https://www.dallasnews.com/arts-entertainment/books/2021/01/26/in-the-removed-brandon-hobson-delves-into-cherokee-folklore-and-healing-from-trauma/

What an amazing read!! I could read this book over and over and over again!! Very well structured and very well written!

I found this book to be a really challenging read. Not because the content per se, or the story-telling itself. I just found that the book left me feeling unsatisfied. There were so many really incredible things about this book. I really loved seeing how the different family members process Ray Ray's murder, and I thought the Darkening Land was an incredible piece of the story.

I enjoyed the myths and folklore that the entire story engrains and interweaves along the way. But I did find the book the be incredibly disjointed and messy, which made it hard to focus on and to process. It was a very short story, so it was a quick read. I just wish it would've been a bit more seamless than it was.

This novel was fascinating and I could not stop thinking about it after I finished the final pages. Each chapter is told from a different perspective (all members of the Echota family), which I enjoyed and made me want to keep reading to get to the shift in perspective.

The novel takes place shortly before the fifteenth anniversary of the death of Ray-Ray Echota, who was a teenager when he was killed in a police shooting in Quah, Oklahoma. The family is planning a commemoration to mark the anniversary, coinciding with the Cherokee National Holiday. While this event is the unifying factor for the story, the plot centers more around family dynamics and relationships, and the impact of Ray-Ray's death on the family in the present. The shooting is referenced, but the novel is not set during that timeframe. Other difficult issues are featured in the book, but the police shooting appears off the page.

I was worried that this book would be too heavy given the catalyst, so I did not pick it up immediately after receiving it. I now wish I had read it sooner because it was fascinating -- the story telling, Cherokee myths and history, and the characters. I connected with all of the characters and wanted to find out how things would turn out for each of them. The character Wyatt introduced moments of humor and the chapters told from Tsala's perspective also helped break up the tension.

The ending is a bit open-ended and ambiguous. As such, some readers may be left wanting, but I liked how the novel ended and found this to be a satisfying read. The ending caused me to keep thinking about the novel even more and wanting to discuss it with others. I also wanted to go back and re-read it, which is not typical for me, mainly due to the parallelism between the Cherokee myths/history and the Echota family's history.

This review is based on the NetGalley copy that I received from the publisher (HarperCollins/Ecco) -- many thanks to the publisher for introducing me to this author!

I thought this was a great read! Some of my favorite things about it: multiple POVs from different members of the Echota family; the exploration of family and grief, addiction and illness; the Cherokee mythology woven throughout. The writing was decent and the characters were compelling. I really enjoyed!

The Removed seamlessly blends native mythology and history into this novel about a present day Cherokee family. Covering the family's history, from ancestors' walking the trail of tears to Oklahoma, to the violent death of a beloved son, Hobson brings us into the compiicated world of modern Cherokee life.

I was given an advance readers copy of The Removed, a recently published novel by award winning author Brandon Hobson and am leaving this review voluntarily. I would like to thank NetGalley, Mr. Hobson, and Ecco for providing me this opportunity.

I wanted very much to like this novel, given the critical acclaim afforded Mr. Hobson’s previous work, Where the Dead Sit Talking. Alas, I did not. I didn’t enjoy the format, alternating the first person accounts of various members of a Cherokee family and the spirit of a Cherokee hero. The individual accounts did not make up a whole story. Instead, the book was disjointed, with each narrator’s own separate happenings, interconnected only because they were members of the same family or familiar with the spirit’s history. The arc’s of each of their stories were fantastical and improbable. After reading this book I have far less interest in reading the one that received Mr. Hobson his renown.

A beautifully written book on a family and grief, linked throughout the novel with Cherokee myths and stories. My first Brandon Hobson novel, but I look forward to many more!

I absolutely loved this book. I've read Hobson's other book and liked it, but this one I loved. I loved the way all the stories of the characters intertwined, and I thought the magical elements were very well-placed and interesting.

I attempted to read this book several times, and while the story itself had appealed to me, it was a very difficult book to read.

The Removed is about the members of the Echota family and their grief/healing following the day Ray-Ray was shot and killed by a policeman. They have an annual commemoration of the life of that young man, and this year marks the fifteenth year after his death.

There is an essence of the sacredness in this story. I appreciate the recognition of the weight from the past and holding the good memories in our hearts. The chapters of Tsala bring the Native history and culture in demonstrating the history.

I had pretty high expectations but felt this book was good not great. It just didn't stand out the way I thought it would. The story had great promise with the Native history, but was anticlimactic in the resolution.

