Hi there!
Welcome to our November Finale for Rebecca Roanhorse's Trail of Lightning.
Trigger Warning: Violence, Mind Control, Monsters, War, Gods, Murder, Death, Branding, Gore, Gross Kiss (ew)
Overall
We liked the book, it was nice, and the way she ended it leads into another book for sure. The ending of this book was not our favorite simply because it didn't have a cliffhanger, and it feels like the story wasn't completed. It didn't feel like it got wrapped up- there were so many loose ends that it felt unfinished.
Mąʼii at the end was interesting too- we don't think things are over with him quite yet.
We were not as surprised as Maggie was when it was revealed that Kai was manipulating her. It was presented as if it was the craziest plot twist ever, but he had already told us. So we weren't shocked? There weren't enough emotional stakes to make the ending more impactful. The characters get lost a little in the environment, and the story is not very character-driven, but the concept and creative energy that went into this book are VERY cool.
Maggie & Kai
The characters were not well developed in the book, and so we didn't care much about them. Both Kai & Maggie were not dynamic and remained mostly the same. Their relationship was not very intimate (romantically) and therefore we were not very invested in their future, and were, again, not very shocked with the finale.
Maggie's guilt over being a Monster Hunter was annoying because she was treating it as if she was killing innocent people, which she wasn't. We were confused by Maggie's internal turmoil over her origins, and we don't understand why monster hunters are considered "dirty" in her mind. Does that have something to do with her past we don't know about yet?
Kai is cute but he's lame for wanting Maggie so bad. Maggie's attitude is based on a boy who ghosted her. And she isn't mature enough for Kai to love her the way he wants to. Kai could do better than Maggie, honestly, and Kai's relationship with Maggie deserves to grow before becoming romantic.
Neizghání
His character was underdeveloped as well, especially as an antagonist, and he is extremely flat as a character- which is more acceptable for a baddie, but even then, his motives don't go beyond monster hunting.
He did say that he loved Maggie, which also never made sense. Why did he leave her? Then he came back and kissed her (after beating her up, ew)? And he loved her? We still don't understand this. We think that it would have been much more devastating for Maggie if Neizghání had in fact loved her, and their relationship was lost for some sad reason, than for no relationship to have happened at all and yet Maggie is still somehow devastated by Neizghání's leaving. Boy, bye.
On one hand, we would all be sad if we lost our mentors, but we wouldn't be able to blame them for breaking our hearts, romantically, if there was no romance to begin with.
Mąʼii
He was the actual villain, and Maggie took him out in, like, three seconds. This makes Brieanna think that there will be another bigger baddie in the series. Either that or Rebecca needs to reconsider how she writes all of her characters.
Mąʼii was a fun villain, but then at the end, we were confused by his motives as well. Mąʼii should have given Maggie the ultimatum, not Neizghání, who we believe will become the bigger baddie in the next books. We appreciated Mąʼii's reveal at the end, but it was all exposition. Rebecca, we believe, might struggle with showing and not telling. This seems to be the major issue with her writing in general (see our Quick Read for Roanhorse's Black Sun).
Conclusion
We acknowledge that there is controversy with this novel and author as well as her heritage claims. We did not know this going into the book but have educated ourselves on it now. We are fully aware that Native American cultures span widely and are very diverse, and we see that, beyond this book, which is no bible on Native American culture, each individual community has its own unique traditions and practices as well as identities.
That being said, this book could have been a lot better and had a ton of missed potential. Furthermore, we will be doing more research on our authors moving forward when choosing novels for heritage months and pride months.
With love, see you soon!
Ceraya & Brieanna
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