Disclaimer: I received an e-ARC from netgalley in exchange for a review.

This collection of short stories follows a Cherokee family from the 1830s to the future. As the stories are horror (and sometimes sci-fi) short stories they include all manners of creatures known from classic horror stories, such as vampires, werewolves, ghosts, zombies and aliens, but they also focus the man made horrors of violence, racism, misogyny, domestic abuse, medical abuse and systemic oppression.
I spent the first half an hour after opening this book not reading, but instead flipping through the pages from the family tree in the beginning to each short story title page, which includes the name of the person whose life we will explore for a bit and taking notes of who's related to whom. I am grateful I did that as I think that made the stories feel even more connected. In general, I got really excited, when I saw the family tree, I enjoy a good family tree in a book and especially this one adds a lot to my enjoyment of the story. It also left me already wondering and worrying for the branches of the tree that did not continue and furthermore I think the book immediately primed me for the generational trauma I could expect from the stories. I also want to point out the lovely illustrations included in the book, featuring Cherokee script were really interested. I was also glad to see that a little glossary was included in the back, which also proved useful to translate some stories.
At points the choice of monsters started feeling a bit repetitive (there's a lot of werewolves and ghosts in here), but there are also some other beings featured in here that made it interesting again! And even the various werewolf stories were not by any stretch of the imagination boring, as the stories varied in time frame and family structure enough to stay intriguing. I also enjoyed that there were quite a few sapphic MCs in these stories. Often the dread is wonderfully built and kept me on my toes all throughout the stories. Not all of the stories are constantly filled with horror either, sometimes the focus lies on grief or on building interesting characters, which I enjoyed as well. My favorite moments were when I was able to spot an overlap in the stories and I can only recommend you take some notes on the dates and family tree as well, as I think it increased my enjoyment a lot. I also enjoyed that a variety of story-telling styles were includes (such as newspaper articles). All in all, I have to say that this is a really great short story collection with connected tales that I enjoyed very much and if you’re looking for diverse horror that often centers young women and deals with themes of colonialism and oppression, I can only recommend you check this out!
My personal favorite short stories were: "An Old-Fashioned Girl", "Man Made Monsters", "Maria Most Likely", “Ama’s Boys”, “Ghost Cat”, “Deer Women”, “I come from the Water” and “The Zombies Attack the Drive-In!”. There weren’t any short stories I really disliked and even if a few didn’t interest me that much I still found myself enjoying most of them! As always in my reviews for short story collections you can now find some short notes for each short story (here including the time stamps and connections of the characters, as I found that helpful to do while reading) including trigger warnings. Because of this there are some spoilers from here on out, but it should never be enough to ruin your enjoyment of the stories if you do want to read my full review first:



*FAV* An Old-Fashioned Girl: this short story follows Ama Wilson in 1839, as her tribe is fleeing from persecution by Texas Rangers. Due to sickness her family gets separated from the tribe and soon two men, a doctor and his servant, ask to join their camp for the night. Scary and with a really interesting end this is a great start to this anthology. tw: murder, racism, gore, vomiting, kidnapping

*FAV* Man Made Monsters: this story follows Suzanna Fish (born Wilson, Ama's sister) in 1856, her birthname and past having long been discarded, as she investigates the things her family’s former doctor left behind at her father's estate after retiring. Heartbreaking for many reasons and I enjoyed the dread. tw: kidnapping, child murder, ableism

An Un-Fairy Story: this story follows Edgar Spears Jr. (son of Suzanna Fish) in 1866, as he runs away from his grandmother who wants to take him to a boarding school and meets up with a nice man who takes him in for the night, but when he returns things are different. Very short, but interesting! tw: mentions of boarding schools for Native American children

Hell Hound in No Man's Land: this story follows Wilbur Spears (the son of Edgar Spears Jr.) and Jess King (grandson of Suzanna Fish) in 1919 as they recount their experience during the war. This time the story is framed through a news article and thus includes some intentionally racist content (such as "the two men, who only speak Indian"), but I found it quite interesting to read, tw: racist language

Homecoming: this story follows Rabbit Wilson (a great-great-great grandson of Ama Wilson and thus a return to the beginning of the family tree and a descent on the other side) in 1945 as he awaits his brother's return from war, the horror of this story is a bit more hidden than the other horrors so far, but I still enjoyed the quiet dread it evoked in me, an interesting story filled with grief, tw: animal death

*FAV* Maria Most Likely: this story follows Mary (but only ever called Maria) Spears Henry (granddaughter of Wilbur Spears) in 1968, as she comes to terms with her heritage and the fact that she tends to pass as white in most of her everyday life now that she's expecting a child, but a secret is haunting her and drives her to accept dangerous help, unsettling and horrifying, the monsters here are human and for that vastly more terrible, tw: unsafe medical procedures, cheating

