Excellent book that captures the emotions and challenges of a particular period in time, that speaks to so much of the racism at the foundation of our country. Human condition is key and served with warmth and humility.

A raw, realistic telling of life in a reservation. You can feel the frustration and helplessness as you read through.

Thank you NetGalley and University of Nevada Press for giving me the opportunity to read this.

Not an easy read.
Adrian Louis paints a pretty grim picture of life for Native Americans - authentic, raw and hard to look at.
There's a "stoic despair" all around the people in this story - it sticks with you for days afterward.
You might question the choices or judgement of his characters, but Louis didn't just pull this story out of the ether.
I have no doubt it mirrors some real life conditions even today.

The Ghost Dancers is a posthumous publication by Andrian Louis that he wrote decades ago. I find that this fact is extremely important to keep in mind, because I really struggled while reading this novel. While I found it well written and compelling at times, I couldn’t get past the racism, homophobia, sexism, and s*xual assault. At the same time, I understand that this novel shows the reader the bleakness and rampant terrors that indengious people experience while living on a reservation, However, any sort of character or plot development seems to sort of….go nowhere. It was a challenging read, and I’m still not sure how I feel about it.

DNF. I'll give this one star because I didn't finish it, it isn't a reflection of my true rating of the book as I feel unable to truly rate it given I haven't read it in full. A very candid, very real story about life in a reservation. I found this book a bit hard to keep reading because of the little character development. I understand this might be a writing choice, but it wasn't working for me in terms of making me want to keep reading, which is a pity because I was truly interested in learning more about a topic I know nearly nothing about.
Thank you very much to the publisher and Netgalley for sending me an ARC of this book and making it easier for me to gain access to this kind of topics and literature. I will give this another chance in the future.

Adrian C Louis (1946-2018) was from Nevada, a member of the Lovelock Paiute tribe, and lived on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. He wrote both prose and poetry about Native American life, and this novel, The Ghost Dancers, written 30 years ago, is now published for the first time posthumously. Louis’ writing is not widely known, but on the evidence of this novel deserves to be. The story focuses on Bean Wilson, a middle-aged professor of journalism at Lakota University, who constantly reassesses and re-evaluates his life and beliefs whilst struggling with his personal relationships and his drinking. It’s a no-hold-barred examination of reservation life and an unflinching exploration of the ills that beset Native American communities: alcohol, violence, drugs, abusive relationships, violence of all kinds, and self-destructive behaviour. It’s a graphic depiction of dysfunction and insightful about what has led to it, namely US colonialism and its culpability towards Native Americans. The writing is good, if not great, the characterisation authentic and the descriptions of daily life vivid. It’s hard to feel sympathy for the characters but their plight seems real and believable. An interesting, thought-provoking and powerful read.

I did not really enjoy this book. I think when I read "multicultural" books, I'm often looking for insight into other lives. Unfortunately, this book really dealt with a lot of the stereotypes that you hear about Native Americans.I would've liked a little more balance of function/dysfunction. I just found much of it to be derogatory.

Great storytelling but the slurs were hard for me. I understand when it was written and a posthumous publication so there weren’t a lot of changes, but there’s a lot so it can be a deterrent.
Other than that a fantastic read and I wish there was more to have from Louis, may he Rest In Peace.

This was an interesting read and gives us a real look at life on a reservation. The plot was pretty depressing and I pray that realistically events are much better today.
Many thanks to UniversityNevada Press and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I believe there is a strong place for this book in Native American Literature as it is razor edged mid 1980s NA fiction at it more extreme. I do have issues of people thinking oh this is the rez everywhere or a good representation of anywhere. That would be wrong as it shows the underbelly of desperation & the easiest fell & none of the beauty. Especially when it comes to ceremony & the goodness of way People can be & act. It does touch on the pathos, pain & even sometimes the always humor regardless of how black that is intrenched in everything, that is something that will never change. Nothing is better or more purifying than a Lakota sundance AIM sweat providing you can make it through. You have been able to feel the Creator & see & are cleansed. The energy is very much AIMie of the mid 80s the characters were meant to make you question things & shock & horrify not like. It was a different place in time with different ways of projecting ideas to make people think & act than now. It approached things in a hard manner brought up worst taboos to see if people would talk about them that had to or process their own trauma. I can understand the author holding it back instead of publishing it before he went on as he saw it no longer was the crash vehicle needed to navigate into future waters imo. His writing is visceral & brought back that period so strong but time are so very different now.

This had a great premise, but really just spun in place. I think that's some of the point. Any kind of plot or character development begins happening and something dramatically halts it - violence and alcohol, yes, but really just lack of direction and purpose. When a character has those - to whatever end - then the story works well. But those are brief glimpses surrounded by frustration and grief. So, the point in many ways is not much character development.

That doesnt make it a better read. I felt like I knew more at the beginning of the book than the end, and the end never made it back to the beginning. Was this an unfinished unpublished novel? Missing chunk of manuscript? I kept waiting for the end to wrap it up and bring a payoff of some sort and it just didnt happen. I also didnt find out really how the character Bean made it to where he was in the beginning of the book.

This story hit me like a brick wall.. Absolutely recommended for anyone seeking a realistic and darkly humorous depiction of life on the rez in the 80s.

