Disclaimer: I received an e-proof of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Departed follows a Cherokee family fifteen years after the death of their middle son, Ray-Ray, who was shot by the police as a teenager. Ray-Ray was a curious, creative boy, and each family member mourns his loss. Recently, the family is struggling—Maria tries to keep the family together, Ernest has Alzheimer’s, Sonja is focused on meeting a younger man, and Edgar is addicted to drugs. I enjoyed the unique perspective each character has in their grief, and in the strange turns the novel takes as the occurrences in their lives begin to intersect with Cherokee myths and the spirit world. There are also many references to the Trail of Tears. Edgar’s sections were my favorite, I loved how creative they were!

The Removed is a novel following the life of a Cherokee family living in Oklahoma fifteen years after a cop shot and killed their son, Ray-Ray. The book is told from the perspective of the Echota family members days before their annual bonfire commemorating Ray-Ray’s life, despite their fractured lives filled with depression, drugs, Alzheimer’s, alienation, and loneliness.

This is not just a book about everyday hurting and pain—the book takes strange turns and twists as you begin to lose sight of the line between the living and the dead. Cherokee myths swirl around the Echota family as they prepare for the bonfire, a strange foster son coming to them that seems just like Ray-Ray, and their son ending up in a town that seems to be straight out of the Twilight Zone. Chapters are interspersed with Cherokee stories told from spirits’ point of view, helping the non-Cherokee reader understand the importance of the stories often repeated and remembered by the Echota. They encounter apparitions and spirits, signs and omens, strange visions that they seem far more accustomed to receive than any white people would have. I’m sure I would have been running for the hills, surely, if I saw a whole line of people marching through my home in the middle of the night.

Because of this blur between the spirit world and the waking one, the book feels almost like a dream at times. I would fall asleep after reading it only to have strange, vivid dreams that I were sure came from pages of the book but could not pin down what passages they sprung from. Though I didn’t always understand what was going on, particularly in the beginning, the book had a deep impact on me, and not only for teaching me more about Cherokee history and legends. It’s a poignant piece on grief, forgiveness, finding the sacred in the profane, and the importance of remembering the past.