Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe knocks it out of the park once again. I devoured her memoir (as a physical, hard-cover book in my hands), and so it was a real treat to listen to this essay collection as an audiobook, which she narrates. These essays are a stunning and raw portrayal of the author wrestling with her indigineity in a Eurocentric society that tells her she’s not enough, and this carries into her experiences with race, veganism, and queerness.

I eagerly requested this audiobook since her memoir was one of my favorites, and it definitely lived up to my expectations. She is certainly a must-read author for me!


Disclaimer: I received an audiobook ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thunder Song was an excellent listen. I loved the author's narration. I appreciated the various stories about her upbringing, going back and forth to Washington and the reservation, and the difficulty of being vegan while still honoring her ancestral food. I liked the short interludes as well. By the end of the collection, I certainly want to seek out LaPointe's other writings.

Incredible, vulnerable, a real look into the author’s intersecting identities as queer and Native. I really appreciated hearing the acknowledgments read at the end as well!
I personally appreciated a lot of the sections relating to the queer punk scene.
Definitely would recommend!!

Wow! What an absolutely breathtaking collection of essays. After reading this, I feel like I can understand the author on a deeper level. A way that feels like an absolute privilege.

Listening to Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe tell her story in this collection of essays felt like sitting down with a friend on a rainy night and coming to yourself the next morning as a changed person.

This a mix of many things: Seattle (SiɁaƛ) history, growing up on a reservation as a biracial kid, finding your artistic voice, struggles with Native healthcare and abortion providers, protests and the pandemic.
LaPointe is open about her experiences about people thinking they can be racist towards Indigenous people because they don't perceive her as one of them, her life as a runaway teen who ended up in an abusive relationship and her relationship to nature and the place her ancestors called home but has been irrevocably changed since the white settlers arrived. As both a queer and disabled person, as well as a mixed Indigenous woman, she offers so much to the continued conversation about current lives in America and how much of it is shaped by things beyond your control. It's also grounded in the physical world - descriptions of nature are everywhere and Seattle feels almost like its own character.

Just like a real conversation, she jumps from memories to current issues to political struggles and back to personal experiences. The essays weave a tapestry of who LaPointe is that invite the reader in to see where all the threads come from and continue on to - it feels like a living document, LaPointe just sharing snapshots of her life that is certainly not yet over. Especially the stories about her great-grandmother show how clearly her storytelling has also shaped the form of this book.

Wow, I was incredibly blown away by this collection of essays by Sasha. I so rarely see myself reflected in books -- fiction or non -- as a mixed Indigenous queer person. Sasha's stories were so incredibly told, and I found myself having to pause and reflect upon each. I'm really thankful that voices like hers are being published, because people, settler and Indigenous alike, need to hear it. The essays cover a range of topics, queerness, colorism, taking up space in predominantly white spaces, love, food, music, and so much more. And the book does so in a way that will enrich the minds of people who read it, no matter what their background is or what their experiences with Indigeneity may be. I can't wait to reread these essays in cycles for the rest of my life <3

✨ Review ✨ Thunder Song: Essays by Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe

Thanks to Counterpoint, Dreamscape Media, and #netgalley for the gifted advanced copy/ies of this book!

This book was incredible! I don't always love memoirs or essay collections, but the author's storytelling was off-the-charts (you can see where she learned through through her female relatives!) The essays flow together in a way that feels special and continuous like a memoir, despite being written as essays.

Things I loved:
1. The author's Queer and Indigenous perspectives and the ways she brings these different facets of her identity together
2. Her punk background and aesthetic shape the stories and style
3. Stories about salmon and the environment and decolonizing her diet
4. Stories about the women in her family and their different storytelling specialties
5. Her reflections on Coast Salish identity and experience -- the importance of the persistence of language and culture and community in the 21st century.
6. There's a section about the start of COVID and storytelling and rest that really spoke to me. When considering the old ways and her feel that she needed to be working during COVID like it was a pre-COVID era, her therapist asked her to consider " do you think a basket weaver would be weaving when there is a mountain lion circling?"
7. the author also narrated the audiobook, which I love because it brings so much added emotion and inflection to the story which is her own.

This is definitely a great way to engage with Indigenous perspectives and queer identity, to listen and to learn!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: essay colection, memoir
Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins
Pub Date: March 5, 2024

Another beautifully written book by the author. The prose is incredibly poetical and moving. Also this cover is STUNNING.
I’m excited to hear her this week at our local community reading event!
Thank you NetGalley for the audio ARC!

This was an eye opening great read in the most uncomfortable but necessary way. The writing style is so raw and beautiful, you can’t possibly ignore what you’re reading. I don’t know what else to say except that I wish everyone would read even one essay from this collection and have an open mind.

Thank you Counterpoint and Dreamscape Media for my free ARC of Thunder Song by Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe — available now!

