Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advance copy of this amazing debut!

How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder is a debut heartfelt novel about a pair of sisters with a secret. Not only is this novel nostalgic but also very informative about culture, the 1980s, and post-colonialism. I was intrigued by the depth in which the author set the scene down to the last details such as the royal wedding, the space launch, and the type of facial products Agatha Krishna puts on during her skin routine. I felt like I stepped into a time machine when reading this one. I especially loved the added flair of the teen magazine quizzes and the games they played (MASH, Light as Feather, Ouija board).

Not only does this novel do a great job of transporting the reader back in time but also highlights the complexities of family, sibling relationships, and coming of age. I'm exciting to see what the author does next.

Slice of life story of Midwestern Indian-American tween Georgie, explaining the eventual murder of her uncle as though a YM article. Featuring listicals, personality quizzes, and 1980s preteen ramblings, this short book is light, fun, and nostalgic. Like, totally.

I struggled to stay engaged with this title, however, the plot is an interesting one - two sisters in a foreign land, trying to blend in and at the same time quite irritated by their lot in life, and worse yet, abused by a family member.. I would have liked to understand the characters better as people… to go deeper into their hearts and minds. I could not emotionally connect with the narrator.

thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this, but unfortunately it was a DNF for me. which is really unfortunate because i really wanted to like it. the cover, the premise of the book was all really promising but i just couldn’t get into it. i think the format of the book also threw me off. i hope it’s properly edited for the print, maybe that would help me but i couldn’t get into it at all.

The only reason I didn't DNF this book is because it is very short.

I think I misunderstood what the book was actually about when I read the synopsis. I went into the story expecting one thing and got something fairly different.

The writing style for me was really hard to get into and it didn't feel like a cohesive story. It felt like multiple stories and events in their lives but more like personal thoughts and ideas like a diary then well thought out plotted story.

Me personally not having a trigger warning for the child sexual abuse didn't trigger me or stop me from reading the story but for someone else it could be extremely upsetting and a trigger warning is warranted. Even though it's not super explicit the emotional toll that happens in this event is described in detail.

I did think the quizzes and 80s/90s pop culture references were fun additions.

I enjoyed this story! I like the characters and the plot and I felt that, despite some smaller things, I overall found myself satisfied at the end!

Promising title, sometimes beautiful prose, but the book felt like a draft of a longer, more developed title. I applaud the author for her stylistic risks - some worked well, like the bizarro-world Seventeen style quizzes between chapters, and some did not, like talking to the reader directly and the tripling of words for emphasis. The book is at its best when describing the characters and their lives outside of the reason behind the "postcolonial muder." I think the best part of the book happened after the title event occurred, when we see how the murder affects the family. The plot is a dark and familiar one, both in fiction and life. Because of the sensitive nature of the narrator's trauma and its frequency as a plot device, I hold a work like this to a higher standard than others. Unfortunately, the narrator's trauma felt flat and didn't justify the writer's choice of putting her character in that situation.

I wasn’t totally prepared for how heavy this one would be with childhood sexual abuse is a core part of the story. It’s not graphic, but the emotional impact is strong. The writing style is unique: mostly stream of consciousness, with interludes like pen pal letters and teen magazine quizzes. It’s chaotic in a way that makes sense for the story.

The story opens with a murder, but it’s really about everything that came before and after. It’s a sharp, messy look at growing up Indian American in a mostly white Midwestern town in the ’80s and ’90s. It’s equal parts pop culture nostalgia and quiet devastation. The details are great (memorable TV ads, toys, teen angst), but they sit right alongside racism, family silence, and the aftershocks of trauma. At the center is the bond between two sisters - fractured, strained, but still tethered by survival and shared history.

The voice is angry and direct, often challenging the reader’s gaze. It’s not my favorite writing style, but the book is short, sharp, and emotionally honest. An ambitious, risky debut that mostly lands.

This read was totally different than my normal read, but as I got into it, I’m glad that I picked this one up. It was so good so exciting fast pace a definite Page tournament and I will recommend to everybody. Thank you for this awesome read. I enjoyed it.

