If you see something, say something…

Quill is raising her two children with her husband Crow on Minnesota’s Red Pine reservation. Besides her family, her main passion is running solo or with her friends. When women start going missing in their area, simple things like going for a run in the woods become hazardous activities. But Quill is tired of the general attitude on the reservation that things just happen & you keep going. She starts her own informal investigation when the authorities come up with nothing, and despite the risk to herself she gets drawn in deeper & deeper in her quest for justice, & for CHANGE…

There are so many layers to this book, including but not limited to: the generational trauma that Native Americans face, issues with substance abuse (& how the halfway houses can be problematic), domestic violence, the pros & cons of casinos, the Land Back movement, therapy, & the MMIW (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women) hashtag to raise awareness. This was not an easy book to read, but it was an important one that gave me much to think about.

Thank you very much to NetGalley & Bantam for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A scream rocks Quill to her core on her morning run- she races home wondering what was that? Or more likely, whom?

The story is there but the detail in some of the small daily details, are too much. Complete paragraphs could be left out, as every description didn’t necessarily need to be written. This was very slow start to the story. The three main female characters were written fine, each felt individualized but again, felt like the same conversations during the same setting. The plot had some really amazing moments that tap into the author’s heritage and then would just get stalled. And those moments just fell into that repetitive feeling.

Still what a great diverse read- some powerful female empowerment moments. About halfway in, it was obvious where the story was going and how the mystery was going to unravel. And it was a little frustrating how long it took Quill to get there herself.

The story of missing native women needs to be told and Rendon does it well. I liked this. I want to try the audiobook so I just requested it from the library. Thank you for approving me!

This was a very interesting Book about native Americans on the red pine reservations in Minnesota.. Q u I l l was out running one day because she loved to run. She heard a woman's screen but could not find her. This led to a very interesting thing about how native american women and children are deducted and killed and raped. It was very interesting about D a l 00 t h minnesota How he used to sell the native american women to the men on the cargo ships. The casinos were just as bad because the pipemen were coming in in their camps and they used to drug the women. There are so many different interests in this book How this author tied everything together. She became a detective because she really wanted to find out what was going on. Her friend wasn't involved with the cop but he had a shady past. You learned so much about how they had to protest because of How a little girl was taken from a walmart and killed. They wore their red dresses because this was a symbol of their pride and showing they're They were strong women. It also talked about the domestic violence. They had to put up with as well. Infected her marriage as well because her husband was worried about her. She was a determined woman to find out the truth behind these missing women. Your friend was One of them. It has a good ending as well. People should take this seriously.Because I live in seattle and it happened all the time. It shows a lot of.
Courage to write a book about this.Because we need to hear more about this.

Indigenous Heritage Month

This made me so angry. It shouldn't come as a surprise that there are thousands of missing and murdered Indigenous women, and that nearly nothing is being done about it.

Quill and Crow are married with two young children. Quill is a runner. One day, she runs through the woods and hears a scream. As one does, she runs in that direction. She finds nothing, but a small beaded earring. As everyone on the reservation knows each other, she immediately knows who made the earring. Instead of calling the police or doing anything useful, she pockets the earring.

Crow doesn't like this individualistic behavior. He's not an asshole. Quill is just being stupid. He asks her to not run alone, which I think is fair. She begins running with two friends, Punk and Gaylyn. Everyone has their own problems, and yes, we can blame this generation trauma on stolen land and white people. Punk falls in love, easily and fast. It's a red flag. Gaylyn works at the casino, taking care of her mother and siblings. Her father is addicted to meth, and looks like an abuser.

Back to the earring Quill is carrying around. It belongs to a young, missing Indigenous woman. The tribal police aren't taking it seriously. No one is taking it seriously. There's a lot of back and forth at the casino. Two other women are drugged. One goes missing. The culprits are white men from man camps that have popped up in the area to house mining workers. So there is exploitation of land and women.

It's easy to blame white men for this predicament, and I'm not backing off of this topic, but at times, the culprit is a little closer to home. I'm not here to spoil anything. While I wasn't surprised at the colluder, as they instantly looked like 29837492374234 red flags, it may still surprise you.

A must read. I'll be looking at the rest of the author's catalog.

📱 Thank you to NetGalley and Bantam

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book. I was happy to read a thriller about an indigenous community written by an indigenous author. The topic of this novel is so important and timely, and fiction can often move us to care about something in a way that nonfiction can't. The story was well-written, believable, and compelling enough to keep me reading.

A powerful and thought provoking novel about missing and murdered indigenous women. The writing brings to light the complexities of violence and systemic issues that shadow indigenous communities. The story is emotional and not one to be forgotten.
Many thanks to Random House and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I found it difficult at first to get used to the writing style - lots of short sentences with telling instead of showing. But the story itself was immersive, and I could overlook that. It's an important story to tell - Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. I understand why the main character made the (maybe bad) decisions that she did, based on her previous experiences. I guessed at the twist, but it didn't take away from the overall story.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Bantam, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this eARC in return for my honest feedback!

This was a haunting and gripping that opened my eyes to the stark realities of daily life for Native American women and the everyday dangers that lurk around every corner. Marcie R. Rendon skillfully weaves together a story that shed light on incredibly important social issues. Quill was a character that hit me right in the heart and this is a story that I am still thinking about weeks later. I found it to be educational, important, and suspenseful. Both an excellent mystery and a needed commentary on the strength and resilience of Native American women and a call to people everywhere to give this a bigger voice so that future generations do not have to worry about these issues. Highly recommend reading this book.

