Thank you to Berkley for the review copy of Sisters of the Lost Nation by Nick Medina; I appreciate a publisher supporting work that gives visibility to the invisible, and literally disappearing, lives of Native/Indigenous women.

There are many strengths to this story and the plot and mythological themes are important and well done. The story at times feels not convoluted per se but perhaps doing too much and not focused in one place/direction, which impacted for me at times my engagement and understanding of how the story was unfolding. That being said, this is a compelling story, one worth time to engage with the topic and themes as well as the story itself.

This is a recommended read for those who appreciated There There by Tommy Orange, fans of My Heart is a Chainsaw, and for readers who appreciate an inclusive, nuance horror thriller. I was reminded of last year's Jackal as well (Jackal, Erin Adams author).

The treatment of Native Americans is exposed in the novel about current day members of a tribe. It is infuriating and sad to read about the state of the Native American population. The story is compelling and the writing is good.

Anna Horn is part of the Takoda tribe (fictional tribe) living on a reservation that is slowly changing due to a new casino. She and her sister work hard to keep the bills at bay and her life is not a happy one at school or even at home. Anna believes that there is a spirit, based on an ancient myth that is following her and that leads her to be

In this dark and atmospheric novel, Nick Medina explores the very real plight of indigenous women - who all over the world - disappear. I found this story enthralling and haunting and enjoyed learning while being thrilled. Based on true stories as well as fables passed on from his paternal grandmother, Nick Medina has brought this fictionalized reservation to life. I loved it, and so will you! #Berkely #nickmedina #Nickmedinawrites #Sistersofthelostnation

This mystery novel is fantastic. It hits on some hard-hitting truths about women disappearing from reservations, and the main character is a strong female lead looking for answers. There are bits of myth and horror in here as well. Highly recommended for fans of Stephen Graham Jones.

First of all, I admire anyone who can write a book, so kudos to Mr. Medina. There were some very interesting aspects, regarding reservation life and legal jurisdictions on the res, for example. And of course the main topic, the disappearance and harm inflicted on native women, is critically important and needs to be discussed, yelled about, in all forms of communication until the atrocities stop. There were occasional moments of greatness, as in Anna's correction of the sheriff's question "what was your sister doing with this man" to "you mean, what was that man doing with my sister?"' But the heavy handed and obvious writing made it difficult to finish the book. Some of the comments I recorded as I read include "unrealistic", "ridiculous", "awkward", "boring" and "ugh". The subject matter is of such importance that I can overlook the writing missteps, but with a less important subject, I would not have finished the book.

I really like reading Sisters of a Lost Nation. I have not read a book by this author before and I did like his style of writing. The book was well written.
I am sure the topic of this book is a somewhat well known issue. The Indian nation has suffers much from our culture which is a great shame. I felt for the main character of this story with her struggles not only for he lost sister but what she struggled with within herself.
I would recommend this book, especially for book clubs as I feel that it would be a good discussion.

Did not enjoy this book: very wordy, confusing character, vulgar language, suspense was so drawn out that I skipped sections to finish the book. Didn't like the writing style, just saying'!

This reminded me of the new Predator movie that came out, Prey. Native American/first-people's horror mixed with their heritage and culture. I had no idea where this book was going to go and it was a delight to see and learn about the tribes and first-peoples.

This book was a little confusing in the beginning but I moved through it and I'm glad I did. The fictitious story of what could happen in the night life of a casino and a sister goes missing and what really happened in the darkness of night. I recommend this book.

I appreciate Net Galley's provision of an ARC in e format for this title.. Definitely a moving story, but it will take some perseverance to get thru this. I felt it was difficult to follow the story from day to day, too much going back then forward, could not always figure out what time zone I was in.. In my opinion this book needs some heavy editing before being published.

“Sisters of the Lost Nation” by Nick Medina is a novel set in the reservation and casino of the fictional tribe of the Takoda people of Louisiana. There is a blend of Native American mythology, horror, racism, bullying, misogynism and drug use as young girls go missing from the reservation.
Anna is a senior in high school and from a dysfunctional family. Anna is a pretty well developed character, as is her sister Grace. Fox and Miss Shelby are probably the other largest characters from the tribe. Miss Shelby was the Legend Keeper and a great friend of Anna’s; she is missing, but she is a fairly well developed character given that we don’t actually meet her in person. Fox we do meet on numerous occasions, but he is fairly shallowly described. He is an employee of the casino where Anna also works, a womanizer, a drinker and drug addict, but is he dangerous or not? He is meant to be a source of much of the danger in the book but that doesn’t come across well. I didn’t quite understand Anna’s urgency to insert herself in Fox’s life before her sister disappeared.
The reservation itself should be better developed as a character. It has formed these people and has played a role in the formation of the casino and the disappearance of these young women.
The last third of the book is much better written and is much more to my idea of what the quality of the whole book’s writing should be.

Nick Media's debut novel Sisters of the Lost Nation, was inspired by stories he would hear from his paternal grandmother about missing and murdered indigenous women and girls.
The prologue is a great hook. An uncle telling his niece a spooky story that seems like an urban legend told to freak little girls out. But it quickly gets a little more serious when the uncle tells the girl that Ms. Shelby, a teacher who went missing over the summer, might have been eaten by an evil, vengeful spirit.

“Never?” Her voice barely made it over the crackle of the fire. She thought of Miss Shelby again. Gone forever. “Can’t it be stopped?”

He shrugged. “Can’t kill something that’s already dead. I don’t have any idea how to stop it. All I know is it’s a good thing you’re not out here alone.”