I did enjoy the perspective of the family members and the Cherokee myths. I was very interesting! I just wanted more.

Thank you to Ecco and @netgalley for the egalley in exchange for my honest review.

3.5 stars but rounding to 4 for Goodreads

A mixture of folklore tied into current day bereavement. “Death was all around me”. It is a sad story about Ray-Ray who was killed by a cop that thought he had a gun since he was an Indian and not a white boy. The family mourns his loss and at the 15th year anniversary a new boy comes to live in their home. Wyatt is a foster child staying with the family as temporary placement and the father who now has Alzheimer’s is convinced that he is Ray-Ray to return to them. He is more lucid now than ever though. I loved the mixture of folklore into the story and the thoughts around it. It is a story that will leave you thinking about it after reading it.

Thank you Netgalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own.

Ghosts are all around. Sometimes they have things to say to the living, sometimes they do not. Sometimes the living listen, but often they do not.

Ghosts are all around in Brandon Hobson's The Removed. They show things to the other characters, and to readers, as much as they have things to say.

Fifteen years ago, the Echota family lost their middle child and eldest son, Ray-Ray, killed by a cop who shot the Indian at a public scuffle. Every September they have gathered to commemorate his life and his passing. Their family ended up in Oklahoma because of the Trail of Tears, and it is the time of year that his enforced march of death and misery is remembered also.

Maria is the matriarch. She has survived by plodding through each day, including years as a social worker helping foster children. Now retired, she is contacted by a former colleague and asked to foster a tween boy who needs a temporary home with his people. She agrees, even though her husband's Alzeihemer's is getting stronger. He and the boy connect over music.

Music is part of the connection daughter Sonja has with a new man. Well, it's about the only connection as the new relationship showcases how the whites in their town regard Indians.

Youngest son Edgar is addicted to meth, and is on a journey that may or may not be physical. After a falling out with his girlfriend because of his drug use, he hops on a train where everyone is becoming ill. He hops off in a gray town in the Darkening Lands, running into an old high school friend who wants him to be the model for Indian avatars in a virtual reality game. Walking through town, talking about music is a common thread with his sister. The white people in town keep telling him that he looks like Jim Thorpe, and call him Jim.

Birds are another common thread. Edgar adopted a red fowl that he soon tried to get rid of, and it may or may not be tracking him down. Sonja hears an owl before spending the day and night with her latest lover, and a large bird hovers over his house while she stands outside in a heavy rainstorm.

In between chapters about the four main family members are old stories of their people, told by Tsala, an ancestor who took part in the Trail of Tears. The parables he relates resonate in the current times.

The Removed is a strong, stirring story of survivors who live not by hope, but by love.

I found some parts of this book to be so captivating but as a whole it felt disjointed and confusing. I feel as though I missed quite a bit of the imagery that maybe would have helped me appreciate it more. Some may love this - wasn’t for me! Thanks to netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I love this book, and in fact, I am re-reading it for a book club now. One of the few books this year that I've actually purchased for my personal library, and I imagine I'll be revisiting it again and again

There is something so very different about The Removed that I can't put my finger on, but it made me love the writing so much. The closest words I can string together in a semi-coherent sentence to describe it: it felt deliberately heavy-handed in a beautiful way that made me connect with the characters in an unusual way.

Each character was so fully realized and flawed and compelling- I appreciated all of them, but Edgar and Sonja stood out to me the most.

And......The Darkening Land. Holy cow.

I am just in awe of this book.

I picked this up and was immediately sucked into the story. As with most stories told from alternating perspectives, I found that my interest in some stories was greater than others. Maria was my favourite, Edgar was my least favourite. I held my interest all the way through and I've been turning it over in my mind ever since.

This is a hard book to read due to subject matter (including murdered children and ethnic cleansing), but it is written so well. There's a lot of contemporary problems addressed in this novel, but this novel is largely about learning to live with the past and the history of a land and a people. Really appreciated this dive into the Cherokee people and the myths and legends that surround them.

I loved being able to see from so many different viewpoints. That doesn’t always work. I was interested with what was happening with all
Of the characters. I wanted more.

This book is centered around the death, 15 years earlier, of the Echota family's middle son, 15 year old Ray-Ray. Separate chapters reveal the present-day lives of Maria and Ernest (his parents), Sonja (sister), and Edgar (younger brother), the joys and struggles and weird obsessions as they prepare to observe the anniversary of Ray-Ray's untimely death and deal with their ever-present grief and loss. The book incorporates various Cherokee myths and stories. I thought the writing was beautiful and descriptive, the characters were flawed and struggling and yet still had hope.