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A Prayer for the Crown Shy is the first book in a long time that has made me long to live in its pages
I don't read much fiction, but the fiction I do read tends to be post-apocalypse. I have always loved the dystopia fiction genre, so it was quite a sharp turn for me last year when I first read a hymn for the wild built. The definition of cozy fiction, the Monk and robot duology is basically the opposite of post-apocalyptic fiction, it represents something of a Utopia fiction. It's a world that feels almost believable, almost too good to be true vision of a peaceful pastoral future where Humanity lives in harmony with nature and each other, having put war and greed and Corruption behind them.
I have fond memories of reading the first book last year, but it was not until cracking open the sequel, a prayer for the crown shy, that I really felt that tug in my chest Longing To live in the world Becky Chambers has created. I think a reason for it is that the first book primarily focuses on the relationship between the two main characters, but the second book explores a bit more in depth the concepts of the society which dex and mosscap live in.
I suppose these books will have their detractors which might criticize these stories as being shallow wish fulfillment, or low stakes pabulum oatmeal fiction. Maybe the reason I can Envision these criticisms is because at one point in my life I might have made them myself, but right maybe because of the state of the world this story is just so comforting in its ability to transport me to another reality and if it is like owed meal it is the most delicious bowl of oatmeal I have ever sat down to in a long time. If anything I just need a cup of warm tea to go with it.
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Everything I never Told you by Celeste Ng
Hi i just finished reading this book, absolutely heartbreaking. One question plagued my mind and that's why Lydia didn't ever write in her diary? I would think diary a safe place to put her inner plaguing thoughts. The only thoughts I could think was that she didn't want to acknowledge her feelings or she didn't want her mom to see it and make her feel disappointed (just like she hid her cookbook). Any thoughts about why? Am i missing something
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James
I'm reading James by Percival Everett. It's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn told through Jim's eyes. I'm about 30% in, and I'm enjoying it.
Twain characterized Jim as a caricature, a superstitious fool. He's the butt of many jokes in the original story. This book posits Jim as highly intelligent and well-spoken. He uses slave speak in front of white people because he knows it's safer if they think he's an idiot. Awesome premise!
What confuses me is how well educated Jim is. He's not just smart; he's knowledgeable. He knows about Voltaire and Rousseau. He's incredibly eloquent with an amazing vocabulary, and no explanation has been provided thus far about how he gained all this knowledge.
It isn't realistic that he would be so well educated. My thinking is that Everett isn't trying to be realistic. He's putting Jim on the other extreme of complete idiocy as a fuck you to Mark Twain.
I would love to hear others' thoughts! What do you think Everett's intent is?
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Your Year in Reading: 2024
Welcome readers,
The year is almost done but before we go we want to hear how your year in reading went! How many books did you read? Which was your favorite? Did you complete your reading resolution for the year? Whatever your year in reading looked like we want to hear about!
Thank you and enjoy!
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Simple Questions: December 21, 2024
Welcome readers,
Have you ever wanted to ask something but you didn't feel like it deserved its own post but it isn't covered by one of our other scheduled posts? Allow us to introduce you to our new Simple Questions thread! Twice a week, every Tuesday and Saturday, a new Simple Questions thread will be posted for you to ask anything you'd like. And please look for other questions in this thread that you could also answer! A reminder that this is not the thread to ask for book recommendations. All book recommendations should be asked in /r/suggestmeabook or our Weekly Recommendation Thread.
Thank you and enjoy!
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‘Perfect for winter nights’: the best crime novels to read at Christmas according to Ian Rankin, Bella Mackie and more
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/dec/21/the-best-crime-novels-to-read-christmas
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The Next Great American Fantasy
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/20/opinion/wicked-tolkien-westeros-narnia.html
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James by Percival Everett - I’m on page 218 - Is it revealed later where/when James went to college?
The code switching aspect of this novel is very interesting, I’m really curious if this is historically accurate or not.