The story turns to sisters who live on a reservation. They're about 15-17 and work at the Casino. One of the sisters goes missing so the other one starts investigating. There is a lot of social commentary on how law enforcement doesn't take missing person reports seriously enough and how nobody seems to care about what happened to the women and girls.
A tragic tale that needs to be told. I enjoyed the subject matter and the heart behind this story but I felt like it repeated itself a lot before it discovered a good rhythm and finally took off. I liked the balance of myths & legends bumping up against human monsters. A strong topic coming up in horror lately.

Wow. This story is so important. Read. This. Story.

Sisters of the Lost Nation is a story based upon a real family. No spoilers here, but the plight of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women is a crisis that our world faces today. Thank you NetGalley for this ARC. I highly recommend. Nick Medina told this story in a beautiful and heartbreaking way.

I will be buying multiple copies and making sure my library has Sisters of the Lost Nation when it comes out.

I wanted to love this, I really did…and parts of it I did. I loved the storytelling and heritage. I loved the scenery. But I didn’t love the story. It felt like it was trying to do too many things at once. Like they just kept throwing more and more into it to see what could stick. When the timelines finally collided, it felt like we were hurtling towards an epic finish…and it just kind of sputtered. I couldn’t gauge if it was YA or adult. When I finished it, the afterword was well written and eye opening and heartbreaking. This story had the chance to be something that, for me, sadly it never became.

I loved this book. It made my heartbeat faster at times and clutch the book tighter.
N The plot revolves around an indigenous American Indian tribe, theTakoda, living in the North American Gulf coast area. The native Takoda comes from the Sioux Nation, the name meaning ‘friend to all.’ The two main characters are sisters, 17 and 15 and their family living on the rez. Their grandmother also lives with them in their small house. The girls attend school in town and work in shifts as house cleaners at the hotel. The rez standard of living has changed tremendously with the advent of a casino/luxury hotel resort complex built on the reservation. The residents continue to live on the rez in their existing homes but with more money and jobs, life changed. Air conditioning, new appliances, furniture, tools purchased and installed. Their history and stories, carried down through the years, began to fade away, their loss observed by few, mostly elders.
Visitors, tourists, and others crowd the new facilities and along with the guests, the law enforcement was stretched thin resulting in an overload of crimes, petty to major. A lack of funding also played a role in why so many crimes received so little attention or investigation.
Although the novel is fictional, some parts were taken from real occurrences, actual events, and the cold hard numbers from the records of missing and murdered girls and women from Indian reservations across America and Canada. The numbers are shocking and heart-breaking.
This book will keep you on the edge of your seat. You cannot put it down. The characters are so well developed, they are your friends. And the story, the writer tells such a good story you don’t want it to end or, possibly, end with a different ending?

Boring and poorly written, no character development, too jumbled in timeline, I thought I would learn more about the culture and customs of the indigenous people and their family interactions. Did not finish book

This book will linger with me for a long time. The issues that this books touches are timely and heartbreaking. Anna struggles with who she is, where she is from and who she will become - while trying to understand who others want her to be. Then she is thrown into an alarming and frightening situation in an environment where she should have been safe. The situations in this book mirror life so closely that it is an addictive read at the same time that it makes us uncomfortable and aware of dangers and attitudes in the world we live in. The author's notes read like a continuation of the story and a call for advocacy. I will recommend this book for book clubs and all women.

First off, I want to thank Net Galley and Penguin Random House for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I was originally interested in this book because it was pitched to me as a Young Adult take on Gothic Horror that utilized the legends of Native American mythos - particularly that of the Takoda people. All of which sounded amazing and to be clear, Medina does all of this and more! However, I think those descriptors certainly shaped my reading experience in a way that made some aspects of reading this novel different from what they would have been otherwise.

Median’s writing style reads much more as “contemporary folklore” than “young adult horror”. Again, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing! I was pleasantly surprised with how adult this book felt and I think the book itself is better for it, especially considering the themes it addresses.

The book manages to address hugely important subjects to Native life - namely the plight of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. Given the subject matter, categorizing this book as “gothic horror” seems, in many ways, actively reductive. To be clear, there is absolutely an element of Takoda folklore and horror that exists here that is also quite interestingly written, but given the seriousness of the rest of the book it almost feels like a Native American Goosebumps. The blending of the lines between these elements of the story was where the this piece fell short to me.

Stylistically there were some bold choices that I’m still trying to decide if they were pulled off well. The plot is told asynchronously, which does help to build suspense and play up the horror elements even if it could be a bit confusing at points.

All in all, this is a touching story about the relationship between sisters and the importance of stories and who gets to tell them. How lucky we are that Medina told this one so well.

I have heard about missing/dead Indigenous women throughout the US and Canada but I have not read about it in such a contemporaneous experience. We learn that Anna's a young woman who works at the Native casino. She lives with her parents, grandmother and sister. She's grown distant from her younger sister whose pursuit of high school popularity has her getting into situations. There are many universal themes of popularity, fitting in, wanting to have better relationships with siblings when everyone is going through difficult teenage years. However there's an undercurrent in all this missing young women, stories and young women said to have "run away." There's a mystery here and there are questions that nobody's really looking into to get answers since that would require caring about these missing women. It hurts to be a forgotten woman and these types of young women fall through the cracks all too often. I felt for these characters so very much. It was an engaging read and I could not put it down because I really wanted to find out what exactly was going on.

Sisters of the Lost Nation is a welcome addition to the Indigenous People's collection of novels.

Anna Horn is a young woman living on a reservation - complete with a casino. Women begin to disappear and Anna tries to find out why. The heritage and mythology of her tribe play a central role in these disappearances. The myths are explored, the mystery intertwines through out the long time line and the book is engaging and informative.