were kept enslaved. They’re making for their old home in the Valley Where First Light Paints the Cliffs, but they’re traveling through a world filled with genetically modified monsters. Lozen isn’t intimidated by monsters. Her job for her former masters was killing monsters. But this time it’s not just the monsters in front of them. This time they have a new cold-blooded supervillain stalking them from behind.

Props to Bruchac for writing an accessible dystopian fantasy stuffed full of action. In addition to the good gals and guys versus despicably bad guys and monsters, the author has incorporated folklore from Apache, Navaho, European, and pop culture references and jokes including

—get this—flying monkeys!

And it’s got enough gunplay and firearms to make members of the NRA delighted. A less skillful writer could not have concocted this multicultural stew and have it come out so deliciously satisfying.