But mostly just the sheer level of education that Jim seems to have as a slave is crazy, he seems like the most educated person in the entire book. I hope there’s a reveal later on for how he knows of Voltaire, John Locke and really complex philosophy. I can definitely buy that Jim is a secret genius, but him seeming to be PhD level educated is really crazy to me without some of big explanation.
I think this book is written well, and I like a lot of the observations in the book. But this is really bothering me with parts of this.
Curious people’s thoughts!
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One Hundred Years of Solitude: Colombians celebrate Netflix TV series of the country’s ’national poem’
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/dec/20/one-hundred-years-of-solitude-netflix-series
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Recommended books for learning about training dogs?
I've seen a lot of people talk about "Don't Shoot The Dog!" but I saw a Reddit post that said it's kind of slog to get through. Another book I saw that I decided to give a try is "The Other End of The Leash," and I have to say that I'm finding this book rather dull as well. Does anyone have any other recommendations? I should clarify that I don't own a dog. I live with my mom and she has dogs, but they're pretty much past the age of being "trainable."
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How have you noticed characters coping affecting your own life?
I like to reread books pretty often, revisiting ones that have stuck in my head a few years later. I recently reread Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki by Haruki Murakami and without meaning to, I guess I adapted having a strict but simple routine to cope with loss, much like Tsukuru. I first read it at a time I lost friends as well, but I didn’t intend to take it as an instruction manual.
When I was a teenager, after my first breakup ever I read Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick (it was very popular with the movie coming out). Not by intention, but I allowed myself to deal with that breakup by acting emotionally like Pat Cooper, not recognizing as a 16 year old girl that Pat was an adult man struggling with bipolar. I now look back and see that I emulated him and that really wasn’t the takeaway of the book by any means.
There’s probably more examples but these two really stuck out to me. I should probably work on that, reading fiction has clearly developed my empathy since I identify with these characters so much. But I can’t use them as a blueprint either, even if Tsukuru is technically healthier than Pat. I know who I am in real life a lot more now but I still struggle with not integrating coping methods I read.
I’ve recently read a lot of nonfiction about marriage and healthy relationships, and I noticed I match better with the typical male characterizations of coping and conflict (not that there ever hard rules but generalizations exist for a reason) which I thought was unusual as a woman, but I think latching onto these two male characters might be a large part of why that’s the case.
Which characters or books have affected your real-life actions, positively or negatively?
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Weekly Recommendation Thread: December 20, 2024
Welcome to our weekly recommendation thread! A few years ago now the mod team decided to condense the many "suggest some books" threads into one big mega-thread, in order to consolidate the subreddit and diversify the front page a little. Since then, we have removed suggestion threads and directed their posters to this thread instead. This tradition continues, so let's jump right in!
**The Rules**
* Every comment in reply to this self-post must be a request for suggestions.
* All suggestions made in this thread must be direct replies to other people's requests. Do not post suggestions in reply to this self-post.
* All unrelated comments will be deleted in the interest of cleanliness.
____
**How to get the best recommendations**
The most successful recommendation requests include a description of the kind of book being sought. This might be a particular kind of protagonist, setting, plot, atmosphere, theme, or subject matter. You may be looking for something similar to another book (or film, TV show, game, etc), and examples are great! Just be sure to explain *what* you liked about them too. Other helpful things to think about are genre, length and reading level.
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All Weekly Recommendation Threads are linked below the header throughout the week to guarantee that this thread remains active day-to-day. For those bursting with books that you are hungry to suggest, we've set the suggested sort to new; you may need to set this manually if your app or settings ignores suggested sort.
If this thread has not slaked your desire for tasty book suggestions, we propose that you head on over to the aptly named subreddit /r/suggestmeabook.
- The Management
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Australian author John Marsden moved so many with his powerful novels. Here are ABC Arts’ favourites
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-19/john-marsden-has-died-abc-arts-remembers-favourite-novels/104745238
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back to find Ernie and Vali and him head home. The following day as Vali goes to school 2 janitors and her math teacher are taken by DF officers. Ernie's soccer coach was also taken. The two head home and meet up with their mom who escaped being captured by the DF on the farm she works at earlier that day. The kids don't go to school for the next few days and the mom also doesn't allow them to leave their apartment as they plan what happens next.