Read this if you:
💋 read and loved [book:Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk|58903070]
🔆 enjoy a combo of memoir, essay, history, and anecdote
💕 love learning about different cultures and history surrounding them

This is a super thoughtful collection of essays — it combines different sources and experiences into a cohesive experience for the reader, flowing gently from one section into the next. My favorite portions were probably the bits about the punk rock scene (definitely read Red Paint if you like this part!), veganism as a lifestyle, and the colonial nature of tulip fields and food sources. Personally, I love a book like this that opens my eyes to everyday experiences, casting a different light on them so I'm able to think more critically. Definitely pick it up if you're looking to learn more about Indigenous culture and what it can impact on an individual level!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Once I started this essay collection I could not put it down.
Essays weaving around the timeline of the authors life exploring indigenous culture, racism faced, trauma, sa and coming back to oneself.

I found the essays to be poignant and as the author self reflects it definitely calls you in to reflect on your own experiences.

Incredible collection.

Thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape media for an advanced listening copy

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for this ARC!

Thunder Song is a wonderful collection of essays on LaPointe’s intersecting identities: Native, queer, femme, punk. This book will easily appeal to any reader of personal essays/memoirs.

Thunder Song

Powerful Indigenous book.

I really liked this activist read.

A great memoir / book of essays on Indigenous life - particularly focused on lineage, race, identity, sexuality, gender, and social justice.

I believe this was my first exposure to a two-spirit author - so grateful to have been able to experience the viewpoints, and found the stories personal, impactful, and candid.

I found it a very profound book, and it is quite particularly powerfully written.

Recommend it!

3.9/5

I highly recommend listening to 'Thunder Song' on audio as Sasha herself narrates it, which adds an extra element of beauty and flow to an already stunning collection. I had literal goosebumps by the end of this book. I definitely need to get my hands on a physical copy to re-read, annotate, and also because look at that cover.

Throughout this essay collection, Sasha explores the range of human emotions through her perspective of existing as a queer indigenous woman in a colonised contemporary world. Drawing from ancestral wisdom and punk culture in equal measure, she masterfully explores an incredible breadth of topics, artfully pulling you deeper into the narrative as a reader.

What captivated me most was LaPointe's ability to shed light on a breadth of topics, expanding my awareness and knowledge with each reflection. Her storytelling navigates seamlessly between cherished anecdotes of her great-grandmother's linguistic legacy and painful reflections on the impact of prejudice and both ancestral and personal trauma. Throughout, Sasha seamlessly intertwines Coast Salish traditions with personal narratives, highlighting themes of injustice, ancestral power, and righteous activism.

I found myself fully immersed from the moment I pressed play. I look forward to reading more from Sasha, and I wholeheartedly recommend this book to readers of non-fiction and fiction alike. This truly is a vital book and a true masterclass in the power of storytelling.

Thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape for providing the audiobook arc. All opinions are my own.

5 stars

This essay collection is succinct in actual length but expansive in ideas. On a similar, seemingly contradictory note, the topics are varied, but the narrative voice is unified and engaging throughout.

I really enjoyed this collection. Having had no prior access to LaPointe's work, I came into this listen (I highly recommend the audio - it's always ideal to listen to the author read their own experiences) with really no expectations or frame of reference. My favorite connections were those made to the author's intersectional identities and discussions about the way others see her versus how she sees herself (and who she actually is). I especially loved the commentary on the Riot Grrrl scene and how LaPointe grappled with the intriguing but also exclusionary nature of that movement. I just came off of Kathleen Hanna's forthcoming memoir and am a long-time fan, so it was especially enlightening to get further insight into the issues they both tackle.

From identity to romantic relationships to power dynamics to road trips to her beloved grandmother, LaPointe packs a lot into this collection, and for this listener, there wasn't a slow moment. I can't wait to read more from this author.

4.5 stars rounded up

I really enjoyed this collection of essays on indigeneity, coming of age, trauma, healing, queer identity, relationships, and more. Thunder Song feels personal and a bit raw, but with enough distance to be thoughtful. It doesn't shy away from examining complicated relationships- with parents, romantic partners, and self. Places where there may be both love and hurt, but the opportunity for growth and perhaps healing and reconciliation. The writing is lovely and I would read more from this author in the future. The audio narration is also excellent. I received an audio review copy of this book via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

A moving and heartfelt collection of essays from queer Indigenous poet, activist and author, Sasha LaPointe about identity, family, colonialism and the healing power of music. I really enjoyed these essays, especially on audio read by the author herself. Highly recommended, especially for fans of authors like Michelle Good or Alicia Elliot. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early audio copy in exchange for my honest review!

Sasha LaPointe has a way with words. She beautifully crafts her own narrative in a collection of essays that I devoured in just one sitting. She writes about ceremony, storytelling, and life on and off the rez. Through her essays we learn how she grows into her Coast Salish Indigenous identity, Two Spirit identity, being punk, journeys into veganism and sustainable diet. She's optimistic and hopeful; she writes ( and reads her audiobook) with a strong voice, without skimming over the harsh realities of life as a modern Native in a modern world.

I'd recommend this collection for essay readers of all genres, Indigenous and non Indigenous people of North America and beyond. Thank you to Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for my ARC.