A culturally rich adventure that delivered on creatures and lore while it leaned a little to heavily on over-used character devices.

This book was read for a podcast interview with the author on The Skiffy and Fanty Show. The interviewers agree that this was an excellent review and enjoyed the Indigenous Futurism presented by the author.

In "Trail of Lightning", we step into a world that has been devastated by an apocalypse driven by climate change, a fractured United States where the rise of the sea has devastated all the coastlines, and drowned most of the world. This is how the Fifth World died, giving rise to the Sixth World in its final breath.

There are those who are strong enough or gifted enough to defend against those forces, and Maggie Hoskie is one of them. She’s powerful, a little scary, and a lot angry. She was trained by Neizghání (an immortal and legend) once her powers manifested, but now she’s been left on her own, abandoned by her mentor/lover, and she’s still working a few things out. Luckily, she doesn’t have to hold back when dealing with monsters and other creatures preying on humans.

I’m so glad this is the first in a series. I just wish I could read the next book NOW, because I’ve already read this one twice.

This was a really fun and action packed story. I loved the mythology about the gods and monsters. The main character was flawed in the most interesting way and I enjoyed reading from her perspective.

We discussed this book in our weekly roundtable podcast, the YA Café. Here are some highlights of our discussion. The full transcript can be found at the website linked below.

*1:49 “I’m no hero. I’m more of a last resort, a scorched earth policy. I’m the person you hire when the heroes have already come home in body bags.”
*2:31 We loved Rebecca Roanhorse’s wonderfully unique reimagining of Navajo folklore.
*4:37 Fantasy, or clairvoyance?

Things We Like A Latte
Leila – “Let’s Treat Violence Like A Contagious Disease” A TED Talk by Dr. Gary Slutkin
Danielle – A Thousand Beginnings and Endings edited by Ellen Oh & Elsie Chapman. (Amazon affiliate link)

Spoiler Informed
*13:23 “More gun than hammer”
*18:23 What is means to be “genre savvy”. We throw it back to our episode on The Hazelwood by Melissa Albert
*20:53 We want a TV show!

The nitty-gritty: Full of delectable characters and unique world-building based on Native American culture and mythology, this is an exciting debut you absolutely must read.

I knew from the moment I laid eyes on this gorgeous cover that I would have to read Rebecca Roanhorse’s debut. And I’m so glad I got the chance to get in on the ground floor of this richly imagined world. Most reviewers are talking about the Native American rep in this story, which is not only fascinating and adds wonderful layers to the story, but is in fact written by a Native American, which makes it all the more important these days. I found the world building in Trail of Lightning to be one of my favorite aspects of the story, from Roanhorse’s eerily plausible post apocalyptic setting to the Native American mythology that brings this story to life, to all the small details of this world that make it stand out from other urban fantasies. Add in some complex characters and relationships and you have an engaging story with plenty to love.

Roanhorse’s story takes place several years after a cataclysmic event called the Big Water, the effects of climate change that created flooding in some parts of the United States and drought in others. Maggie Hoskie lives in Dinétah, which used to be Navajo land until the Big Water changed everything. Now Maggie is a monster hunter, gifted with supernatural powers and tasked with tracking down the monsters of legend who have been reborn after the apocalypse.

When Maggie is hired to kill a monster who has taken off with a young girl, she soon finds out that a powerful Diné witch may be behind its appearance. Maggie’s Grandpa Tah sends her on a quest to discover the identity of the witch, aided by a medicine man named Kai who can not only heal but can see the dead. But not everyone wants to help Maggie on her journey. Coyote, a Navajo trickster named Ma’ii, is clearly up to something, and when Maggie’s old flame and mentor Neizghání makes an appearance, Maggie must decide who she can trust, and who she cannot.

It’s the characters who really make this story special. Maggie is my favorite type of character. She’s been given a “gift,” in this case supernatural powers that give her the strength and speed to hunt and kill monsters, but she’s not all that likable, especially in the beginning. She keeps people at arm’s length and tends to make enemies wherever she goes. Add to that the fact that she’s been ditched by the man she loves and is trying to come to grips with why Neizghání has left her. At the same time, she meets Kai and can’t help but notice what a hunk he is, even if she pretends to herself that she isn’t interested. And then, a third male character makes an appearance, and it becomes clear how complicated her life is about to become.

