Sisters of the Lost Nation

by Nick Medina

Hardcover, 2023

Status

Available

Call number

FIC MED

Call number

FIC MED

Description

A young Native girl's hunt for answers about the women mysteriously disappearing from her tribe's reservation leads her to delve into the myths and stories of her people, all while being haunted herself, in this atmospheric and stunningly poignant debut. Anna Horn is always looking over her shoulder. For the bullies who torment her, for the entitled visitors at the reservation's casino...and for the nameless, disembodied entity that stalks her every step--an ancient tribal myth come-to-life, one that's intent on devouring her whole.   With strange and sinister happenings occurring around the casino, Anna starts to suspect that not all the horrors on the reservation are old. As girls begin to go missing and the tribe scrambles to find answers, Anna struggles with her place on the rez, desperately searching for the key she's sure lies in the legends of her tribe's past.   When Anna's own little sister also disappears, she'll do anything to bring Grace home. But the demons plaguing the reservation--both ancient and new--are strong, and sometimes, it's the stories that never get told that are the most important. Part gripping thriller and part mythological horror, author Nick Medina spins an incisive and timely novel of life as an outcast, the cost of forgetting tradition, and the courage it takes to become who you were always meant to be.… (more)

Publication

Berkley (2023), 352 pages

Original publication date

2023-04-18

Original language

English

Language

User reviews

LibraryThing member oldandnewbooksmell
Trigger Warnings: (as per Content Warning at beginning of book) addresses issues of addiction, drug use, child sexual abuse, assault (implied, off-page), murder and death (off-page), physical assault, battery, self-harm, sex trafficking (implied, off-page), and racism

Anna Horn works at her
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reservation’s casino and she’s begun to notice some strange and sinister happenings occurring in and around it. When Anna’s own little sister, Grace, goes missing from the casino, she’ll stop at nothing to bring her home, even if that involves facing the nameless, disembodied entity that has been stalking her every move.

What a heart-wrenching, poignant debut from Nick Medina who is an amazing, captivating writer. Medina did a wonderful job of showing the crisis that is unfortunately much too common for Native, Indigenous, and First Nation communities. Medina was also able to write about the judicial laws and systems that tend to restrict Reservation Police rather than help them out.

I know this is marked as Horror first before Thriller, but I do feel like this is more reversed; definitely Thriller mixed with Horror aspects, especially mythological I mean, a dead, rolling head will bring that way up to Horror .

This is going to be a book I will be recommending to many now that it’s released.

I know most will read it, but please do not miss the Author’s Note at the end as it will give you some more valuable insight about the book, including more about Two Spirits individuals.

*Thank you Berkley and Edelweiss+ for an advance digital copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review
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LibraryThing member DrApple
I loved this book which includes missing and murdered indigenous women, Native American folktales, mysteries, and the challenge of dealing with gender as a high school student and a native.
LibraryThing member LynnMPK
First off, this book has been done a disservice by being marketed as a horror novel. Sure, it hints at horrific things done to indigenous girls and women, but there is nothing supernatural going on like the book blurb would lead you to believe.

I would say it's structured more like a thriller, with
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multiple timelines, only that the content warning in the beginning spoils the mystery so since I knew what was going on it wasn't very thrilling. Now, that's on me, I know. I'm not a person that needs content warnings, so I really don't know why I read it, but going forward I'll do my best to skip over any warnings a book may have in the front.

I also think that the timeline jumping around in a non-linear fashion is a detriment to the story being told. I found it confusing and eventually I just stopped reading the chapter headers and used context clues about whether it was before or after Grace disappeared.

I did enjoy the story and believe it's an important story to be told, I just wish the execution was neater and the format was tighter. The author shows a lot of promise, and this is a competent debut.
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LibraryThing member muddyboy
This is a novel that deals with the current issue of Native American women going missing. The book centers at a high roller casino and resort that employs many of these young women. The central character's (Anna) young sister gets involved in some risky activities and eventually comes up missing.
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So, Anna tries to figure out what happened to her and others. All signs point the the eighth floor luxury suite at the resort. I liked it.
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ISBN

0593546857 / 9780593546857

Barcode

97805935468571
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