Definitely not an enjoyable book by the Paiute author Adrian C. Louis, posthumously published.
This is about the life in an Indian reservation (or rather two) with all its violence, poverty and alcoholism, the difficult relationships between people, families, race and nations and the question "Who is a real Indian?". With its swear words, brutality and racist comments it draws a realistic picture of the 80s and early 90s with some Native Americans trying to fight politically, others just to forget their sad life.
The characters though seem flat at times, and the story doesn´t really develop and set off. The language sometimes seems too dry, so a good intention, but not always a good execution.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC ebook in exchange for an honest review.

I was very much looking forward to reading this book. I respect the author, and the premise it's built around is humorous in a dead serious kind of way that appeals. However, when I come across a cat hung up by its hind legs being shot with a BB gun, I just have to stop reading. Violence against animals used as a plot device or as background setting haunts me. I can't read books with that kind of content. Louis is a remarkable author, but I can't review this book.

Thank you, NetGalley for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

DNF at 35%.

"The Ghost Dancers" tells the story of several Native American characters in the 1980s as they navigate reservation life. This book does not shy away from tough topics and plays around with different Native stereotypes. Definitely check out content warnings for this one because it gets pretty dark at times.

I appreciated some of the cultural exchange that came from reading this. The way the setting was portrayed was real and genuine. I appreciated the honesty the author incorporated into this book. Louis wasn't afraid to show the good and bad parts of living on a reservation. Louis also portrayed his characters in a very real light. This book has a whole cast of unlikable characters. He puts their flaws on blast and isn't afraid to let them make mistakes. However, to me, this portrayal was kind of a distraction.

Many of these characters are morally grey, at best. To me, these aren't characters you love to hate (typically, I love those kind of characters.) These are characters I just hate. Almost all of the main characters are male. This isn't necessarily a problem on its own, but these male characters had super sexist, misogynistic, and some of them, racist ideologies. Parts of it were genuinely painful to read through.

Although I didn't finish the book, from an objective standpoint, I think it's pretty well written. The narrative and the writing is interesting and done well. However, from a personal standpoint, this book was really hard to get through for the reasons I've said above and just the heavy material in general. This book is about trauma, family, society, and how those things play into Native culture. It's a lot to digest and although it has some worthwhile material, I'm not in a great headspace to read something like this now. Maybe one day I'll pick it up and try again. It's definitely meant for an adult audience. I'd recommend it to those interested in reading more Native American literature, however if sensitive to any of the things listed in the content warnings below, I'd caution against it.

Content Warnings: (Note: these are just warnings I noticed up until the point I stopped reading, at 35%, so there could be other warnings throughout the rest of the book) <spoiler> domestic abuse, violence, animal death (in the context of hunting), alcohol/drug use and addiction, racism/use of racial slurs, sexism, misogyny, sexual content, homophobia/homophobic slurs, mentions of sexual assault/rape. </spoiler>

The Ghost Dancers by Adrian C. Lewis was a real, raw look at reservation life following the character of Bean who is half-Native. The story is raw in the sense that it opens up about “rez life” in an honest way. The novel discusses alcohol abuse, poverty, substance abuse and just so much that goes on around Bean. To me, the honesty is the best part of this novel. Great book, although sad and heart-breaking at times, it’s a read worth reading!

This was a difficult book to read. Published posthumously by American Indian author and poet Adrian Louis, the Ghost Dancers is a family living on Pine Ridge Reservation and the family that connects them to other reservations and other areas. The book provides an unflinching look at reservation life, race relations, substance use, and family dynamics in the 80s.

One of the things that I appreciated about this book is it's real and hard look at these incredibly difficult topics. Louis does not shy away from having characters express racist and destructive views of themselves and others. This book does not give you a positive takeaway, which I think is the point. The Ghost Dancers also talks about what it means be Indian in many different contexts and depicts characters' feelings about Black, White, and Latinx people. I am glad that I read this perspective and I feel like I have a wider view of differing experiences within the American Indian community.

That being said, the Ghost Dancers is incredibly brutal. There is a lot of death, violence, and physical abuse in this book. It also portrays substance use and sexual assault. I understand that this is part of the unflinching look at life from the author's perspective, but it was certainly unpleasant for me to read. Some of the descriptions will stay with me forever and I would much prefer that they did not. If you are at all sensitive to any of these topics, do not read this book.

Overall, I am glad that I read this book but I did not enjoy reading it, which I understand is the part of the point. I recommend it if you were not phased by my description and if you know what you are getting into.

Thank you to University of Nevada Press and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

I was really looking forward to reading this one as the premise got me excited. I wasn't even 10% in and already seen the N word twice. So I had to stop reading. This would have been ,y reaction as well in reading any book that gave Native American Indians derogatory names.

This feels like a real depiction of reservation life-its poverty, violence, and instability- with all of its warts intact including racism (both against Natives, inter-Native, and against other races), patriarchy, uneven education, rampant unemployment, and drugs. In fact, the negatives really overshadow the positives in this book though the positives /were/ there. Most of the characters are deeply flawed which rendered them a bit unlikeable in many cases though human and the ending was weird and abrupt. Idk, I just found this a bit muddled in execution-not a good balance between the grit, the ghost dancers, and underground group. Curiously, I think it would've worked better with more of the grit?

This is a tough read, but probably an important book about Native American life and the struggles Native Americans face, often caused directly by white colonialism and interference. There are no heroes here, and no easy or hopeful stories. The casual brutality and willingness to use people and nihilism made this hard for me to read.