We also get to meet Grace Goodacre, a battle-weary woman who owns a bar and will go to any lengths to keep her children safe. Grace was tough-as-nails and her relationship with Maggie was complicated. This is a dangerous world where trusting people can get you killed and friendships are hard-won, so most of the relationships reflect that fact. I'm hoping for a lot more of Grace in the next book, especially since I think she's one of the women on the cover of Storm of Locusts.

And the male characters? I loved the hell out of them. My favorite was Coyote, or Ma’ii as he’s called, the trickster of legend who seems fascinated with Maggie and just won’t leave her alone. He tries to set up Maggie and Kai and embarrasses everyone in the process, and his trouble-making ways inject a delightful sexual tension among the three of them. This is by no means a love triangle, but I loved the idea that the possibility is there. Kai also grew on me, and although at first I thought he’d be the obvious love interest, let's just say the author has some tricks up her sleeves too!

And I can’t write this review without talking about the world-building. Roanhorse infuses her story with all kinds of cool examples of Navajo mythology, and even though I’m certainly no expert on the subject, I loved reading about how people meeting for the first time introduce themselves by mentioning the tribes they come from, for example. We've all read stories about Coyote, who may be the best-known god of Native American myth, but I loved how Roanhorse gave this Coyote interesting quirks, like the crazy but stylish outfits he wears.

Probably my favorite world-building element was the Wall that was magically created after the Energy Wars, as a way of keeping enemies and strangers out of Dinétah. It’s made of different elements, like alabaster, turquoise and obsidian, and I had to laugh at the author’s sly reference to the wall a certain U.S. president is trying to build (he he).

While the world-building and characterizations were stunning, the weakest part of Trail of Lightning for me was the plot. Maggie is given a quest in the beginning of the story, but from there things get a little overstuffed and convoluted. Several characters task Maggie with finding certain objects, or she’s given an object and has to figure out what it’s for, but as interesting as these story lines were by themselves, they never really came together into a cohesive plot. It was almost as if the author couldn’t quite rein in all her ideas, which made for a slightly confusing story. I also felt that this book was too short, something I don’t complain about that often. It’s under three hundred pages, and by adding another fifty pages or so I think some of these plot points could have been more deeply developed.

But that small complaint aside—and truly it’s small because you can see from my rating that I loved this story!—Trail of Lightning is a fresh and exciting take on urban fantasy and a thrilling start of a new series, one I’m so excited to continue. And after that ending (!!) I am literally going to be on pins and needles until next April. Thanks a lot, Rebecca!

Big thanks to Wunderkind PR and the publisher for supplying a review copy.

When TRAIL OF LIGHTNING strikes, it’s impossible not to feel the connection. The premise of a monster slayer on the case is familiar to most Urban Fantasy readers, but what sets TRAIL OF LIGHTNING apart is the unique setting inside a Navajo reservation. Maggie is isolated from her community, taking odd jobs to earn a meal and sate her bloodlust. She’s lost, angry, and unsure of what she wants to become.

TRAIL OF LIGHTNING had a bit of a bumpy start, it took about fifty pages to fully settle into the world. The initial job that Maggie is hired for, is dark and gruesome. The worldbuilding is over explained, giving descriptions of the rez and the hunting, but underdeveloped when explaining the supernatural elements. For those initial pages, it felt like TRAIL OF LIGHTNING was headed into grim fantasy rather than a typical urban fantasy. It’s only once we get more details about clan powers and Maggie’s past, that the plot really meets its potential.

The relationship between Maggie and Kai is the true highlight of the novel. Kai slowly draws warmth and empathy from Maggie, easily moving from antagonism, to friendship, to affection. Unfortunately, both Maggie and Kai are ciphers for too much of the book. Maggie hides her past from the reader and Kai’s background is only revealed in the last few chapters. It took awhile for me to fall in love with TRAIL OF LIGHTNING, but once I did I fell hard. I finished the book and immediately wanted the next in the series.