A story of the kidnapping and sexual exploitation of Indigenous women in a small town in northern Minnesota, and a small group of women on the rez who decide to stand up and fight back, with or without the help of the authorities. The story also shares what it is like to live with the constant threat that exists for all the Indigenous women across Canada and the northern tier of states. Near the end of the book, the story comes close to going OTT, but even then, the reader buys into it because they want the women to be their own heroes. Highly recommended.

I requested this book simply based off of the Minnesota connection. However, this book was SO much more than I was expecting! This book did a fabulous job tackling the generational trauma and realities of living on a reservation. I LOVED the strong female aspect of the main character and the townspeople. I really struggled with some of the main characters decisions and the ending was kind of a disappointment, but this was a strong book and I found it to be very impactful.

A glimpse into life of the Native people of Northern Minnesota and how hard life can be on the reservation. And, then women begin to disappear. How far will they go to bring them back alive - and at what cost? Thanks to NetGalley for this gem.

good romance and loved how they found love and each other. They survived their trials and found their way back to each other. another great romance.

Quill's life on the Red Pine Reservation changes forever when she hears a bloodcurdling scream while out for a run in the woods. When another woman disappears, Quill believes that the disappearances cannot be coincidences and decides to investigate on her own, as the tribal police have not been able to uncover the mystery.

I really enjoyed the plot of this book and the fact that it brought to life the horrors that indigenous women often face. These are stories that need to be told. I loved the strong woman characters. However, I feel that the execution was lacking. Even though this book covered some very heavy subjects, I felt like the writing style was a bit juvenile and simplistic. There was too much telling and not enough showing, as my college writing professor would say (except when it came to the descriptions of the running suits-goodness gracious do we really need to know that much detail about them?). At times, the writing felt unorganized, which made the story feel a bit disjointed and chaotic. It was also a bit predictable and I figured out the major twist fairly early on.

All that said, however, I am glad I read this book and it kept me interested. I'm thankful that NetGalley, the author, and the publisher gave me the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.

Such a compelling read to figure out the mystery. The author did a great job to weave the mystery with issues of reservation life, the criminal justice system, racism, gender, and settler colonialism thru pipelines. The book highlights MMIW in a thoughtful way. Def recommend!

This is a haunting novel about how Native American women can disappear and no one seems to notice and/or care. I would categorize this as more of a mystery than a thriller, since the bulk of the book is a bit of a slow burn as our protagonist hunts down clues to find out who screamed in the woods, why, and what happened to them. Overall, a good mystery and an interesting insight into a Native American community.

This book was so incredibly impactful to me. It's easily one of my favorite books of the year. It felt like Firekeeper's Daughter for adults. There is such a lack of support when it comes to missing and murdered Indigenous women and this really highlighted the issue and how insidious men can be.

This book is a story about missing and murdered indigenous women. And I have goosebumps at how powerful and moving this book was.

Where They Last Saw Her is one of the bigger literary surprises of my life. I did not anticipate loving this book as much as I did. I did not expect to feel so profoundly affected by the words, the writing, the descriptions of our main character, Quill’s, delicious, dedicated love for her people and her children. And how sometimes that powerful and profound love gave her tunnel vision, because there was not one without the other. She cared about what happened to her people because she cares about her children.

It was a stamp on my heart. I was fortunate to step into this world of culture, history, generational trauma, resilience, sentimentality, and complexity. It was humbling. And that is what I seek most from reading. I want to know. I want to walk a mile in someone’s shoes, because empathy is the greatest strength. And boy, did this book give me a heavy dose of empathy. Of melancholy, of anger, of resentment, of feminine rage.

I won’t stop thinking about this book for a long while.

I’ve just finished this and I’m still processing. I really enjoyed the story line and the awareness it brings to MMIW. It was painful to read at parts, and I found myself frustrated with how headstrong Quill could be - while also relating to her desire to see justice.

I wish the final 5 or so chapters had been stretched out and paced a little slower. A LOT happened and I felt like I got whiplash. That final chapter felt extremely rushed given the closure I wanted to find for a particular character (no spoilers).

Overall, I really enjoyed this and would recommend it! Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Marcie R. Rendon's book Where They Last Saw Her is a call to action. Her protagonist, Quill, along with her husband and friends, calls for all - including readers - to make a noise about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and engage in raising awareness about the disparity of response and support experienced by the indigenous peoples when it comes to crimes committed upon them.

This call to action is woven into the challenges faced by the Red Pine Reservation community that had women and girls fading out of daily life and little to nothing being done to investigate why, how and where they'd gone. Some would turn up abused, some would be found dead, and some would never be seen again. Quill and her friends were careful to never be alone, an often fatal condition, but there are times in life when one must be, and having a sense of security while on daily tasks to feed or serve one's family is something these women couldn't take for granted. . . .and hadn't been able to for centuries.

There's a mystery wrapped in all of it, and it kept me leaning in, but honestly what caught my attention the most in this read was the earnest and urgent message to anyone who will receive it - help is needed, and now rather than later. Listen up and act, Sisters, and Brothers and all who hear this call. We all owe each other the right to feel safe in each other's company. Anything less is a trespass and breach against us all.

This was my first read by this author, but it won't be the last! Am looking forward to finding more of Marcie Rendon's work.

*A sincere thank you to Marcie R. Rendon, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review independently.* #WhereTheyLastSawHer #NetGalley