The best books are the kind that totally consume me, my emotions, thoughts and have me at my full attention. The Removed is one of those. This is one of the most unforgettable books that I have ever read. The story is filled with gut wrenching sadness and incredible joy.
I definitely see this being at least one, if not my top favorite book of 2021.

The writing is simply beautiful It flowed like a song with the most amazing poetry. This book is filled with Cherokee myths, legends, and history. The story is about a Grieving family, the parents lost a son and the two children lost their brother. It is told from the 4 different points of view, 3 from the family members and 1 from a Cherokee ancestor.
This book broke my heart in so many ways. The suffering this family and the native Americans have endured is unimaginable.

I feel this book has such an important story to tell and I will recommend it to anyone and everyone!

Many thanks to Netgalley, Brandon Hobson and the publisher for the advanced reader copy!

This story will take you on a journey with richly developed characters as they try to cope with tremendous loss.
At times, the reader will feel their sadness but as the story progresses you become so engrossed you live through their highs and lows. The right touch of spirituality and beliefs give a better understanding of the characters. The format also makes for easy reading. I highly recommend this book.

This was a hard one for me to get into. The story centers around a family that is grieving the loss of their son/brother, Ray-Ray, that was killed by the police..."accidently". While that in and of itself is a pertinent topic of choice with the current political climate, it was not the route the author chose to take. Instead, the author alternates POVs in each chapter for each family member as they prepare for their annual BBQ where they remember Ray-Ray.

So, the heavy subject matter wasn't what turned me off. It was the dialouge. It was too simplistic and choppy to the point where I actually thought the book may have been a translated copy. It's not.

This book wasn't for me, but I do encourage anyone that wants a light read on a heavy topic to try it out.

The Removed by Brandon Hobson
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The Echota family lost Ray-Ray 15 years ago in a police shooting. They are still struggling with the grief, each in different ways.
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This was a story about grief, but also a story filled with Cherokee legends. Mostly it is told in the present about the Echota family, but part of it is about the past and how the Cherokee people were forced to leave their lands and treated terribly.
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So I wanted to love this book but I struggled. I think a lot of this story went over my head and I just didn’t get what the author was trying to express. I was especially struggling with Edgar’s storyline. Edgar is a drug addict but a lot of his storyline felt like it was fantasy, or one big drug trip.
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My favorite part of the storyline was Maria’s part. Maria misses her son that she lost in death, but also grieves for how losing Ray-Ray has deeply hurt her surviving family members. She’s such a good mom with a heart of gold and I loved her and Ernest.
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Overall I didn’t love this book so I gave it 3⭐️⭐️⭐️ It was a pretty quick read, but I do wish I understood it a little bit more.
Thank you Netgalley for this digital copy to read and review.

Thank you to Ecco Books and Brandon Hobson via NetGalley for my advance review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Removed is a story about how grief and loss can consume a family for years. We are following the Echota family who has tragically lost their son to gun violence. Despite losing their son, Ray-Ray early in the story, we are reminded of him throughout the memories of his family members. We often hear how death, grief, and loss impact folks in different ways and Hobson examines that throughout the story.

Despite this being a pretty easy read, I struggled with getting through this. It fell flat for me and was a little boring in some areas. It was also a little difficult to constantly swap between each of the characters; as soon as I got intrigued by one character we were moving on to someone completely different.

I was really looking forward to reading about Cherokee mythology and sadly, that was the only part I enjoyed in the story. I would love to read a story that explored Tsala more. While I don't necessarily think this was a terrible story, I just think it could've been a lot better.

Haunting story rambling through loss. I struggled with the NetGalley version, but as soon as I picked up a physical copy, I couldn’t put it down until I finished it. The alternating narrative device is particularly effective here.

Interesting book. It is about a Cherokee family in OK. Rae-Rae, the son of Maria and Ernest was shot by a cop 15 years prior. The remaining family members continue to struggle with their grief and the injustice of the killing. The youngest son has turned to drugs. Ernest, the father, has the beginning of Alzheimer's adding extra stress to Maria who is trying to cope with her own grief. The books alternates between each of the family members own perspectives and an ancestor Tsala., who was involved in the trail of tears.

