This book was heartbreaking. As a public health student, you hear a lot about "disparities" in the system...so much so that, in fact, they start to lose meaning. But this book, this book really brought home what that meant. And not just in the main story, which was heartrending enough - a violent rape, attempted murder and an actual murder - but the side plots along with it and how each person is affected by and responds to these events. And nowhere throughout the whole book is there even mention of psychological help - it's all a focus on how even getting legal justice is impossible. And you see how that effects the family in question, how the narrator gets to the point where he makes his fateful decision, and the consequences for everyone from that. How many times can this community be let down? Looking at the low income on the reservation, the lack of resources for the Natives there combined with the way they are treated when trying to use off reservation options, the lack of respect for their culture and religion, the inability to defend themselves through the justice system, how little hope there is for the children and future generations, as they keep getting overlooked and bad decisions are built on previous bad decisions. And, through it all, a lack of caring from everyone outside the reservation - from the federal government to the local government to anyone living around the reservation and beyond. So, I think, there is your answer - there is no limit to how many times our country let's this family, and their people, down. This books really brings home a personal note to these many issues. Issues that should be much more prominent in all our minds and on all agendas. A whole population overlooked by our country and no one knows and no one is aware. That, almost more that the story itself, is what breaks the reader's heart. This book is fiction, but the question is, is it really?