I really wanted to like this, believe me... however this book was just not for me. I feel a little misled on what the publisher's description of this book is and what it's actually about.

I had issues with how the plot kept jumping around to different times, it was often confusing with what felt like ramblings or discombobulated thoughts strung together, and the quizzes that would just pop up had me scratching my head like it was a pop quiz or something. The writing felt like it should've belonged in a short story collection, and upon some digging I've found that the author has written some collections in the past. I feel as though this novel could've benefitted from being short stories from the sister's lives rather than the sort of rambling that we received.

Overall I wanted to like this. I thought the plot sounded really interesting, and don't get me wrong there were interesting aspects to be found here. However, I felt a little misled by the synopsis and felt that the writing needed a lot of work before being published.

I was so excited to get a review copy of Nina McConigley’s HOW TO COMMIT A POSTCOLONIAL MURDER. The premise is simple: “Summer, 1986. The Creel sisters, Georgie Ayyar and Agatha Krishna, welcome their aunt, uncle and young cousin—newly arrived from India—into their house in rural Wyoming where they’ll all live together. Because this is what families do. That is, until the sisters decide that it’s time for their uncle to die.”

Yeah — two young teens plot to murder their abusive uncle.

What is much more complicated, though, are the circumstances that have brought the sisters to this crisis point and the degree to which they are — or aren’t — culpable for their uncle’s death.

McConigley, herself an Indian-American who grew up, like the characters in her book — in rural Wyoming, has a knack for playing with narrative form and style. Most of the novel is narrated by the younger sister, Georgie, often addresses the reader directly, calling on us to confront our own preconceived notions about being a brown girl from an immigrant family in a very white world.

If I were still teaching my college English class on the British Empire, no question I’d add this to the syllabus.

Fans of R.F. Kuang’s Yellowface will eat this up, as will anyone interested in postcolonial theory of the novel.

How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder was unlike any other novel I have read, as it invoked an incredibly unique and nuanced atmosphere that can only be created by lived experience.

The story opens with two young teen sisters confessing that they have committed a murder and are blaming “the British.” We are then taken back to retrace the series of events that led up to this confession through a barrage of 80s teen references, generational trauma, racism, and sibling dynamics.

The beauty here is how this book portrays the detriments colonialism has caused through the lens of Indian Americans in a predominantly white space, with little community, while simultaneously giving a look into the cultural dynamics faced by these young girls with one foot in and one foot out of traditional Indian culture.

This is a beautifully executed coming-of-age, witty and darkly humorous, yet serious mystery that poignantly mimics the strangeness that is life.

So I really tired to get into this book, like I wanted to enjoy as the description intrigued me. BUT yea not so much...

I read the prologue and the first couple of chapters and I had to put it down, it was hard to stay focused as it jumped around and left me feeling frustrated. I felt there were holes throughout the story and thoughts weren't consistant, almost if I was reading someone's "brain storming" thoughts and not a book.

I just couldn't stay with this one and ended up DNF'ing the book

I wish I could say this was "not what I expected in a good way" but I feel that the actual content of this book was so jarringly different than what it seemed to have promised, it was hard for me to look past it.

Georgie and her sister Agatha Krishna are mixed Indian/White children born and raised in the 80s in Marley, Wyoming. In some ways they have a typical suburban childhood life in a lower middle-class family, with their father frequently absent working in the oil fields, and their mother doing what she can to keep the family tight. In other ways, they are living the lives of many Indian immigrant families in America when part of their extended family, Georgies Aunt, Uncle, and cousin, come to live with them for an extended period of time. Georgie's mother is expected to host and provide for them, even though they do what they can to integrate into the American life seamlessly. But this is when the troubles start, as Georgie and Agatha Krishna begin to be secretly sexually abused by their uncle, an experience that leads them to decide to kill him. Part harrowing family drama, part childhood reflection, part magazine quiz about relationships; this story paints a sobering portrait of the desperation of two young children caught between their trauma and identity, pushed to the edge.