Valis mom says that California is succeeding from the US and now calling itself sanctuary and that's their best bet. To get there, they'll be going to a nun in Queens NY that her mom knows. As they take the bust to get there at some point as they take a transfer, valis mom is scanned by the DF in a bus station and it sets off their scanners. She is subdued and arrested as Vali and Ernie run amongst the people freaking n out in the station during the arrest. With limited food and a bit under $900 between them, Vali and Ernie try to make their way to Queens, NY to find the nun her mom spoke about. Vali is following a map as she and Ernie are being stealthy sleeping in awful places as to not draw attention to themselves and buy food and water when they can.
An interesting piece of information about this timeline is water is rationed due to climate change and a lot of the time it is sold by the once in certain places or things like a 12 oz bottle regularly cost about $5. Other things like decent food is also rationed and scarce to find unless it's been genetically modified or simply canned.
Finally, after about 10 days of wandering, Vali and Ernie make it to Queens and to the church where they meet up with Sister Lottie who takes in illegals trying to hide from the DF. As Vali and Ernie have a place to stay for a few days at the church, while in a park one day Vali hears some nannies talking about the DF cracking down hard in illegals and that California is their only escape while dangerous. They bring up coyotes and Vali talks to one of the ladies about where she can find one perfectly aware of the dangers of hiring one.
Vali laters talks to sister Lottie about it and while she is hesitant, she offers to pay for Vali and Ernie to hire one to make it to California. Vali and Ernie meet up withe coyote where they are made to get in the back of a meat truck that will take them to a check point and they'll meet up with another contact to make it the rest of the way. There are other illegals who are riding too including a muscular guy, a mom with 2 children, a hacker, and two girls around valis age(16).
At some point, the truck is pulled over by a DF officer and the coyote shoots him before he can really look in the back of the truck. After, he telks Vali and everyone else they need to get out and they'll have to make it on foot on their own. Not everyone goes to together and so it's Vali, her brother, the mom with her kids, the muscular guy who Vali calls volcanoman, and some guy around Valis age. They need to get to a certain street in in a small town in Oklahoma to meet up with the next person to get them to California.
Eventually they make it but it's some dilapidated building and the two guys there who are the contacts also take advantage of of female illegals and whore them out to DF officers who look the other way of their illegal operation. A DF officer is brought in to have his way with the mom of the two children but volcanoman saves her killing the officer in the process. They all escape but during it, the moms older child ends up walking into the deep part of a river and drowns. As they try to hold a makeshift funeral drones from the DF are on their way.
They try to get the mom to escape but with them but she is too heartbroken and grieving so she and her baby stay and are captured by the drones.
As the group keeps moving Vali remembering how she and her mom and dad hopped a train to get into the states suggests it as an idea. The group does this and as they get closer to California they also see large encampments in the desert part of Arizona that are
Reading light
Hello fellow nerds. I am looking for recommendations of a reading light to bring with me on trips. I’m talking about one of those personal lights that you attach to books. I was recently on a flight and I wanted to read but couldn’t because the overhead light was crap. Is there one you have found to be good?
Thanks.
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2024 Thriller Recommendations
Hi!
I run a book club in St. Louis, MO and each month we do a different genre. Currently I'm trying to decide on our book for the Thriller category.
What I am looking for:
\-Thriller
\-Published in 2024
\-Under 500 pages
Does anyone have a thriller they absolutely loved this year?
Thank you!
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Erich Fromm-The art of love
Erich Fromm I looooove this man. I remember reading To Have or To Be and really enjoying it, though for some reason, I never finished it. Last Thursday I was at the bookstore, I stumbled across The Art of Loving and couldn’t resist. It only took me a day to finish, and what can I say? As always, Fromm has this incredible ability to explain life’s most complex truths with the clarity and simplicity of someone speaking to a five year-old. Yet, he leaves breadcrumbs of sources and ideas if you want to go deeper.
