I put this under Sad, though it doesn't have the tags, because much of it is about an Indian boarding school in Montana where children were abused, neglected and deprived of their language and culture. If anything, the depiction here is more positive than history because there are some people who are kind to the boys, which probably was rarely the case.
The rest of the story is also mainly sad, plus very weird. In this series there are frequent episodes of magical realism in Sheriff Walt Longmire's life. For instance, he is guided to safety by an old Indian nobody else can see, or he gets a message that seems to come from an owl aor a wolf. These are always tied to Native spirituality, and some people tell Walt he has the ability to experience messages from the other side. In this book, Walt wakes up in a strange town with no memory at first of who he is or how he got there. He keeps meeting people who seem familiar but not quite. It turns into a very Twilight Zone type place where the time never changes and people are doomed to replay their lives. It's never really light there and it's hard to tell if anyone is trustworthy - so also sad.
Some readers hated this book because of the alternate reality aspect. I had no problem with that but I was confused about the interaction with the "real world".. Interspersed with Walt's confusing journey through time and space, we see Vic, Henry, and Dog trying to find him. This is where I have a couple of problems. If anyone has read this and can answer them, please let me know.
(view spoiler)[ I am fine with the whole concept that while Walt's physical body is injured, in a coma, and hidden, his spirit ranges through the town and goes back in time - this happened to him in other books as well. But how can a physical imprint of his body and his smell, which Dog picks up, exist in the hotel room? And why didn't they use Dog to track Walt and find him?
Also, in one scene, Vic drives through the blizzard to try to save the life of the villainous Artie Smallsong because he may be able to tell them where Walt is. They crash into a creek and are both soaked with freezing water. Then the story cuts back to Walt, and next thing we know, Vic is with Henry confronting a different bad guy. How did she get back from the remote creeek without freezing? Or is all this stuff in Walt's mind too? (hide spoiler)]
The rest of the story is also mainly sad, plus very weird. In this series there are frequent episodes of magical realism in Sheriff Walt Longmire's life. For instance, he is guided to safety by an old Indian nobody else can see, or he gets a message that seems to come from an owl aor a wolf. These are always tied to Native spirituality, and some people tell Walt he has the ability to experience messages from the other side. In this book, Walt wakes up in a strange town with no memory at first of who he is or how he got there. He keeps meeting people who seem familiar but not quite. It turns into a very Twilight Zone type place where the time never changes and people are doomed to replay their lives. It's never really light there and it's hard to tell if anyone is trustworthy - so also sad.
Some readers hated this book because of the alternate reality aspect. I had no problem with that but I was confused about the interaction with the "real world".. Interspersed with Walt's confusing journey through time and space, we see Vic, Henry, and Dog trying to find him. This is where I have a couple of problems. If anyone has read this and can answer them, please let me know.
(view spoiler)[ I am fine with the whole concept that while Walt's physical body is injured, in a coma, and hidden, his spirit ranges through the town and goes back in time - this happened to him in other books as well. But how can a physical imprint of his body and his smell, which Dog picks up, exist in the hotel room? And why didn't they use Dog to track Walt and find him?
Also, in one scene, Vic drives through the blizzard to try to save the life of the villainous Artie Smallsong because he may be able to tell them where Walt is. They crash into a creek and are both soaked with freezing water. Then the story cuts back to Walt, and next thing we know, Vic is with Henry confronting a different bad guy. How did she get back from the remote creeek without freezing? Or is all this stuff in Walt's mind too? (hide spoiler)]