The Removed could be a unique insight to grieving family members after the unwarranted shooting death of a fifteen year old Cherokee boy named Ray-Ray, but instead it just devolves into an incohesive mess. While I don't read a tremendous amount of indigenous fiction, what I have read makes me think part of the writing style is part of culture, but it's also just doesn't work for me. The story prologues the day of Ray-Ray's death and then transitions to (mostly) fifteen years in the future, told by his mother, his sister, his brother, and Cherokee spirit Tsalas. His mother Maria is planning their annual remembrance of Ray-Ray while dealing with husband Ernest, who is dealing with Alzheimer's, and Wyatt, a foster boy that seems to be channeling Ray-Ray that's temporarily been placed in her home in Oklahoma. Meanwhile Sonja's down the street pursuing cougarish endeavors by chasing after a younger man who has a young son that reminds her of Ray-Ray. At the end of this storyline her purposes for doing so seem to be a complete 180 from earlier in her story, giving the reader whiplash. Edgar is drugged out in Albuquerque, and after his girlfriend breaks up with him, somehow ends up by way of train in the Darkening Lands living with a former classmate that tells him he's necessary to creating a Jim Thorpe augmented reality game. Last but not least are the pieces of the story told by Tsala, a spirit reliving the tragedy his people were faced with when they were forcibly moved to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears. I wish that I could say that this all culminated in an ending that miraculously pulled these storylines together, but it really didn't in my opinion.

I’m judging a 2021 fiction contest. It’d be generous to call what I’m doing upon my first cursory glance—reading. I also don’t take this task lightly. As a fellow writer and lover of words and books, I took this position—in hopes of being a good literary citizen. My heart aches for all the writers who have a debut at this time. What I can share now is the thing that held my attention and got this book from the perspective pile into the read further pile.

Fantastic plotting… I’m here for it. “My son has an active imagination,” Ernest kept saying, which was true. Ray-Ray always carried with him a notebook in which he scribbled song lyrics and sketched strange creatures, beasts with fire shooting from their eyes and tongues hanging from their mouths, chubby old men with pig snouts instead of noses, and Uktena and Tlanuwa, the mythic hawks who carried away babies. Ernest and Maria encouraged his artistry, his drawings and impersonations, and also loved how he enjoyed searching outside near the lake for animal bones, bird bones, and feathers to make necklaces. How he wore certain shirts he said were for healing. How he was fascinated by the sky and would go lie down and watch the stars at night. How he mowed lawns and cleaned roof gutters for two summers until he earned enough money to buy his own 250cc Nighthawk, the motorcycle he would ride to the mall in Tulsa on September 6, the day he was shot by a police officer.”

The Removed Review


I've been craving a book like this - a book filled to the brim with Native lore. Aside from Ernest (whose perspective we never read from,) all of the characters are pretty well developed.

Edgar, the youngest sibling, is a drug addict. Drug usage isn’t romanticized and addiction is touched on in a very real way. It isn’t overly elaborate, but it’s enough to make it clear that addiction does not make you a bad person even if it causes bad choices.

Sonja, the eldest sister, is definitely a strong female character. She is unabashed about sexuality and has no desire to be in a committed relationship. She does have some creeper vibes that threw me off a little bit, but it’s acknowledged in the book.

Maria, the mother, has a lot of mental health issues that are brought up early on and addressed in a positive way. They are not hidden or romanticized.

Other things to note that are pretty obvious once you’ve read it - some gay rep that wasn’t overly prominent as a plot device, blatant racism against Natives (and brown skinned people as a whole,) and police violence. The racism is a hide part of the narrative and police violence plays into that. It’s the whole beginning of the trauma the Echota family experiences.

Overall, the writing was beautiful and easy to read. I found it compelling and every time I set this book down I couldn't stop thinking about it. There are so many layers to this story - mythology combined with present day. There were plot twists that I wasn't expecting and some that I did. I would absolutely read this again and I look forward to reading other works by Hobson.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

In the past, I have made the mistake of not prioritizing diversity when choosing books to read. I’m embarrassed to say that this is the first time in my life that I have ever read about a Cherokee family. I am regretful that I didn’t read this sooner, as it is such a brilliant story about folklore, myths, familial bonds, grief, and storytelling. Through this lens, the story is even more meaningful. The writing was brilliant, the storytelling was superb, and the character development sat with me. I have the most severe book hangover after reading this one. This exceeded my expectations in ways I cannot articulate. I have already recommended this book to my entire family. 5 stars!

What an impressive novel. I read this through in about 2 sittings and I was completely engaged with the mix of the everyday and the uncanny. The elements of magical realism in Edgar's story were really captivating and I loved trying to figure out exactly what was going on with him while he went through this interior journey. I found all of the characters realistic and complex. Overall I found this to be a very powerful story told in a masterful way. We will definitely be purchasing this title at my library and I'll be recommending it to all of our patrons who enjoy literary fiction and stories of families.

The Removed is a short but powerful book that explores the line between life and death and the indigenous (specifically Cherokee) lore surrounding this topic. I love a book based in magical realism, and this book does it so well - somehow, in 288 pages, there is significant character development, plot development, and an exploration of generational trauma and poverty.

This book is beautiful, and may very well be one of my favorites of the year. I tore through it and I am so looking forward to everyone else being able to read it.