Trail of Lightning welcomes us to the “Sixth World”, a post-apocalyptic future in which our planet has gone through a number of drastic changes. Rising sea levels and devastating tsunamis have wiped out most of the earth’s coastal cities, killing billions and leaving only the inland regions and high elevations above water. In the southwest of what was once the United States, the Navajo Nation of Dinétah has survived, shielded by a magical barrier. However, their people too have seen plenty of hardship since the Big Water swept over the continent, isolated as they may be. Many of their legends have come to life, their gods and mythological figures made real. Unfortunately, these also included the monsters from their ancient lore, who are now loosed upon the land, preying on humans.

Enter our protagonist, Maggie Hoskie. Whenever there was a monster that needed killing, she and her former mentor Neizgháni, a monster slaying god of Native American legend, would take care of it together. But that was before Neizgháni abandoned her. Now on her own and feeling hurt and betrayed, Maggie ekes out a living by taking on contracts as a monster bounty hunter. The book begins as she is called upon to track down a creature that has snatched a little girl from a Dinétah village. Maggie follows the trail into the mountains, only to find that the creature is in fact a magical construct similar to a golem—the kind only a powerful witch can create. To find out more, she decides to seek out the help of her wise friend Grandpa Tah, but as it turns out, the old man has other ideas. After introducing Maggie to his grandson Kai Arviso, a Medicine Man in training, Tah persuades Maggie to take the young man along with her on her monster hunt, convinced that their skills will complement each other. Reluctantly, Maggie agrees, and together with her new partner, the two of them set out for the old tribal archives hoping to glean some clues as to who orchestrated the golem attack.

Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of books containing elements which have a basis in Native American myths and culture, especially in the urban fantasy genre. But rare it is to find a book like Trail of Lightning where indigenous characters and their lives are at the forefront of absolutely everything, including the story and setting. This book is set entirely within Dinétah—a relatively small area on a map, to be sure, but Rebecca Roanhorse makes it feel as though there are endless possibilities to explore. The world-building is fantastic, drawing upon the Navajo perspective to flesh out the history and atmosphere of the setting. I also loved the supernatural aspects, which we got to see a lot more of as the plot unfolds. It’s like every time you turn the page, the world opens up a bit more. Fascinating people, incredible stories, and all kinds of extraordinary beings and creatures can be found in Dinétah, and I had a lot of fun discovering them all.

Maggie is also a wonderful protagonist. She’s a bit of an enigma when we first meet her, everything about her shrouded in mystery. She’s cagey about her past—and for good reason, since her history is full of pain and violence—but in time, she does start to reveal more about herself. I love her voice and take-no-nonsense attitude as she moves through life, ignoring the ugly rumors from the people who fear her for what she does. She also has great chemistry with Kai, even though he is her opposite in many ways. Truth is, the plot of this novel is actually quite basic and uncomplicated, but it’s the characters and their relationships that drive the narrative forward, keeping the momentum going and the reader interested.

Like most debut novels though, Trail of Lightning is not without its flaws. As I alluded to before, the story is rather simplistic, and paced somewhat unevenly. There were also predictable sections mixed in with plot developments that felt completely random. And while overall the world-building was fantastic, I still felt there were some gaps that needed to be filled, because I was left with a lot of questions. In terms of characters, the supporting cast could have been given more attention, though Maggie and Kai themselves were very well written. However, I also felt that their romantic relationship came on a little too fast and out of nowhere. The story’s antagonist was a bit of a disappointment as well, and I still have very mixed feelings on how the resolution to the conflicts played out.

But at the end of the day, I can’t deny I had a great time with Trail of Lightning. The book runs into a few hitches, but overall it’s a fast-moving and exciting plot with compelling characters and rich world-building that will keep you turning the pages quickly. I hope this novel will be the start of many more to come in the series, because clearly we’re only scratching the surface of the potential here. I look forward to returning to The Sixth World.

