This book was fantastic and deals with the very serious and relevant topic of missing Indigenous women and girls. I flew through this book and was kept at the edge of my seat the whole time. Nick Medina has won me over as an auto-buy author!

Thank you to netgalley for providing an e-galley for review. Wow! What a powerful and moving book. Sisters of the Lost Nation by Nick Medina follows Anna as she searched for her sister Grace. This is already a mystery thriller but Medina also includes Native American mythology in the story to add a touch of science fiction horror to the all to real horror story. Anna also tries to preserve her tribe's history and heritage as it disintegrates in modern times. Such an important and timely story told incredibly well.

Wow. This book was absolutely beautiful. The level of detail and competence in the writing is absolutely staggering, and I feel like I came away from this story with more compassion, more knowledge, and more understanding of Native American communities.

This is fiction at its finest.

Excellent book. Sisters of the Lost Nation by Nick Medina. A lot of history and research went into this one, as well as stories from the author’s life and family. There is a trigger warning at the front but the subject matter is handled delicately and respectfully. Loved it.

Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley for sending me a copy of this book! All opinions are my own!

This was such a timely and poignant read, and I can't describe how much it made me think, how much it really delves into the lives of people who have been silenced for so long. This is a story about women who have been told by the world that they deserve what is happening to them, and I'm so glad that people are coming out into the world to allow them to finally tell their stories.

I really love the way this book was so innocuous. It shows just how people are sucked into situations that the world thinks "I would never get caught up in that." It shows the desperation of fitting into a world that has tried to erase your identity. It shows the way that communities and families come together even when they don't always see eye-to-eye.

I don't want to give away the book, but this is a wonderful story full of hope and community, a story that needs to be told for all the missing and endangered Native women across the country.

This was a haunting historical horror novel following a Native girl’s search for answers on the disappearance of other women from her tribe on the reservation. The atmosphere is built by a nonlinear timeline and the suspense builds throughout the novel. At times, it was quite hard to read because of how masterfully Nick Medina writes. The Native folklore intertwines eerily with the plot to create a perfect storm of a novel.

Read my interview with Nick Medina here:

https://fanfiaddict.com/author-interview-nick-medina-sisters-of-the-lost-nation/#:~:text=ABOUT%20SISTERS%20OF%20THE%20LOST,atmospheric%20and%20stunningly%20poignant%

This is a mystery novel with some horror elements. Anna Horn is an indigenous girl living on a reservation and whose family owns a casino. Strange things being happening on the reservation and girls start going missing without a trace. When her own younger sister disappears, Anna vows to solve the mystery and find her sister, as well as figure out what the strange entity is that seems to follow her everywhere. I liked the mythology tied into this novel and the mysteriousness, however I don't think this is a true horror novel. There are some scenes that are definitely horror, but they are scarce.

A haunting, enlightening, and infuriating story. This was rich with character, and while the nonlinear plot made the audiobook version a little challenging, the story was excellent.

Publishing companies have to stop buying books like this. As far as I can tell, Medina isn’t an indigenous person but has taken it upon himself to tell a story that really should be told by one. He read an article and was moved to write this story. I’m sure he had good intentions, and he does give his inspiration and several resources where readers can help. Unfortunately, indigenous people of this country are severely underrepresented in publishing.

From Goodreads: 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.

This book was clearly the writer’s first, and he needs a great editor. Too many things are happening in the plot. Anna is a good character, but she is also struggling with her identity… is she gay? is she transgender? That subplot was wholly unnecessary. As told in the third person, Anna’s parents are referred to by their first names, but the author switches to Mom and Dad on occasion. I loved the mythology behind the story but was bummed to discover that the tribe mentioned is fake. Again, why not have an actual indigenous person write a story about real myths within his/her own tribe? This book was just a major letdown.

This book gave me The Removed vibes (in a good way) with the inclusion of Native mythology and related mystical elements.

I enjoyed Anna’s character - her commitment to her community, her heritage and most importantly to her sister - despite being persecuted and bullied on multiple levels was so endearing. How exhausted she must have been to carry so many levels of trauma.

It’s incredibly heartbreaking to know that so much of this story is a daily reality for Indigenous peoples in our country and the lack of accountability by law enforcement and the lack of exposure/publicity sharing these facts with the greater population. To know that we’re all so close in proximity but so removed in acceptance, understanding and support at this point in our history is disturbing.

The vigilante investigation on Anna’s part required some open-mindedness, and I found the overall story more sad than scary - but I was invested in Anna’s story. I can definitely see the horror-esque elements in the creature stalking Anna.

