I am very enthusiastic about Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse. I loved this book, and I am going to very soon go on to read the next in the series. But I can’t just leave you at that because this book has some graphic violence including some nasty scenes that involve children and the elderly. These are life-changing moments for our protagonist so they work on the whole, but I would not fault you if you were like, nah, thanks. I just can’t go there. And I had to warn you. But I also had to tell you that this book rocketed to my Favorites list out of nowhere. Despite the brutal scenes (and the first person present POV which I didn’t even notice after like a paragraph).

In a postapocalyptic world where climate change floodwaters remapped the coastlines and decimated the population, Dinetah (known to outsiders as the Navajo Reservation) is one of the remaining societies. Since this is the fifth flood, the Dine gods and heroes have returned to walk the earth. But so have the monsters. Maggie has clan powers that make her an especially lethal killer. But when her monsterhunter-mentor abandons her without an explanation, she’s isolated, angry, and wondering if she isn’t just another kind of monster. And when she kills a monster like none she’s ever seen before, she’s sent on a quest with a stoopid-handsome medicine man across an isolated, magical, gritty Dinetah full of strange creatures, desperate people, and hardscrabble towns.

There is a second book in the Sixth World series, Storm of Locusts. I have the impression that there were (are?) supposed to be even more, but Roanhorse has put out a number of other books, instead. Trail of Lightning ends, sure, but not completely. It is clearly meant to be continued. We have some unresolved questions here. I am hoping Storm of Locusts is more resolved. Unless there are more coming… (Roanhorse has blamed the lack of more books on the publishing industry, and while that totally tracks, I have to wonder if it is not also related to the accusations made by her critics, see below.)

So what did I love so much about this book?

I think it helps when you don’t know how great a book is supposed to be. Which means this review is not helping you with your reading. But it is helping you choose to read the book. I cracked the book open because it was next on my book club list, and a chapter later I was both disgusted (because of the scene with the kid) and so intrigued that I could not bring myself to put it down. Especially for New Adult (or YA fantasy or perhaps magic realism), the writing is super clean, sometimes even beautiful. The characters are deep, complicated, and compelling. Stuff happens constantly. And the world building is as close to perfect as I have seen. We are there. It makes sense. It pulls together elements of history and legend. I see it. I taste it. I smell it. I hear it.

And it is focused completely around the Dine society and culture, which is a big pro- for me. I actually have been in this part of the world before, staying on a reservation for a month. And I am always happy to see more Native American voices in the book world (and in the all the arts and culture things). (Techincally, Roanhorse is not a “Native American voice,” see below, but the voices in the book are. Plus you could argue she really is, anyhow, just part of a diverse chorus of Native voices.) And when that voice comes out swinging, like this? I enjoyed every minute (except those two scenes), even when the situations and characters and settings were grittier than I usually choose. (There is a lot of underground society, illegal and morally suspect things. Like American Gods or really—like the cover suggests with its styling—like Stephen King. Most people are perfectly comfortable in those spaces. Not so much me, usually.)

I am also going to have to read some of her other books, because I am already a fan with this one read. They are:

Between Earth & Sky:

Black SunFevered StarMirrored Heavens

The Sixth World:

Trail of LightningStorm of Locusts

Stand-alones:

Race to the SunTread of Angels

Short Stories:

“Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience”“A Brief Lesson in Native American Astronomy”“Harvest”“The Takeback Tango”“Falling Bodies”“Wherein Abigail Fields Recalls Her First Death, and Subsequently Her Best Life”

There are some critics of Roanhorse, largely centered on her not being raised in the Native culture or having official affiliation. These critics claim that her stories amount to cultural appropriation and that her representation of the culture is inaccurate and discloses stories that are meant to be kept sacred. It appears that most of these critics are Navajo academics (and opposing critics accuse them of having a narrow view of Native literature). Roanhorse tries to be careful about how she represents herself as being a Pueblo descendent (as well as a Black woman) as well as the wife of a Navajo. (Her website mentions none of these things, at this point.) But she has written the books, and I am sad to see that Trail of Lightning has this criticism. I can’t speak directly to it—just share what I learned with you—but I personally found the books to be culturally exciting and more than respectful of the Dine people. As an outsider (with my own complicated genetic makeup), I felt invited into both the real and the magical aspects of a fantastical (and historical) version of Dinetah.

Like I said, I loved this book. I wished the gory violence hadn’t included children and the elderly, but I got past that because there was so much—like everything else—that I liked about it. We also have some stressing out and drawing blood with fingernails or teeth (like every single book written since 2015! I swear!). But this one is going onto my Favorites list, and I will be reading more Roanhorse.

Rebecca Roanhoarse was born in 1971. She is Black and Native (Pueblo, by blood) but was adopted and raised by white parents in Texas (and has no official tribal recognition). She graduated from Yale Law and was a clerk for the Navajo Supreme Court. She married a Navajo man, and they live in New Mexico with their daughter.

She started as a writer working on Marvel comics. In 2017, a short story catapulted her to fame when it won the Nebula and Hugo and was nominated for a Locus (and other awards). Her first novel was Trail of Lightning, which received critical acclaim and the Locus Award as well as nominations for the Hugo and Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards. She has since then written more novels (and gotten many more awards) and short stories and worked on comics and in screen. She also has a book in the Rick Riordan Presents universe.

Her website can be found HERE.

“But I’m all alone out here, even with him standing a few feet away” (p75).

“‘Words matter,’ he says. ‘The name you give things, it forms them when you speak. You must always be careful with your words'” (p75).

“But here is Grace, she of the big talk and little stature, holding on to me like I mean something” (p190).

“‘Being a hero’s not about being perfect. It’s about doing the right thing, doing your best to get the people you care about home safely. You were willing to sacrifice yourself to do that” (p232).

“A good man can use a hammer to build a house. A bad man can use it to kill his neighbor. The hammer is the same” (p234).

“Everything you’ve done, your past, it’s all just a story you tell yourself. Some of it is true, but some of it is lies” (p235).