Trail of Lightning is the first book in the Sixth World series, set in a post-apocalyptic America (our America as we presently know it would be the Fifth World) in which a reformed Navajo nation, Dinétah, tries to forge a future. Resources, including fresh water, are scarce. Magic, gods, and monsters of legend thrive. Maggie Hoskie, the central character, is a monster hunter endowed with the magical abilities of her clan, K'aahanáanii, the Living Arrow, a kind of preternatural ability to kill things (and sometimes people), and the gift of Honágháahnii, or Walks-Around, meaning she's very fast. Maggie, or Magdalena (interesting choice of name both for biblical and urban slang reasons), is also a very troubled soul. As we see from the outset, she is burdened by the disappearance of the man that trained her, Neizghání, who abandoned her after training her to fight magical monsters. It's not giving much away to say that Maggie has some major emotional issues with Neizghání's departure. Maggie continues to fight monsters, safeguarding the communities inside the magical walls of Dinétah, until she encounters a witch-created creature she is puzzled by. Her friend and father figure, the medicine man Tah, connects Maggie with his grandson, handsome Kai Arviso, who has both medicine man powers of healing but also mysterious weather-ways, which Tah thinks will help Maggie stay safe as she pursues the witch that is responsible for creating the Navajo version of golems, who start showing up in scary numbers all through communities in Dinétah, stealing and killing people, including children, creating ghosts that Kai can see. Of course, if you know anything about the Navajo mythos, you know when there are witches that Coyote won't be far away.



This book draws on rich Navajo mythology, in particular, the dynamic between Coyote and Rabbit, two trickster characters, one bad and capricious, and the other known for his cleverness. You can get a feel for Coyote and Rabbit on the NavajoPeople.org website here. Coyote is a notorious trickster, never to be trusted because he just can't resist the opportunity to stir up trouble. (He's the Loki of the Navajo mythos.) Rabbit is the clever figure who manages to get away. Roanhorse has adapted the Diné Bahaneʼ (Navajo creation myth in an interesting fashion in this book, and the reader floats in the Navajo world of Dinétah, the Sixth World, rarely seeing or hearing of anyone who is not Navajo. That immersion is one of the best aspects of this book. I loved how Roanhorse has adapted the mythos to her world.

Less satisfying in this book is some of the plot structure and its pacing. Maggie is an unreliable narrator and we are left with Kai and some of the secondary characters trying to give us a fuller view of her, as they try to offer her their observations of her actions, worldview, and choices. Without revealing any spoilers, there are two major plot twists (at least one of which you can see coming a mile away) revealed toward the end of the book that then left me dissatisfied with Maggie's insights into her actions. Chief among the narratives I am troubled by is the fact that in the opening of the book, Maggie kills an injured child, based on faulty information she has absorbed from another character. Late in the book, when it is revealed this character has lied, manipulated and abused her emotionally, Maggie never looks back on what she did because of him. Her internal focus remains on what she herself lost as a child, due to yet another abusive character's machinations. I was dissatisfied with that lack of insight because it leaves me wondering whether she will continue to repeat her mistakes. Killing a child is a visceral moment that remains unresolved in its implications. In terms of its pacing, this book races along on a wild series of road trips with Maggie and Kai, and yet most of the revelatory action takes place in the last fifty pages and the novel ends on something of a cliffhanger, which I know is a problem for some of my readers.

In spite of some of my dissatisfaction with the plot, the pacing, etc. I would definitely pick up the next book in this series because the Sixth World that Roanhorse has given us is a fascinating world to read about. I'm looking forward to the sequel! This book should appeal to fans of Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson series who have enjoyed the walker/Coyote dynamic. Roanhorse has upped the ante on Coyote's notorious mischief and, of course, she offers an authentic taste of the Navajo world.

Trail of Lightning, the debut novel by Rebecca Roanhorse (who last month won the Nebula Award for her short story “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™”), opens with a situation that feels familiar within the bounds of urban fantasy: Maggie Hoskie has been in semi-retirement after a job went bad and she lost her partner, but the residents of a small town called Lukachukai needs her specific skill set in order to find a missing child, and they try to lure her back.