I’m translating the excerpts from French to English, so bear with me.
The book begins with a sharp observation: “For most people, the essential problem of love is to be loved, rather than to love.” He goes on to say, “People think that loving is easy, and that what’s difficult is finding the right object to love.” These lines struck a chord with me because so much of what Fromm wrote aligned perfectly with beliefs I already held about love. Love, as he describes it, is what saves us from the awareness of our own separation and the fear that comes with it.
For Fromm, love is an act of giving. But not giving in the way we often think about it in a capitalist society as something that drains or diminishes us. Instead, true giving is an expression of our vitality. It energizes us; it’s a sign of our inner abundance. Love is giving. It’s being responsible for another person while respecting their integrity. It’s the act of truly knowing someone.
That last part about “knowing” stood out to me the most. He explains that knowing another person is not about domination or force it’s an active, mutual process that can only happen within union. But, as he points out, so many of us (yes, I’m guilty of this) fall into a sadistic way of "knowing" forcing ourselves into someone else’s soul, rather than discovering it with them. Sometimes breaking them in the process.
Fromm goes on to describe different types of love, and there’s one line I keep coming back to: “If I truly love one person, I love all people, I love the world, I love life.” For him, love isn’t selective or conditional it’s a way of being, an orientation. And it requires faith: faith in humanity itself.
It’s such a profound little book, deceptively simple but filled with insights and again I LOVE Fromm ❤️
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Yellowface by R. F. Kuang cover
I just finished yellowface (and absolutely loved it by the way!)
But has anybody noticed with the cover, when you have the book open and are holding up to your own face reading it, it makes you as the reader look like you are wearing it as a mask?
It almost feels like it could be a commentary on the insidious nature of what happens in the book (I don't want to post any spoilers) and how many of us may be complicit in this type of thing, without even realising.
I have no idea if this is intentional, but if so... Genius 🤯
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Do you or your family have holiday reading traditions?
For reasons I won't get into, I once spent Christmas Eve with a friend's family. I was quite young but can't recall how old. I felt super uncomfortable there not just because it was my first time at their home but because they seemed very proper and I kept thinking I was making a mistake the way I was eating food or the way I was answering a question or whatever.
Later that evening, my friend said we should be quiet now because her dad was gonna read from a book, which was one of their traditions. I thought this can't be good, expecting a slow reading of a boring poem I would not understand or perhaps a religious prayer that would go on for a long long time.
But instead he read sections from A Christmas Carol. What was most surprising to me though was how the father changed as soon as he started reading the book. He became so passionate, so animated, started doing voices, making faces, and this was totally captivating and it ended up being my favorite part of the night. I wished he'd continue reading. I was quite amazed at how different the father acted was when he read the story. Then he went back to being all proper and boring. He always read from that book, my friend said, because it was her favorite.
I later asked her what her father did and turns out he was a college prof and taught German literature.
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What Book Have You Read That Felt Like a Hug for Your Soul?
I’m looking for something comforting to read—one of those books that just makes you feel warm and safe, like wrapping yourself in a cozy blanket. For me, The House in the Cerulean Sea had that effect, and I’d love to find more books like it.
What’s a book that felt like a big hug for your soul? Fiction or non-fiction, I’m open to any suggestions!
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It’s the Biggest New Novel of the Year. It’s Almost Unreadably Bad.
https://slate.com/culture/2024/12/kristin-hannah-the-women-ending-spoilers-vietnam.html?via=rss_socialflow_facebook&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0KW1KTVaQbHtsl8XbvySrKdU3Onq7KqsqKocDsM3uGjJmLB1VcuZ6sRiU_aem_N9Fezf30nYDtjb8Jsf4BNA
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How to Enjoy Winter
I usually post book summaries on substack, but i rarely get views lmao so I decided to post it on reddit lol
Before reading Kari Leibowitz's book, How to Winter: Harness Your Mindset to Thrive on Cold, Dark, or Difficult Days, I hated winter. This book taught me that I don’t have seasonal affective depression, which I thought I did. Your mindset of winter determines whether you enjoy winter or not. It is called the “wintertime mindset”. According to the author, having a positive wintertime mindset makes you experience winter better by noticing good things in winter.
