Friday, January 11, 2019

Review - Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse


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Series: The Sixth World #1
Genre: Urban Fantasy 
Age Group: Adult
Paperbook - 304 pgs
Source: Purchased 
Published- June 2018

Rating: 4.5/5

While most of the world has drowned beneath the sudden rising waters of a climate apocalypse, Dinétah (formerly the Navajo reservation) has been reborn. The gods and heroes of legend walk the land, but so do monsters.


Maggie Hoskie is a Dinétah monster hunter, a supernaturally gifted killer. When a small town needs help finding a missing girl, Maggie is their last best hope. But what Maggie uncovers about the monster is much more terrifying than anything she could imagine.

Maggie reluctantly enlists the aid of Kai Arviso, an unconventional medicine man, and together they travel the rez, unraveling clues from ancient legends, trading favors with tricksters, and battling dark witchcraft in a patchwork world of deteriorating technology.


This was such an excellent surprise I wasn't sure what to do with it. Overall this was an original and interesting urban fantasy. I was really excited to read it and it did not disappoint me. The world building is fascinating. Maggie's heritage and personal history is as important as the world's history and they are revealed in equal measure throughout the book. While Maggie hunts monsters, we see humans can be just as monstrous in this post-apocalyptic world.    

Maggie and Kai were the highlight of the novel for me. All the characters are interesting and felt fully developed no matter how little time they spent on the page. Kai was charming and amusing which really helped Maggie come out of her shell both for him and the reader. Their interactions helped lighten the novel in-between monster hunts and violent interactions. Maggie is dealing with some serious personal problems and traumatic events. Throughout the novel I could see her struggle with her self confidence and how to trust others. I liked that these feelings didn't magically disappear as the novel went on, instead she struggles more as she is required to interact with more people.

The only issue I think this book had was pacing. The beginning is a bit slow even though we are thrown right into the fire as Maggie takes on a violent and gruesome job. Then towards the end a lot comes together at once. It is very compressed and very fast. Personally, I think parts of the plot could have been stretched into two books so they were more developed and there was more time to build the world.


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