After a tense interview with the town leaders and the girl’s family, Maggie heads to the wilderness kill the monster and rescue the child. Her confrontation with the beast goes badly. Even with her supernatural abilities—she calls them “clan powers;” their strength comes from her ties to her family—she is hard pressed to defeat this creature, unlike any she has faced before. Maggie is a monster hunter of the Diné (the traditional name for the Navajo tribe). The partner who left her is Niezghání, an immortal Navajo warrior who non-Indigenous readers might liken to Hercules.

On the surface, these plot elements aren’t too unusual to find in a contemporary fantasy novel—gods and magic and monsters rubbing elbows with the everyday. There are dozens of modern takes on various mythologies, legends, and tales from folklore published every year—including other forays into Native American mythic systems. That this book also features a largely Diné cast of characters, however, is completely unheard of. Native American characters in urban fantasy tend to be isolated or ornamental, either offensive caricatures or lonely beings, cut off from their cultures or made to represent them in total.

The simple fact that Roanhorse is of Indigenous descent herself does not make this a remarkable novel (though it is, for that, urban fantasy being a genre happy to trade in the trappings of Native culture, but not always in a way welcoming to actual Natives), but her lived cultural experience gives it a knowingness and authenticity that imbues every page. The magical system in Trail of Lightning isn’t some culturally stripped mythology, but grounded in modern Diné culture and mores: the people of the town grill Maggie about her clan ties (questions she sidesteps with something less than aplomb). Characters are as likely to live in a hogan as a trailer.

The cultural milieu is not the only notable thing about the novel. Maggie decides to take the slain monster’s head to a medicine man she knows in Tse Bonito in order to get his opinion on the strange, singular creature. In her preparations—filling the truck with hooch, which is what it runs on, gasoline being a scarce commodity; caring for the rez mutts who are her companions and early warning system; taking an almost decadent shower, given the water levels in the tanks—Maggie fills us in on the state of the world. It’s been a decade or so since Big Water, when a cataclysm of earthquakes, hurricanes, and rising tides drowned the world, resetting coastlines as far inland as Denver. The world of Trail of Lightning is post-apocalyptic, set in a place and among people who know something from apocalypse: Indigenous people are far too familiar with worlds ending.

Things were bad enough before roughly a third of the Earth drowned—Water Wars through the West and Southwest; resource grabs by multinationals and the US government—so bad the Navajo Nation built a wall around the reservation, 50 feet high and clearly abetted by a supernatural force. (The irony of a wall built by aboriginal people to keep the US government out is not lost.) Not long after the wall went up, the waters rose. What was once the Navajo reservation is now Dinétah, a largely functioning enclave in an unstable world. With the death of the Fifth World, our world, the old powers returned: magic like Maggie’s clan powers, the warrior Niezghání, and the trickster Coyote. Niezghání found Maggie right after Big Water and the ruin it wrecked on her family, and apprenticed her in monster hunting in this new Sixth World. And then he left her. She doesn’t want to talk about it, in this world or the next.


In her foray into Tse Bonito, Maggie encounters friends and enemies both. She has a tense standoff with Longarm, a puffed up lawman, and an exasperating, comforting visit with Tah, a man she considers grandfather. Tah is a medicine man, and though they aren’t blood kin, their relationship is familial. And exactly like family, Tah is annoying and presumptuous with Maggie, who just wants to get information out of him and get out of town. (Or so she says… Maggie isn’t altogether trustworthy as a narrator, as she’s not precisely honest with herself.) Tah saddles her with his actual grandson, Kai Aviso, who’s from what used to be Albuquerque. Kai claims to know what the monster is: a form of golem not dissimilar from the creatures of Jewish lore, created by someone powerful, for fell purpose. Together, they strike out into Dinétah to answer the riddle of these new monsters.

Kai is a a winking. flirting rogue with the luck of the devil, and his silver tongue. His interactions with the prickly, standoffish Maggie veer from almost friendly to frustrated and angry. Who is he to question her? Maggie hasn’t had a partner since Niezghání—whom she is not going to talk about—so it’s itchy and uncomfortable when she has to take someone else into account. Kai is clearly hiding clan powers of his own; his ability to talk people into doing what he wants seems incommensurate with his good looks and charm, though he has both in spades. Maggie never hassles him much about this. She’s got her own secrets.