# 1 Vibe with winter
According to one study, REM sleep, which is vital for learning, memory consolidation, and emotion regulation, is likely to be about 30 minutes longer in winter than in summer. This means feeling sleepy in winter is normal. Vibe with it. Sleep a little more.
The author encourages us to make winter special by slowing down and doing low-stimulus activities, such as a hot bath and restorative yoga.
# 2 Write down 5 good things you can do in winter
By doing that, as the author said, you can set positive winter expectations. For my examples, I like seeing snow from home, New Year’s meals, and taking a hot bath in winter. For some, it might be skiing, skating, or hot chocolate.
# 3 Celebrate the day of winter, for example, Thanksgiving
Either Thanksgiving or Christmas Day or something else, you should celebrate the coming of winter so that you can welcome winter with a warm mind that creates a positive wintertime mindset.
# 4 Prepare for winter and be cozy
Buy and wear warm clothes. The author recommends waterproof jackets. Wearing warm clothes makes you enjoy the time outside in winter.
# 5 Watch nature
According to studies, noticing nature increases positive emotions, life satisfaction, sense of meaning, and makes people feel more connected. It decreases negative emotions, too. Watch winter’s weather and maybe take photos. Engage senses, such as winter smell. According to the author, winter air smells clean because cold temperature slows down molecules in the air which makes it harder to detect odor.
# 6 Change how you talk about winter
>
For example, newscasters can say “It’s gonna be a cold one, get ready for a cozy weekend”.
Think about what you would say when you talk about positive things in winter to your friends.
# 7 Use holidays in winter wisely
You can bake cookies on Valentine’s Day that you look forward to. Attend festivals if you have one.
# 8 Make winter rituals
maybe you can host book clubs on cozy winter fiction books, or maybe you can make a winter music playlist and share it with your friends.
# 9 Final Thought
Thanks for reading. I don’t get many views on Substack so your view is precious. I decided to attend a New Year’s event in my neighborhood. I started taking a hot bath. I didn’t write down every single tip in the book, but if you are interested in this book, check out “How to Winter: Harness Your Mindset to Thrive on Cold, Dark, or Difficult Days” by Kari Leibowitz. I highly recommend you read it! Have a good holiday! Stay cozy!https://eieigoodluck.substack.com/p/how-to-enjoy-winter
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What's the significance of the jigsaw puzzle in 'Small Things Like These'?
And why didn't Mrs. Wilson buy Bill the puzzle for Christmas since she was well-off and he wanted it so badly?
I'm thinking maybe the jigsaw that he never got symbolises how he'd been brought up not getting what he wanted, which makes him empathise with the less fortunate. How popular is this interpretation?
And did they not buy it for him to teach him the value of things? I watched the movie after reading the book and in the movie it is sort of alluded to that Mrs. Wilson didn't believe he could finish the puzzle and that's why she didn't buy it for him, but I don't know how that would fit within the themes of the story.
I'd love to hear your two cents.
Edit: I'm thinking now that maybe Mrs. Wilson didn't buy him the puzzle because she believed it would be too difficult for him. He did mention at some point that he felt intimidated by women and how sharp and assertive they seemed to be in comparison to him. Maybe this is where it started, it continued for a long time, as we saw also by the effect his wife had over him, and it ended when he was at the convent and had this sudden feeling of confidence stemming from the realisation that he was a men among women (maybe referring to women not physically overpowering him, if it came to it). So maybe, Mrs. Wilson not believing he could finish the puzzle could fit a theme in the novel. Just a theory.