If my description of this book seems to be at odds with the back of the book blurb, just know that I was just as surprised as you were about what this book ended up being. In fact, let's look at the blurb directly with some of my annotations:

At its heart, the tale she weaves is:
a) a vivid portrait of an extended family
-- This is true, if nothing else, it painted a family portrait, but only insofar as describing most of the family members as being present without fleshing them out.

b) a moving story of sisterhood
-- I don't know that I would describe this as "moving". There certainly were sisters with a complicated relationship, but it wasn't explored in any real depth.

c) a playful ode to the 80s
-- Had I not read that this was set in the 80s (and the handful of cultural references in the story), I would not have clocked this as an 80s book at all. I envisioned it with my 90s childhood lens and it fit perfectly fine. And let's be clear, nothing about this is playful.

d) a murder mystery (of sorts)
-- Nope, in no way is this a murder mystery.

e) an unexpected and unwaveringly powerful meditation on history and language, trauma and healing, and the meaning of independence.
-- Eh. I remain unconvinced. Again, there are things the story touches upon, but "powerful meditation" is being generous.

But most notably absent in this above list is that the entire crux of this book is based around Georgie and Agatha Krishna killing their uncle because he had been raping both of them in the bathroom for months, and they were so desperate for relief that they plotted to kill him. Don't get me wrong; I don't have a problem with this kind of content per se, but please be honest with me. We have a book called "How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder" with a playfully colorful cover, self described as a playful ode to the 80s and a "murder mystery of sorts". Do you expect this book to, perhaps, be a dark comedy about two sisters getting up to no good or a deeply harrowing story of rape, trauma, and how such severe abuse can crumble relationships between family members? My point being, this was so poorly pitched, it is bound to attract an audience that is not going to appreciate it for what it is rather than what it is promising to be.

But I digress, let's move on from expectations and talk about what the story actually delivered. Frankly, it was all over the place. It seemed to be doing so much that nothing was done well enough to reflect upon. We explore themes of racial inequality, financial insecurity, cultural exchange and differences, sisterhood, the intersection of culture and religion, ethnic identity, and of course, abuse. However "explore" is a generous word for some of the themes touched upon here. "Mentioned" may be more apt. I would have loved to see any of these explored in more depth than the were. The writing was also fairly strange. Our narrator Georgie shifts between the first and second person, talking about her childhood experiences, both the family dynamics and things like camp, school, and neighborhood friends, and then also talking directly to you, the reader, as she confesses to the acts that she's committed. But our dynamic with the narrator is not really fleshed out. This isn't epistolary. She's not writing letters. She's just talking to us, the undefined incorporeal reader. This is clearly a stylistic choice, but it interfered more with the storytelling by making me confused as to who I am supposed to be to Georgie.

This was not a bad book. I actually liked quite a bit of it. It was a quick read, and I wish it would have been longer so we could have sat with some of the themes more. But appropriately blurbing it would have done wonders for managing my own expectations for what this ended up being.

Title: How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder
Author: Nina McConigley
Publisher: Pantheon
Publication Date: January 20, 2026
Rating: ★★★★☆ (4 out of 5)

I received an advance reader copy of this book from Pantheon via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review:
Set in 1980s Wyoming, How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder follows two Indian American sisters navigating not just a gritty and often violent environment, but the cultural alienation and casual racism of small-town America. It’s equal parts coming-of-age, social commentary, and literary mystery—grounded in identity, survival, and sisterhood.

The writing style took a little getting used to at first, but once it found its rhythm, it carried the story forward with a confident, layered voice. Nina McConigley captures the complexity of being brown in a predominantly white place without ever flattening the emotional truth of her characters. One small challenge was the shifting references to the main character’s sister—Agatha Krishna and AK Akka—which occasionally made it hard to follow who was being referenced in the moment.

At its core, this is a novel about two girls enduring situations no child ever should, while carrying the weight of cultural invisibility and survival. The relationship between the sisters feels raw, real, and heartbreakingly tethered to the choices forced upon them. The ending landed well—it felt earned and left me thinking.

I likely won’t re-read this soon, but I will definitely recommend it to others—especially readers interested in postcolonial identity, sisterhood, and stories set outside typical urban or coastal narratives.