Maggie and Kai traverse Dinétah in her rusting truck, moving deeper into the mystery that is the golem and its creator. Their travels also inevitably intersect with places redolent with the shame of Maggie’s recent past, places that conjure unwelcome memories. The novel’s pacing is breakneck, as Kai and Maggie move from one thrilling sequence to another, not always one step ahead of the violence and danger that threatens Dinétah. Maggie is a fascinating character: not someone you want to know, exactly, but someone you’d love to have at your back in a fight.

Trail of Lightning is an audacious take on the conventions of both urban fantasy and the post-apocalyptic novel, binding them two together in a way that could only and ever happen in Dinétah, in the Sixth World.

The very first thing that struck me about Trail of Lightning is how smart and spirited out main character, Maggie, is. Maggie immediately grips you because of her honesty, her narrative tone, and her development as a character. My experience reading Trail of Lightning is only heightened by seeing Roanhorse speak at BookCon on the need for diverse books.

There were so many lines in Trail of Lightning that just captivated me. Quotes about greed, about the words we use that matter, and more. Not only were the characters people I would want to hang out with – of course maybe not in this world – but the world building was fabulous. It wasn’t one of those things that just hits you over the head, it was subtle. But Roanhorse doesn’t hold our hands. The world building is subtle, painting us a picture of elements that are entirely different, but also familiar. In the same book we find books about trucks that run on moonshine, but also police brutality.

Trail of Lightning is the first book in a new Urban Fantasy series by Rebecca Roanhorse, author of the multiple-award-winning short story “Welcome To Your Authentic Indian Experience (TM)”. Trail of Lightning is her debut novel and what a debut it is!

Trail of Lightning was absolutely fantastic. Even brand-new to the field Roanhorse’s writing is easily on-par with Urban Fantasy veterans such as Seanan McGuire, Ilona Andrews, Patricia Briggs and Jim Butcher. I can’t help but compare Trail of Lightning to other UF series – and when I do, I’m comparing it to the cream of the crop, because that’s the level of quality here.

Roanhorse’s Sixth World is a vivid dystopia, beautifully built and will appeal to fans of the Kate Daniels series. I loved exploring the world of the Dinétah. Set on the Navajo reservation in the Southwest, the community and landscape we’re introduced to is something new. Readers unfamiliar with Navajo customs and beliefs will definitely walk away having learned something new. I know I sure did.

I would have liked a pronunciation guide for the many Navajo words Roanhorse uses throughout the book. I have absolutely no idea how to pronounce some of the words with double vowels and accent marks I haven’t encountered before.

The main character, Maggie Hoskie (or Maggie Hostile as I began to call her in my head) will feel both familiar and fresh to UF fans. Maggie is a badass with baggage. She’s had a rough road to get where she is, and she’s not happy with her current situation. Things go from mediocre to worse as she follows the trail of monsters to their source. She is just the kind of character that Urban Fantasy fans love to love, but with fresh spins on everything so she doesn’t feel recycled, which is hard to do.

There is a LOT of Urban Fantasy out there, and there’s a lot that feels recycled and tropey. Trail of Lightning dodges all of that to stand out from the crowd. I was simultaneously sucked in and blown away by the story. I can’t wait for the second installment, Storm of Locusts in 2019.

Trail of Lightning hits shelves June 26, 2018 from Saga Press and should absolutely be on your radar if you’re a fan of UF.

Maggie Hoskie is supernaturally gifted by her clan ancestry to kill monsters in the former Navaho reservation, now a refuge in a post-apocalyptic water world. The Sixth World has begun, and in addition to monsters, gods and heroes of legend walk the land again. Against her better instincts, Maggie reluctantly enlists the aid of Kai Arviso, a medicine-man-in-training to learn about a witchcraft that is creating a new breed of flesh-eating monsters, one of which kidnaps a little girl.