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The radical act of sharing Native literature: NDN Girls Books Club is more than a big pink truck full of free books.
https://www.hcn.org/articles/the-radical-act-of-sharing-native-literature/
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Favorite books that take place over a long time and involve a lot of characters?
removed
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These were the most checked out library books in NYC in 2024
https://www.timeout.com/newyork/news/these-were-the-most-checked-out-library-books-in-nyc-in-2024-121924
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Sequels for books that really didn't seem to need sequels but somehow ended up being good?
Are there any sequels that initially when you heard about the made you think they were just blatant cash grabs, but ended up being actually good?
Like, for a book that seemed like a complete package, where adding anything more would just detract from it?
What do you think made it better than expected? Was it something that really needed to be a sequel to what it was a sequel for or could it also have worked as an independent book?
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actually labor camps. They see through binoculars the young guy around Valis age brought that the illegals in the camps are chained together at the neck and connected along with witnessing the officers in the camps beating them. They are noticed and DF trucks start heading their way as the train begins to stop.
They hop off the train and escape while volcanoman stays to buy them time and is captured. Vali, Ernie, and the remaining guy go though the Sonoran dessert and survive as best they can while Ernie gets sick. They get luck and make a hideout not too far from and abandoned campsite that has some food and water. As they gradually move on bc Ernie gets better they find themselves about to be captured by a single DF officer. As they hide while the officer is taking a smoke break, Vali hits him over the head with a rock just enough to knock him out. They take his vehicle which is a moped and follow the GPS on it. They come across a small tent checkpoint with a female DF officer who at first raises her rifle and then let's them go.
As Vali and them get closer to California they come across the wall under construction to wall off California. They notice on the GPS as well different icons appearing on their way which turn out to be landmines recently placed. As DF officers notice them, Vali and them take off and go across a river while dodging drones and make it to California.
Vali and Ernie meet with their aunt and stay with her while the other guy goes to a group home to stay temporarily. As Vali and Ernie get adjusted to normal life again, she learns her aunt is apart of committees that are aware of the labor camps and trying to figure out how to help the other millions of illegals in he rest of the 49 states. Vali hopes her mom is ok and later while meeting up with the guy who made it with her and Ernie to California, reflects on everything she's been through as the too are at the beach just enjoying the ocean and sunset.
So, while I found the book interesting, it moved too quick and felt like so much was just mashed together to build a sense of suspense that never actually gets suspenseful. As someone who is a child of immigrants in the states, there was also plenty that just wasn't realistic to me and I've known plenty of illegals and those going through the lengthy process over the years. The author clearly stated in the authors notes she and her co writer wrote this as reaction to the Trump campaign enforcing immigration laws back in 2018. She also worked with various organizations trying to reunite families who were once separated due to Trump's immigration laws and interviewed them. While I think it's admirable, I once again believe this is fear mongering in a very lazy way and doesn't touch upon the experiences of all immigrants in the US.
The authors recently came out with s sequel I'll also be reviewing once I check it out from my local library.
Please feel free to ask more questions as there are quite a bit of details in this timeline I didn't mention for the sake of time typing this.
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Sanctuary by Paola Mendoza and Abby Sher
So I've meaning to read this YA dystopian novel for some time bc the premise was interesting and no time like the present with the new incoming administration. The book is a pretty short read and really fast-paced that I can remember the majority of it's crucial points. The majority of it just felt like fear mongering due to things that made no sense. Immigration is a topic I've always cared about but this just seems so ridiculous and predictable.
So the story takes place in the US in 2032, all citizens have microchips in them that contains all their information about them and tells you where they are a citizen or not. Immigration is one of the biggest issues and ofc illegals are considered a plague on the country bc the president is supposed to be Trump basically and is in his third term. There is a giant wall, called the great American wall that separates our southern border. Illegals who live in the country can get fake chops put in them for a fee ofc, $5k seems to be the minimum and there isn't a guarantee that they won't malfunction.
One of the reasons illegals take this measure is because a majority of places be it stores, bus stations, train station, certain public buildings have the DF(Deportation Force) who have scanners for peoples wrists to make sure they're legal if it scans with no issue. Even in public schools btw.