Recommended for readers who enjoy:

Literary fiction rooted in race, identity, and place

Gritty, emotional coming-of-age stories

Fiction that challenges American myths from the margins

“In spite of it all, she had come back.”
(Quote taken from an advance copy and may not reflect the final published version.)

Final Thoughts:
I really enjoyed this story. Even through the incredibly difficult and often painful situations they were forced to endure, Georgie and her sister Agatha Krishna (AK Akka) found their own ways to survive. Their bond, though tested, remained central to the narrative, and it was powerful to see them make it out on the other side. McConigley has written a layered, compelling novel that doesn’t flinch away from discomfort but still leaves space for resilience and hope.

I really liked the idea here, but my main problem was the way the story was put together. A lot of jumping around time-wise didn't really help the flow of the book. And while I sympathized with the narrator, I didn't really like her much. That kind of got in the way of the story for me too. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC, tho.

I have to disclose that I'm close friends with the author of this book and have been eagerly awaiting the chance to read it. That said, I was unprepared for how much I loved it! If you're at all familiar with McConigley's short story collection or her stunning essays, you won't be surprised that the prose here is beautiful and tight but the novel feels different in a good way. She doesn't spare the feelings of her readers, particularly white readers, and I know that makes people really uncomfortable. In Georgie's words, "good." She isn't here to make people feel comfortable about racism or child sexual abuse.

The character of Georgie is so fully formed by her voice and descriptions of her family, the house, and her town, even though she doesn't describe herself outside of her feelings and observations. The tone is light even though the subject matter is dark, and the use of teen magazine-style quizzes helps us remember the story is set in 1986 and is told though the perspective of a 12-year-old girl. Very effective. While the novel is quite short, I found myself slowing down to savor the story and let each chapter sink in before moving on and made the book last a few sittings.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this ARC before publication. Had to DNF as I just kept getting lost and never fully understood what was going on.
I really wanted to love this book, but after the prologue I was just so confused almost the entire book. I feel like a thought was written down and then jumped to the next one all within the same chapter and didn’t coincide like it could’ve. It seemed like it was a bunch of little short stories that were attempted to be morphed into one big story.
It was hard to understand and follow through the book especially when one page they talked about hangings then they would talk about school. Or from playing cowboys and Indians to talking about Currie.
Also the quiz in middle of the book was really throwing me off, and didn’t make any sense on how it went with the book.

While I can understand some of the poor reviews for this book because of a lack of trigger warning for the s.a. described within, I cannot understand the numerous dings for the writing style. I quite enjoyed this book- if you stop and think that the majority was written by a preteen, the “disjointedness” makes complete sense. I thought this story was both beautiful and sad, and appreciated all of the different and difficult family dynamics. To add to that, this family was comprised of first generation Indians as well as immigrants, and they were living in the “Wild West.” To me, this novel is a young woman trying to parse through massive familial stressors, casual and outright racism, feeling split between two different countries, loving her sister yet feeling as if she is losing her through no fault of her own, and having all of this happen at a pivotal moment in her life- her entry into womanhood. I do understand the “quizzes” as plot devices, but will say that I wish there had been one or two less. Still, I found this novel to be well written and quite easy to read, and am grateful to both the publisher and netgalley for the opportunity to read this arc.s

the concept of this book is a really spot on choice and the time frame, the narrator's age, and her observations of life's discomfort while in childhood kind of rang a bell in my head. What I most took away from this book is that kids notice a lot of the hardships around them– from friend's religions, to poverty, to global politics and their family. And they have an interesting way to try to process it all, often with storytelling and myths.

However, I don't think this was well-executed as a novel. I noticed the author has written a few short story collections, and the writing style geared that way for me. I think in short stories you can really explore strange concepts, experimental writing, and be a bit more opaque in things like setting, scene development, dialogue, etc. But, in a 200+ page book, it was disorienting, confusing, and distracting to never have anything grounding. It all felt very floaty and underdeveloped. The ideas were there, but the writing was just so so difficult to process/read.