Book of The Month discussion

BOTM Selection

I picked this one for January.

151 pages in and I am very pleased with how the author decided to write this and set up the time line. I am learning a lot, and the perspectives are all something I can empathize with and understand. It is well done, and I’m excited to see where this goes.

I'm only about 50 pages in and I was struggling a bit to get there but I am glad to hear that you are liking it!

I finished reading this over the weekend - I really enjoyed it! I think I'm going to need to read it a second time though, I feel like there were things I missed the first time around that I won't miss on the reread

I just finished this and maybe I should sleep on it before reviewing because I am very conflicted. I had a hard time getting interested at the start, then I loved the middle and then back to struggling through the end. I don't feel like anything was answered. I think the author was trying to use the Cherokee folklore to tie the stories of this fictional family together, but I do not feel it was accomplished. I also don't feel that he tied in the history of the Trail of Tears very well. He references the Trail many times but other than it giving a backstory for Tsala and a reminder of the deep wound for the Cherokee people, it didn't tie into this particular family's story.

I have a couple questions for those of you that also chose this book.
1. Did you understand Edgar's final chapters at all? I understood the significance of him seeing Tsala but was all the time in the Darkening Land a drug trip or did he die the minute he met Jackson? (Jackson Andrews ie. Andrew Jackson...clever..?) A quick internet search said that The Darkening Land is a place where the Cherokee spirits go to rest. Tsala sends him back "home" at the end so does that mean hes alive or dead?
2. Sonja and Vin's last meeting. He calls her Sonja instead of Colette. Did I miss a section where she tells him her real name?

I guess I need to reread that motel chapter!

I also don't understand Wyatt's connection other than possibly being channeled by Ray-Ray? I would have loved to explore more of the supposed reversal of the Alzheimer's because of Wyatt.

I also feel that there needed to be a stronger connection of Ray-Rays death by cop instead of just the prologue and a page at the very end. I actually think any other kind of death would fit in better than a random racist cop.

Yes, I can appreciate what the author was trying to do but he just completely missed the mark. I also can't stop thinking about it. There was so much potential!

I selected 2 of this months BOTH selections, this was one of them.

I am past the motel part. I was also wondering like Shyla, whether he did. But not sure how, it leads me to think he might have overdosed? Maybe? with the drug of his choice, but don't remember if it was meth or cocain? I think meth since it's based here in Oklahoma. It's really popular, because it's cheap.

Does anyone remember what his choice of drug was? And did he smoke it?

Elsa wrote: "I am past the motel part. I was also wondering like Shyla, whether he did. But not sure how, it leads me to think he might have overdosed? Maybe? with the drug of his choice, but don't remember if ..."

His drug of choice was meth, but if I recall correctly, he took pills at the motel. I'm pretty sure it was an accidental overdose resulting in death, not suicide

Finished it and gave it 3 stars.

Let me with too many question and didn't feel like the book ended, left me hanging.

I really wanted to like this one..... but I feel like the book was trying to do way too many things at once. I was left feeling unresolved about nearly every storyline when I finished.

Also, maybe it was the style of writing but it seemed to be written in a kind of elementary way. Did anyone else feel this way?

I loved this book and feel like I’ll probably read it around every new year

Margot, I also found that I was left with questions and confused. Not sure about the elementary part, I was focused on the frustration and confusion about why and what the heck just happend, on so many situations through out the story.

Maybe this one needs two or three reads to fully capture everything. I don't know. I might give it another try when I'm in a rut.

Wow Caitlin, glad you enjoyed it.

For the whole motel thing, I think he died, but Tsala was bringing his spirit back from a bad place because of how he died and the kind of things that were happening to Edgar there. It gave off negative vibes because Edgar was doing negative things like a purgatory hell of some sort, thus the ash and everything rotting. Leaving with Tsala brings him peace and a way to his true resting place from what I gathered. Ray-Ray and Wyatt are soul connected in a way that he had a lot in common with Ray Ray and there is a component in Alzheimer’s I guess from the authors perspective that was touched by the strange Ray Ray likeness phenomenon that it jogged his memory because the downfall happened some time after the loss of Ray Ray. So, having this little last goodbye properly might have been what he needed to beat the decaying of his mind from the negativity he held in for so long knowing his son is gone and he didn’t get to say goodbye. So peace was restored. I feel he learned her name when she locked him in the basement and if he showed up to her place and knew where she lived he had to have known her real name maybe bc he was stalking her late in the story, but this was not clearly mentioned.

The death by cop is revisited slightly toward the end with Maria going to “get revenge” but realizing he is basically dying and can’t give her closer that she cannot harbor hate over something but move on from it as Ray Ray would hope she would. All interconnected to Tsala in some round about way somewhere. But that’s what I got from it

Thank you Caitlin for that info, I figured Edgar was in some type of purgatory.
Why do you think the sister did what she did with the son of the man that killed her brother, because she knew who he was when she was stalking him. I though she was not in her right mind (crazy) to seek a sexual relationship with him. What was she trying to do?