cantfindmybookmark's Reviews (505)

This story follows two sisters, Rainfall Dawn and Azure Sky, who are forceably surrendered into foster care by their mother, Loretta Gallete, when they are 4 and 3 years old. After surrendering them, Loretta disappears and becomes another missing/murdered Native woman in the pandemic that is devastating Indian Country. 

Loretta is Ojibwe and a member of Mozhay Point  Reservation in northern Minnesota. She herself was uprooted constantly as a child, moving from place to place with whoever would take her in, until she was eventually placed in foster care. 

The story is told through several points of view from folks that new Loretta or her family or the girls throughout their lives. There’s a family tree at the beginning of the novel (which always is an automatic signal to me that I’m going to love the book) but the tree is only somewhat useful as many of the relations identified are family in the “Indian way”. The complicated interconnected relationships can make the book confusing if you try to keep track, so I recommend you don’t. And I think that’s kind of the point. “Family” is who shows up for you, the blood relationship doesn’t matter. 

For me, and I’m sure most people, the best part of this book is the relationship between Azure and Rain. Azure is the younger of the two sisters, but in many ways is the elder sister. She’s bigger than Rain for one, and as the girls grow up it becomes clear that Rain has some kind of developmental delay that alludes diagnosis for most of her life. This delay means that for most of their lives, Azure protects and looks out for Rain, acting as the older sister, comforting her in times of crisis as the two girls navigate the foster care system. After the passing of the Indian Child Welfare Act, the girls are returned to their Ojibwe family who have spent years looking for them. 

It’s a beautiful story about family, resilience, and the bonds between mothers and daughters, between sisters, and between the family you didn’t even know you had. 

As nervous as I was about it being a children’s book, I didn’t need to be. This book was breathtaking. The queer and disability rep were lovely. The way that this book tackled tough topics in a way that was palatable for young audiences was spectacular. I’ve never read anything like this and I wish I had. I really wish I’d had something like this available to me as a kid. If you haven’t read it, give it a try. Especially if you have kids and think it would be a good book for them. 

It’s as good as the hype would lead you to believe. First of all, it’s super 𝑺𝑼𝑷𝑬𝑹 queer. Like, honestly the queer rep brought me so much joy. Which brings me to my second point - this book will not bring you much joy. It would be generous to say the MCs are morally gray. They are dark and their motivations are far from benevolent. The choices they make will make you want to throw the book across the room. Despite this, or maybe because of it, you root for them  because honestly their motivations are no worse than anyone else’s. 

Quick Synopsis: The novel is set in 14th century China, during the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty and the Red Turban Rebellions. In a famine stricken village two siblings are given two very different prophecies for their futures. The boy is destined for greatness. The girl for nothingness. But then the boy, named Zhu Chongba, dies. The girl, struggling just to survive, assumes his identity and his fated greatness. 

Meanwhile, Ouyang, a man of Han decent who was castrated and enslaved by the Mongolians as a child, plots his revenge. As an adult he serves as a general beside Esen, the Mongolian prince that he served as a child. And his fate becomes inextricably intertwined with Zhu’s as the two serve under opposing forces: Zhu for the Red Turban Rebellion and Ouyang for the Mongolian Empire. 

If you are at all curious about this book, if you like complicated and morally gray characters who make awful choices, if you want a book that explores gender and sexuality in interesting ways, I highly recommend this book. 

Let me tell you, this book was legitimately scary. I have a pretty high threshold for horror and I had to set this book down a few times. That’s not to say the horror and gore are exorbitant or there just for shock value (though there is shock value). Everything in this book felt intentional and necessary for the story. 

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: St. Vincent’s Orphanage for Boys, rural Pennsylvania, turn of the century, winter. 

𝟓-𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: The Exorcist meets Lord of the Flies (I did not come up with this, so saw it online)

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐥𝐨𝐭: Late at night a group of men arrive at this orphanage, which houses roughly 30 boys and is run by Catholic priests. One of the late night arrivals is badly injured, with occult symbols carved into his body and something evil carved into his soul. When he dies, that evil does not die with him but is instead released on the orphanage. Chaos and horror ensue. 

If you’re into scary reads I highly recommend this one, but do check trigger warnings.