This was both super sweet & also emotionally moving. It deals with the history of Native children being forcibly removed from their families and placed in orphanages or foster care. This is a heavy topic, but it was handled in a grade-appropriate way while also being woven into the plot well. Since this is based on her family’s experience, I can tell a lot of passion & care went into crafting this.

I think I was hoping for a few more elements to be included in the plot and conflict between Edie & her friend. I think it could’ve been incorporated in a more impactful way, but aside from that, I still enjoyed this story! I will be checking out Christine Day’s other books.

Going to round up bc I’m a sucker for grief horror, unfortunately. This book felt like an all-encompassing, black hole of despair and desperation. It was the complete loss of faith in any loving God & humanity.

I know some found Mario’s behavior outlandish, but I found it understandable. Like if I were to lose my child to cancer & was then hounded by medical debt as if her life had a literal price… I mean, idk what that says about me, but like, I get it on some level.

I’m not sure how to write an eloquent review for this book, and while there were elements I didn’t love, I liked it a lot overall. I wish it had been longer towards the end.

This felt semi-thriller, semi-literary horror & it’s incredibly violent, so I can see why it falls flat for many.

I’m going to round up because I did really enjoy this! There were so many heartfelt stories, and I loved the humor in many of them. This is such a great premise also of these stories being tied to the intertribal powwow. Some stories felt a little repetitive just bc of the nature of this premise, but besides that, there were a few standouts that I loved like Fancy Dancer, Wendigos Don’t Dance & What We Know About Glaciers. . “There was my mom, dancing. I had always known my mom was strong, but now I knew she was way stronger than I’d thought. In the middle of the night, she was keeping her culture, our culture, alive.”

For a general overview of the second amendment and how it’s been twisted for different agendas, I think this was alright. I found parts of that history interesting, specifically the different court decisions.

Overall though, this felt fairly watered down. He does touch on racism & how a violent gun culture was inevitable due to slavery & white supremacy, but his argument also relied heavily on the founding fathers & the American Revolution.

To not fully address the violence towards indigenous people & police brutality (a force that worked in tandem with the KKK) , but then also harping on how the amendment pertains to armed militias, it felt hollow. I see the argument and where he’s coming from in terms of appealing to the logic of conservatives & moderates, I suppose, but the history & full picture is lacking.

Most of the book really is just focused on the semantics of it- and it ended on that note too. This was fine, generally speaking, but I was expecting a more overarching analysis rather than ending it on MLK not owning a gun even though his house was bombed.

I’m not for guns or gun culture, but it’s narrow to mostly focus on the semantics argument & the founding fathers-it felt corny by the end.

This was a fun read overall for Halloween- it was pretty entertaining & nostalgic. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it felt like there were too many elements crammed into this plot. Maybe because it’s set up to be a series, but it made it a bit difficult to follow. If the series continues, I may pick it up again though, I absolutely love the cover.

this is for the girls who have had crushes on the corpse bride (Emily)… I’ve got to be honest, I’m rounding this to 5 stars bc of my aforementioned crush lol. This was a perfect gothic read imo. The writing was visceral, and I felt dread for the inevitable while reading. I’d say this is more so a story of obsession and attachment rather than a pure love story, and I enjoyed that. Love can mean different things to people based on their individual experiences, and I think this idea was portrayed well.

The plot was really slow, and I wish there had been more characterization overall, but I just loved the gothic writing so much that I overlooked that.

TWs: racism, homophobia, abuse

I really enjoyed the family drama in this tbh & how unlikable they all were, in varying degrees. Towards the end, it raised my blood pressure. There were some creepy moments, but I was hoping for more. With the amount of conflict in this- the ending felt underwhelming to me. The dad did something that really pissed me off too & it dampened how I was feeling about the plot afterwards. I felt like we were getting good backstory and then it got dashed.

I can see why it was included, but I wasn’t as invested, and it also didn’t feel resolved. Aside from that, I was entertained overall.