Squarely in the YA fantasy genre, Trail of Lightening is a fun and exciting read that will keep you up past your bedtime! Maggie is a hard and mean fighter with trust issues, and her growth is well deserved and satisfying, especially with such good companions as Kai and Tah, and frenemies as Ma'ii (aka Coyote) and Neizghani (her former teacher and a god). I could easily read a book from the perspective of any of these characters.

And speaking of Coyote, I am thrilled to see Native American myth teamed up with fantasy. This mashup seems so obvious yet there is deep well of opportunity in the fantasy genre. Most of the magic is in the form of clan powers, super powers that only manifest for a few individuals who experience a traumatic event. Plus there are also mythological monsters and gods. Upon seeing Coyote for the first time, I was nervous about his role and portrayal in the story, but I am very happy with the result.

There are a few lines that ground the Native American perspective to modern times (which I love), including the oral stories about elders who lived in residential schools or survived the Long Walk. One of the local gang leaders was one of the original protesters at the Transcontinental Pipeline. And whereas the Navajo reservation may seem like a post-apocalyptic wasteland, the level of poverty rings true for today's standards.

Add in some terrifying action, characters you want to cheer on, and a dash of romance, and you'll be reinvigorated with the young adult urban fantasy genre!

Review will come later on my blog and I'll link the review once it's up. But this was good! I loved learning so much about Native American culture, mythology and language. I did have to get used to Maggie's character but the ending made me invested in her future growth. Plus Tah and Kai are SO dear to my heart :) Go request this if you're looking for a new adult fantasy book. This is very accessible to people who want to dip into adult fantasy but are afraid of longer books :)

While this is only the first book in a series, I’m confident that TRAIL OF LIGHTNING will debut as a top Urban Fantasy book. The writing is absolutely captivating and my eyes were glued to the pages until 2 am in the morning, when I finally got to that climactic ending. Roanhorse does a fabulous job of creating three-dimensional characters in a refreshing dystopian world where ancient powers have come back after a multitude of natural disasters throughout the globe. I loved seeing the Navajo stories interweaved in the plot and the sneaky machinations of the immortals. Maggie is such a fierce, brutal main character who can be caustic at times, but ultimately triumphant. There’s a slight romance, incredible character development, and overall an introduction to a frightening world in the future where monsters lurk the earth.

“But it was a narrow road that I walked. I had to be vigilant not to let it grow, not to feed it unnecessarily. Because my fate wasn’t decided yet. I could be a monsterslayer, or I could be a monster.”

On Dinétah, the Navajo reservation where the book takes place, gods, heroes and monsters appear and disrupt the balance of the area. Resources are scarce due to the long drought taking place, and even coffee is a rare commodity to be savored. Maggie lives in such times and used to train with a great warrior and immortal being. However, he suddenly leaves her on one of their adventures and she spends months wallowing in a depression. The book begins on her ninth or so month of isolation, when she finally steps out of her trailer to catch a monster that stole a local girl. This monster turns out to be a golem, or a creature fabricated from someone with dangerous powers. Maggie thus starts her journey to trace back to the origins of the creature and stop the evil presence from creating more monsters.

The Navajo legends and stories are weaved perfectly throughout the plot. The incorporation of clan powers, which some people have depending on their heritage, also make for an awesome magic/power system. Maggie’s two clans are Honágháahnii and K’aahanáanii - “Walks-Around” and “Living Arrow” - meaning she has super speed and an affinity for killing people. This affinity has made her shaped like a weapon, both emotionally and physically. Maggie isn’t good at letting people in, and she doesn’t have any friends. She has a tough exterior that exudes sarcasm and defenses, but that only really hides how soft she is on the inside. I adored her character, flaws and all, and the development that she goes through in the book.

“‘Diné way of life is k’é, kinship, like this’ - he weaves his fingers in and out, bringing his hands together as if to pray, and then splays his palms open while keeping his fingers intertwined - ‘but you, your life is all separate.’”