So getting to the story, we follow Vali along with her mom and little brother Ernie in the small Vermont town of Southboro. Vali came to the US when she was 4 with her mom and dad and then ernie was born later. They came from Colombia bc of all the danger and displacement in the country in the city of Suarez. While in California they have her moms sister at least for support, at some point before Ernie is born her father is captured by the DF, taken to a detainment center where he spends about 6 months there before being deported back to Columbia, he dies there some time after bc of the violence going there in Suarez.
After vali and her mom learn of this, her aunt pays for them to go to Vermont where there is a contact who can help her start anew. Fast forward to the present where our story takes place( btw Vali and her mom have fake chips but not Ernie since he was born in the states) and Vali while doing her homework is watching a Livestream on the dark web. The reason she's watching on the dark web is bc all media is controlled by the president and censored as well. She is watching a Livestream of a group of illegals at the Mexican and US border.
There is a young girl trying to cross and DF officers telling her to go back not to cross into US soil. Well the girl doesn't listen and boooom she dies bc there are landmines at the border. After seeing it the illegals on the side start rushing in and protesters against the DF rush in too. There are gunshots heard and the stream goes silent. Vali goes to school the next day and meets with her friend Kenna whose parents are originally from Nigeria.
They go to some school where the majority of the students are white, teachers are armed apparently, and the pledge of alliegence feels more like saluting Hitler in this dystopia. Before class officially starts a country wide message via hologram of the president comes on talking about how California has became treasonous and they will being walling it of from the rest of the US and also increasing the enforcement of the DF.
Later in the same day Vali and Kenna go to take the bus to go get some food. There are self driving buses in this timeline btw as well as voice activated cars just to show how far technology has come. On the bus ride some DF officers appear and and start scanning everyone. Vali and Kenna have no problem but some Hispanic guy does make the scanners go off and is hauled of into a DF vehicle. The girls go to a local diner not before spotting valis brother at soccer practice but his coach never showed up.
As Vali and Kenna hit up the diner, they find no one there at first and then some DF officers appear from the back. The girls head
The Hatak Witches
The Hatak Witches deals with Choctaw spirituality and the clash of modern day religion with ancestral beliefs. It highlights the deep and enduring persecution that native peoples have faced and still face in a way that does not shy away from the harsh realities of the atrocities that were perpetrated against the many Native populations. As a white woman, I felt a deep sense of shame about the way that Natives were, and are still treated. A recurring theme is the desecration of bodies and how the Choctaw, and other Native populations were interred, bought and sold as cheap novelties. The underlying tone is of deep disgust and highlights how even today, hundreds of thousands of Native skeletons are kept in museums and private collections.
The main character Detective Monique Bluehawk is a compelling and determined character who is grappling with the difference between fact and myth and how those intersect with her heritage. An interesting and refreshing detective character who is simultaneously no-nonsense but also a loving wife and mother who cares about her culture and community deeply. Her story is tinged with the sad realities that so many Natives face but is also highlighted with the hope of a better future. One could see how she could live comfortably amongst the greats of detective novels should the author choose to continue writing about her.
The story itself starts a bit slow with careful character and scene introductions and then dives headfirst into a brutal and unsettling mystery centered around the death of a guard at a Children's museum. The author clearly researched investigatory procedures and displays a real knack for setting up how a murder scene would be handled. The descriptions are intense, vivid and succinct, leaving the reader with a gut-wrenching sensation.
The exploration of Choctaw Spirituality is handled beautifully and is the most compelling part of the novel, in my personal opinion. It highlights the divisive and varied beliefs held by different members of the Choctaw and shows how Christianity has deeply influenced different parts of their culture in a way that is left for the reader to determine if it's good or bad.
Overall, I really enjoyed this novel and found the subject matter both interesting and refreshing. The writing was no-holds barred and left me feeling sick a couple of times as some of the scenes were intensely violent. I would absolutely recommend this book if you like murder mystery with a side of supernatural elements or feel, like myself, that you could stand to learn a bit more about the Choctaw spiritual beliefs.
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