Me & My Monsters: this story follows Gina Wilson (daugher of Rabbit Wilson) in 1968 after she is rescued from a bad date by a monster at the lake and then attempts to date him. Okay, but short. I would have liked to know more of the lore behind the lake monster. tw: mentions of attempted sexual assault

Shame on the Moon: this story follows Jimmy and Janie King (grandchildren of Jess King) in 1969 as a vampire attack leaves the sister dead and changes a teenage boy’s life forever. Seems rather typical in its choice of roles at first (evil white vampires, nice, but persecuted Indian werewolves), but I liked the end. Tw: murder, death

Snow Day: this story follows Audrey "Sissy" Henry and Sarah "Jisdu" Henry (the children of Maria Spears) in 1979 on their way home from school, as school lets them out earlier than usual as a freak snowstorm forces the city to close down. Unable to get into their house, they seek refuge in the car in the garage. The dread builds really well and I liked the story. I also enjoyed the way the nicknames were implemented in the story, as I was wondering how they would come into play, having read them on the chapter header. Tw: child endangerment

*FAV* Ama's Boys: this story follows Ama Wilson (yup, the very same Ama Wilson from the first short story!) in 1990 as she talks about her boys. As a vampire turned at 16 a long time ago her hunting takes on a bit creepy vibe in modern times, due to the age difference, but also interesting in examining how looking forever 16 might be a bit off a problem for a vampire. Obviously, I also really enjoyed seeing how her story continues! Tw: attempted sexual assault, murder

American Predators: this story follows Jamie in 1997, a girl (although there are hints of Gender tbh) who is stuck in a dead-end job she hates after flunking out of college and is now on a road trip with two very racist guys from a radio station shooting some video footage for a report on native American crafts, their road trip comes to an end when they finally come upon a little antique shop run by Darla King (daughter of Jimmy King), I enjoyed all the various horror media that was mentioned here and I definitely loved the pay-off at the end, tw: racism, sexism

Manifesting Joy: this story follows Joy Stone (who is less directly connected to the family tree of Ama Wilson, as she is a cousin to Amanda Stone, who marries Ben Wilson, the son of Gina Wilson) in 2000 after the death of her grandmother as she starts misplacing things in her grief. When the things she wishes for suddenly appear again, she finds hope again. Sweet, but very short. Tw: death

Lens: this story follows Diane King (great-granddaughter of Jess King) in 2014, who is offered the opportunity to regain full vision with the help of an experimental surgery, as you can assume weird stuff happens, really interesting and I enjoyed it a lot, tw: eye trauma, child abuse (not by parents), medical horror, implied medical abuse

*FAV* Ghost Cat: this story follows Stephanie King (granddaughter of Jimmy King) in 2016, the daughter of a real Cherokee man and his race-faking wife, as she's dealing with both the estrangement from her family and the death of her best friend, heartbreaking, but cute, tw: death, contemplation of suicide

Happily Ever After: this story follows Laura Wilson (granddaughter of Gina Wilson) in 2019 as she tries to break up with her boyfriend, but finds herself unable to fully disentangle herself from the relationship until her brother begins talking about an online prince-mail-order catalogue, kind of weird, but interesting and fun, tw: domestic abuse, death by illness, puking

*FAV* Deer Women: this story follows Sali King (sister of Diane King) in 2019 as her school goes on lockdown for what might be an active shooter or just a drill, the story is very tense and I enjoy the look it gives into the lore of the Deer Woman and the way the story has some really interesting twists, tw: murder, mention of school shootings

*FAV* I Come from the Water: this story follows Walela King Preston (great great granddaughter of Jess King) in 2029 after her father's death as she is left to care for the family when her mother sinks into depression. As if all that wasn't enough work for a teenage girl, there's also the matter of the weird alien being that moved into the family's pool and is now slowly dying and her incredibly exhausting school life after her former BFF outed her to everybody after she admitted on having a crush on her. Very interesting and heartbreaking in its depictions of grief and family relationships and I enjoyed the sci-fi aspect of this story a lot! tw: death, homophobia, bullying

*FAV* The Zombies Attack the Drive-In!: this story follows Charlotte Henry (granddaughter of Sarah Jisdu Henry) in 2039 as her family tries to survive the zombie apocalypse, a really heartbreaking story and I felt very sorry for this small family who lost everything not once (due to the zombies), but twice (due to domestic abuse before). I really enjoyed the short moments of happiness that was found in this apocalypse and I also enjoyed that this story, with the biggest upheaval in the societal structure, was the last one (plus I also found it fun that Blood Quantum, another zombie story with focus on Indigenous People, had come up in an earlier short story, because there are similarities :D), an incredibly good short story that brings everything full circle, which I enjoyed a lot! tw: domestic abuse, infectious disease, murder