Helping Maggie out is a medicine man-in-training, Kai, whose grandfather is one of the few close people that Maggie has in her life. Kai is ostentatious and suave and social - a complete contrast to Maggie’s personality. He also has some useful and mysterious powers though, which makes him a good partner for her journey. I really enjoyed their relationship, especially as Maggie was incredibly wary of Kai when first meeting him. But she slowly - veryyy slowly - opens up as she gets to know him, and Kai takes in her character, causticity and all. He’s very understanding of the hardships Maggie has gone through and accepts her rather than condemns her. Sometimes it takes a person understanding you to realize that you’re not the monster people seem to think you are.

“‘Being a hero’s not about being perfect. It’s about doing the right thing, doing your best to get the people you care about home safely. You were willing to sacrifice yourself to do that. I don’t care what you say to try to negate that - I was there. I saw it.’”

And yes! Obviously I have to mention the sweet, slow-burn romance. It’s honestly super slow, mostly because Maggie still has residue feelings over someone (who is very irrelevant). I thought it was the perfect pacing though, making room for character growth and plot. Everything about Kai and Maggie’s contrasting personalities make them that much more compatible - and good - for each other.

Trickster immortals, fearsome monsters, and devastating powers. This book took standard Urban Fantasy tropes and storylines and rewrote them with an inventive and refreshing outlook. I believe this is also an #OwnVoices story for the Native-American narrative, which makes it that much more awesome. (Yes, I’m looking at you, UF book genre with predominantly white authors.) The perfect blend of action, romance, mystery, and cunning makes this an exhilarating read that adventure-seekers need to pick up NOW.

CW: abusive/manipulative relationship, torture, gore, abuse, explicit violence

Part fantasy, part dystopian novel, this book brings these genres into a new light and giving us something we haven't read it based on Native American history and beliefs. The world has been just about destroyed by global warming and Native Tribes have once again taken back whats left of the United States, now known as Dinétah. The novel is heavy with Native American terms, history, beliefs, and more. Which is what brings a new level to this genre and makes an exciting read that's near impossible to put down. Maggie, the main character, is strong, fierce, and admits she's no hero. She drives the story and keeps things from ever getting slow. She drives the pace for the fact she can't seem to slow down. She faces off with monsters and gods, making friends and enemies (a lot of enemies) on the way.

I loved every second of this. I had seen the hype for it on twitter and was extremely interested so I added it to my edelweiss, where the publisher then contacted me to tell me I could get it on Netgalley, after a struggle of trying to get it for a week on Edelweiss. I basically stopped reading everything for this book. And I have zero regrets about it. It probably renewed a love for more Urban-esq Fantasies and even Dystopian worlds. It's so unlike any book I've read and in part, it's because of how the author drew from her culture. I have a basic knowledge of some Native American tribes and history in part because I've taken classes at my college, but I admit, I didn't know a lot fo the things mentioned in the story or locations until after (it just happens this week we're learning about one of the big locations in the book). It's why I'm saying this now: don't let that scare you away from the story if you don't know. Take time to read this and use google if you need to. Learn about another culture through this amazing book. The book isn't written for most of us, but it doesn't mean you can't sit down and try it and enjoy it like I did. Which I'm happy I did, it's joined the group of one of my all time favourite reads. 

Maggie as a character is similar to a lot of dystopian female characters, the difference, she's hard and fierce because she was raised that way by gods. She learned to hunter monsters because of who took her in and due to her clan powers. She actually has a blood lust built into her. But she's leveled out by Kai, a man she meets who's a medicine man who doesn't believe in violence and tries to tell Maggie that there are other ways of going about different then she always has. Kai is a balancing force while also one new to the area, having lived outside of Dinétah, though still knows a lot more then a lot of readers might being Native himself. There are characters who aren't Native, we meet a mixed race family later in the book who is African American and white. And of course, there are plenty of gods running around this story. 

Why this book matters: it was written by a Native American author who draws on their own culture in a way a lot of people outside of it might not know. They avoided the normal Native stereotypes that white people have branded them with while a the same time using those familiar ideas and twisting them to the correct way. There are Medicine Men, Monster Hunters, Warriors, Outlaws, and simple people just trying to survive. 

Do I recommend? Uh, yeah. If you haven't really been paying attention, I'm basically yelling that you should preorder this now and learn about a culture that deserves to be heard. This story and series is my new everything.