Medina (
Sisters of the Lost Nation) returns with a blend of horror and mystery, set on a Louisiana reservation, with characters trapped between supernatural horrors and everyday circumstances. Noemi Broussard didn’t expect much out of life on the reservation, but then she found Roddy. Just as they were preparing for their new life, Roddy is found dead of an apparent suicide. After years away, Noemi’s uncle Louie returns home, bringing secrets from the past that may explain what happened to Roddy. Louie and Noemi work together to uncover the truth, even as they risk unearthing something more terrible. Though Medina offers up chilling folkloric horror, his real talent is in depicting real-life horrors like alcohol use disorder and suicide and how they affect many Indigenous communities. Moving seamlessly between past and present, the narratives are made distinct by Haudenosaunee/Iroquois narrator Gary Farmer as Louie and Tlingit narrator Erin Tripp as Noemi. Both narrators fully inhabit the characters and enhance the story’s dread-filled atmosphere.
VERDICT Medina explores how generational trauma takes root in a family and on a reservation. Much like Indigenous horror writers Stephen Graham Jones and Erika T. Wurth, Medina demonstrates how to write a story with both horror and heart.
Comment Policy:
Comment should not be empty !!!