A riveting thriller with a fantastic protagonist and some really affecting mythological horror. Deftly balances supernatural horror with the more kind of everyday horror of colonialism and social marginalization.

This book was phenomenal. It grabbed me right from the first page and hurtled me until the very last word. Anna lives on a reservation and works at a hotel that is part of a casino on that reservation. Her sister has been acting different, keeping secrets, and then she goes missing. But she's not the only Indigenous girl or women missing. There are many. Anna sets out to find out the secrets her sister keeps, the secrets the hotel and its night manager keep, and just how she may be able to help heal her people. So much Indigenous culture and folklore, beautifully written, and definitely one of my favorite books of the year.

The mixture of past and present amid the mystery and folklore is an intricate balance, one that Medina is careful to not tip one way or the other. The descriptions are also fantastic, quickly immersing readers into this story, easily able to envision themselves as additional players in the mystery.

This was an interesting read. I don't find many books focused on Native American culture. This is a bit of a tough read. We tend to not want to face the reality of what reservation life might be like, and the author does NOT sugar coat it. The main character is well developed and I really like her. Overall, this is a bit heavy, but we need more books like this. 3.5 stars

3.5 stars.

I went in thinking this book was horror. It is really not...maybe a young adult coming of age is how I would have marketed it. Anna is a strong character who I think could be someone that could be a "looked up too character" if that makes any sense. I'm not know for making a lot of sense so anyways...

Anna and her sister Grace are teenagers living on their tribes reservation. They both work at the casino nearby.
Anna is bullied at school constantly so she has gotten really good at just keeping her mouth shut. She is terrified of a story that her uncle told her when she was young about some graves being robbed and the skull missing that still seeks out victims.

Grace goes missing and there is a history of young women going missing from the reservation so Anna is wondering if the skull had anything to do with her disappearance or did someone do it.

This book does highlight and make you questions if these casinos are the best thing ever that help people or do they? It also gives the spot light on missing indigenous women and how the law really doesn't help when their families are wanting answers.

Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review.

This book covers SO many themes within the Native American community that it's almost too hard to keep track of! This was beautifully written and gorgeously crafted that I was stunned by the lower GR rating. I will say that the first 70% of the book is a bit slow moving, and the shifted perspectives/time frames can be a bit confusing to follow. The last 30% is very quick, and I wish that the momentum had been placed more evenly throughout the plot. But this is minuscule criticism of a very important read. 4 stars!

A combination of real life and mythological horrors, this was an incredible debut. Anna Horn is bullied and tormented by her classmates and even her younger sister, who she used to be close to. Anna immerses herself in an old teacher's books, reading the stories of her tribe hoping to find answers to questions she’s not even sure how to ask. But when sinister things start to happen on the reservation and girls begin to go missing from the casino where Anna works cleaning, she becomes increasingly suspicious. When her sister Grace is the most recent to go missing, Anna frantically tries to find the answers, not caring about the danger she faces.

Absolutely stunning - I highly recommend this.

"The spirit of a chief, you see, is a powerful thing. The skull became a head again when it was lifted from the grave . . . resurrected.”
“Resurrected?” she echoed.
“Alive again,” he said, his voice measured and grievously low, prolonging every word. “But not like it was before. Not like the old chief. It’s angry now that it’s been ripped from its rest. And ravenous. Hungry for revenge. It’ll eat anyone it encounters. It’ll tear flesh from bone.”
“How?” she said.
“It rolls, gathering mud and moss on its decaying flesh.”"

"Black bark to her sides and ash beneath her feet, she smelled the earthy odors of dirt, mud, burnt wood, and something so vile her stomach turned. It was the same smell the wind had wafted her way on the nights she’d been chased. Only the odor was stronger now. Inescapable."

Seventeen-year-old Anna Horn is terrified of two things. The first a magical, carnivorous head that gets around by rolling, and is possessed of a set of very nasty teeth. She believes it is determined to eat her. This is the result of a tale her Uncle Ray had told her ten years ago. Her terror about the rolling head permeates, as she fears its arrival every time there is a rustle in the bushes, the main difference in her experience of it being that she can flee faster at seventeen than she could at seven. The second is that she will never see her sister again. Fifteen-year-old Grace has joined the growing list of Native women gone missing.