Thank you to NetGalley for the e-reader ARC and to BOTM for the physical edition.

A beautiful blend of Cherokee legends, history, and contemporary fiction. A story of a grieving family as well as that of grieving ancestors. Both manage to continue despite their travesties. This book is storytelling at its best because it is actually telling multiple stories in one. At times it is like you are reading a contemporary novel and at times it is like listening to oral histories. It is hard to touch on the experience you may have while reading this but the story entered my dreams on occasion. It is that powerful and stirring. I look forward to discussing this book with friends. I found myself reading Cherokee stories and some of the history of the Trail of Tears while reading this. I think that helped deepen the book for me . This book is about pain, grieving, desperation but at the core it's a survival story. Survival that is rooted in history and in stories themselves.

THE REMOVED by Brandon Hobson is a sad novel about a Cherokee family still dealing with their tragic loss. I really loved reading about the Cherokee myths and folklore. I also liked how the point of view would switch between the different family members although I didn’t care for Edgar’s parts. It was interesting the blend of fantasy and reality in this story. It’s a novel on the shorter side and I was left wanting more.

A deeply scarred family and the secrets they carry with them will find their way right to your heart.

A Cherokee family is approaching the anniversary of the death of their son. Each family member is grappling with their loss through their own mental and physical grief. For fans of Jesmyn Ward, Tommy Orange, and Jacqueline Woodson.

In The Removed, the reader travels from the real to the surreal as events unfold. The connection to the past is always present in everyday life. The novel dives deeply into Indian folklore. A policeman wrongly shoots Ray-Ray and for 15 years, the Cherokee family’s grief is palpable. Each family dealing with their grief in their own way. This is a book of hope and healing through Cherokee culture and tradition.

The Removed starts with the shooting of 15-year-old Ray-Ray by a police officer. The rest of the book is about the aftermath of his death on the family and their attempts to heal. Each chapter is written from a different family members' point of view, which is a style I love. There is also Native American folklore woven throughout the story. Overall, I found the book to have a haunting, melancholy air but was a quick read that held my attention. I would have liked to have gotten to know the characters better before the novel ended.

This is incredible! No words are enough to define how much I enjoy this book! I plan to read it more than once and I want to buy it for my friends! Maybe it’s too early to announce but I’m so sure it already took its dedicated place for best 5 fictions of 2021! I recommend it to the readers who missed the extraordinary taste of literature!
It’s a great waltz between Cherokee myths, history and magical realism, delightful allegations. You read the story of broken family with so many beautiful tales, traditional Cherokee beliefs! The chapters belong to different POVs of the family members are interesting, capturing. When you enjoy the one perspective, you keep thinking about the other characters because each chapter picks your interest, some of them ends with cliffhangers which pushes you flip the pages faster!
Let’s learn more about the plot line:
Eccota Family is getting through hell, each member fights against their own inner devils when the 15th anniversary of beloved son Jay Jay’s death is approaching. They normally celebrate it with bonfire because it’s at the same day with Cherokee National Holiday and it is also an excuse to bring dysfunctional family members together for grieving!
Each of them has a different kind of coping mechanism which is doomed to fail.

A truly depressed mother Maria, pouring out her feelings at her journal but the words are not enough to express her deep pain.

The father, Ernest suffers from early stage of amnesia, reluctant to deal with the memories of his painful past.

The daughter, Sonja gets more asocial, stalking a young musician man and his son who is on the verge of autism. Why is she so obsessed with them?

And the youngest boy, Edgar becomes an addict, rejecting any help, not keeping his promises he gave to his family after their serious intervention, killing himself slowly, letting his addiction take away his soul.

The family is crumbling into pieces: till one day Maria and Ernest temporary foster a kid who has quiet resemblance to their dead son at the same age he got shot by a racist police officer who got away with the murder!
The boy is acting like incarnated soul of their dead son: having interest of old time songs, collecting vinyls, impersonating comedians as like their son did. Suddenly Ernest starts to remember things about the present and past. His memory is miraculously coming back as soon as he starts communicating with the boy. He feels like he reunited with his longtime gone son!

Sonja finally starts dating with Vin she has been stalking for a long time and she starts hating the each second she spends time with him. Why she’s still with him? Does she try to punish herself by involving into destructive relationship patterns or does she have other plan?

And after being dumbed by his girlfriend who cannot deal with his addiction, Edgar finds himself one of the creepiest and eeriest place called Darkening Land where is located between the thin line between life and death, experiencing his own survival journey!

The conclusion of the story is epic, satisfying, magical!

Overall: I’m so delightful to have a chance to read advance copy and I’m looking forward to wait for the release date to buy the hardcover copy! This is not good! This is marvelous and incredible!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Ecco for sharing this reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.