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A review by nostalgia_reader
Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger
4.0
3.5 stars, the last third/half of the book was excellent enough to warrant rounding up!
This started off very disappointing in the fact that, despite the main characters being 17 and seniors in high school, they came across 100% like 12-14 year old's in a middle grade fiction mystery. Some scenes literally sounded like they came out of a Nancy Drew mystery--which I suppose is also an instance of YA-sounding-like-MG. Still, it was jarring, and I never really believed they were older than freshman in high school. Add into that the very 80s level fashion descriptions in the later half of the book, and my aesthetics were VERY CONFUSED. There were also a few instances of lack of consistency (Ellie not being allowed to driving without parents.... driving without parents for the whole book).
The tone also disappointed me because Ellie identifies as asexual, so romance made up zero percent of this book, but with the tone almost suggests that no romance plot means that the characters automatically are somehow more juvenile? I doubt this was at all intended and definitely don't mean to say that the representation is bad (it's well done!!!), but the correlation in my brain was there (this might be exacerbated since I am also reading [b:Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex|52128695|Ace What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex|Angela Chen|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1580804471l/52128695._SX50_SY75_.jpg|73599792] at the same time, so overanalyzing representation of aces is on the brain!)
ALL THAT ASIDE, on to the good stuff. Because while the first half was a bit boring, the second half really ramped up in terms of action and weirdness! It definitely felt like an episode of Grimm which is about the highest praise I can give to any form of magical realism media (I do hesitate to call this solely magical realism, since much of it is based around real Indigenous legends, but there is also still some legit magic going around too). The final showdown at the manor was, despite being jumpy, suspenseful and heartbreaking and CREEPY AF for a second there (there's some creepypasta level puppeteering with a corpse??!!). The story telling throughout, of family and tribal stories, was also lovely and it kept me reading through the parts I was "meh" about. Six-Great needs her own book series!! Although I would also love more stories about Grandmother and her mammoth. So really, all of Ellie's maternal lineage magic is awesome, and more books focusing on it would be awesome. Just hopefully more maturely written.
If you're more into YA and MG than I am, this will DEFINITELY be up your alley if you love diverse, intersectionalist representation that doesn't feel preachy--just matter-of-fact, confident, and never detracting from the storyline.
Also, ghost doggos!!
This started off very disappointing in the fact that, despite the main characters being 17 and seniors in high school, they came across 100% like 12-14 year old's in a middle grade fiction mystery. Some scenes literally sounded like they came out of a Nancy Drew mystery--which I suppose is also an instance of YA-sounding-like-MG. Still, it was jarring, and I never really believed they were older than freshman in high school. Add into that the very 80s level fashion descriptions in the later half of the book, and my aesthetics were VERY CONFUSED. There were also a few instances of lack of consistency (Ellie not being allowed to driving without parents.... driving without parents for the whole book).
The tone also disappointed me because Ellie identifies as asexual, so romance made up zero percent of this book, but with the tone almost suggests that no romance plot means that the characters automatically are somehow more juvenile? I doubt this was at all intended and definitely don't mean to say that the representation is bad (it's well done!!!), but the correlation in my brain was there (this might be exacerbated since I am also reading [b:Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex|52128695|Ace What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex|Angela Chen|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1580804471l/52128695._SX50_SY75_.jpg|73599792] at the same time, so overanalyzing representation of aces is on the brain!)
ALL THAT ASIDE, on to the good stuff. Because while the first half was a bit boring, the second half really ramped up in terms of action and weirdness! It definitely felt like an episode of Grimm which is about the highest praise I can give to any form of magical realism media (I do hesitate to call this solely magical realism, since much of it is based around real Indigenous legends, but there is also still some legit magic going around too). The final showdown at the manor was, despite being jumpy, suspenseful and heartbreaking and CREEPY AF for a second there (there's some creepypasta level puppeteering with a corpse??!!). The story telling throughout, of family and tribal stories, was also lovely and it kept me reading through the parts I was "meh" about. Six-Great needs her own book series!! Although I would also love more stories about Grandmother and her mammoth. So really, all of Ellie's maternal lineage magic is awesome, and more books focusing on it would be awesome. Just hopefully more maturely written.
If you're more into YA and MG than I am, this will DEFINITELY be up your alley if you love diverse, intersectionalist representation that doesn't feel preachy--just matter-of-fact, confident, and never detracting from the storyline.
Also, ghost doggos!!