Anna is in the throes of that perennial challenge of the teen-years, (for some of us, this challenge can go on for decades) figuring out who she is. She is way more mature than most of us were at that age, for sure. She does not exactly dress to impress, favoring her father’s old clothes, and sporting a very unfashionable short haircut. She loves the stories of her tribe, the fictional Takodas, to the point of wanting to start a historical preservation society, to save Takoda history, myths, and traditions for future generations. The considerate and kind classmates at her mostly white school completely understand and support her efforts at self-discovery. As if. They make her school experience a living hell, taking it further than unkind words. Grace is a very different sort, desperate to fit in, wanting attention, focusing on her looks and pleasing others in order to grease the way to hanging with the cool kids. Acquiring a cell phone is the key to her potential rise, and she will do whatever she can to get the money for one.

The story flips back and forth in time, moving forward from Anna’s Day 1 in showing how events came to be, and from the day of Grace’s disappearance, showing the investigation and results. Chapters are labeled in reference to days since Anna’s story begins. Grace does not go missing until well along in those days. Chapters looking at the search for Grace are also labeled with the number of hours since her disappearance.

Medina wanted to highlight the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (WWIMG) that has been devastating Native communities for a long time. He shows the all-too-familiar problems residents of tribal lands face when someone goes missing, a viper’s nest of overlapping legal jurisdictions, inadequate police funding, and official indifference among them, not to mention racism. Speaking of which Medina portrays people of all shades as less then admirable. Even the Native manager of the casino assigns Native workers based on their skin color. Fox Ballard, nephew of the tribal leader, is young, handsome, flashy, sculpted, and not at all to be trusted.

Medina pays attention, as well to the impact of modernization on traditional values. The Takoda nation has been significantly changed by the opening of a casino on the reservation. The most obvious contrast is that of Anna (traditional) vs Grace (modern). The new road offers up a steady supply of splatted frogs, a pretty clear image of the cost of replacing treasured values with treasure. Income from the casino is making its way to all the people on the rez, although it is also clear that some Takoda are more equal than others.

As explained in the Author’s note that follows the book, the inspiration for the carnivorous rolling head came from actual Wintu and Cheyenne legends. It reminded me of the relentless ungulate in Stephen Graham Jones’s The Only Good Indians, except that the elk in Jones’s tale is seeking revenge, while the head, though our only real look at it is through Anna’s terrified eyes, seems a more open opportunity attacker. Frankly, scary as it seems to her, it cannot hold a candle to Graham’s hoofed-slasher. It may have been scary to Anna as a character, but did not cause me any lost sleep as a reader.

I did feel at times that this book read more like a YA story than a fully adult one, an observation, not a black mark. The greatest strength of the novel is Medina’s portrayal of his lead, Anna. It is in seeing her social challenges, following her passions, tracking her investigative efforts, admiring her bravery, and rooting for her to mature to a point where she is comfortable in her own skin, that we come to care about her. That alone makes this a good read. The added payload, about the core issue of the book, Missing and Murdred Indigenous Women, about the impact of modernization on traditional values, about gender identity, and about the impact of story on our lives, gives it a far greater heft.

This is Medina’s first novel. He refers to it as a “thriller with mythological horror.” It is an impressive beginning to what we hope is a long and productive career.

"She said Frog exemplified transformation. He entered life in one form and left it in another. From egg to tadpole, to tadpole with legs, to amphibian with tail, to tailless frog, he was never the same. He began life in water, only emerging once he was his true self. He symbolized change, rebirth, and renewal, and his spirit could bring rain.
Anna stared down at the ill-fated frog. The reservation was transforming. The asphalt beneath her feet was evidence of that. And yet the very symbol of change had become a victim of it. The absurdity didn’t escape her."

Review posted – 6/23/23

Publication date – 4/18/23

I received an ARE of book name from publisher in return for a fair review. Thanks, folks. Can you get that thing to stop chasing me? And thanks to NetGalley for facilitating.

I'll admit, it was a bit weird getting into the split timeline at the beginning of the book and I wasn't sure how much attention I need to pay to the days and times. Once I figured that it really didn't matter too much, and it basically before Grace went missing and after, I was able to switch back and forth more easily and found it propelling me forward through the story as the timelines started to meet and what lead up to Grace going missing. I appreciate the author bringing light to the serious topic that this story highlights and while it is fiction, this scenario is not for many Native families and it is heartbreaking.

Young women, really older teenagers, keep going missing from the Takoda Reservation. Many blame it on them running away, but once Anna starts looking into happenings on her job at the casino, she becomes certain they are not running away. When her younger sister goes missing after working at the casino one evening her family helps the cases of the girls spring into action. The disparity of treatment between the native Americans and the townspeople, drugs, wanting to be seen, Native American history and the importance of preserving the culture is a prominent theme. Coming of age and discovering who you are really meant to be changes Anna forever.