November Finale: Where They Last Saw Her (2024) - Marcie R. Rendon

Hi there!

Welcome to our November Finale for Marcie R. Rendon's 2024 Where They Last Saw Her.

Trigger Warning: Attempted Murder, Abduction, Talk of Rape, Sex-Trafficking, Domestic Violence, Assault, Verbal Abuse, Emotional Abuse, Talk of Death, Child Death, Gun Violence.

Overall

We really think this was a wild time for the second half of this book. Cliff is the same person as Trent? Same guy? A lot of action took place in the second half of the book, with very little resolution and very little attention paid to the aftermath. We think this is intentional - "things happen on the Res, and we move on." We didn't like that we never found Mabel. We won't find everybody, and Mabel is symbolic of all the women who are never found.

Quill, Punk, and Gaylyn

We think that Quill and Gaylyn were a little too nice about it, but we understand their decision to let them live so that justice can be served. We think Quill made some very dangerous decisions, and maybe could have done them more intelligently or with more cognizance. For example, the last time she went out running, she should have gone with someone. For example, the earring. She should have left it at the crime scene and called the police again. There could have been contact DNA on the item.

Gaylyn shows off her feminine rage when she gets worked up about the women who are missing. After they found Julie, and they couldn't find Lisa, Gaylyn was super upset because she gave a shit. Quill, not so much; she was extra protective, but not necessarily rage-filled.

The Police

Brieanna has a lot to say about this. In an ideal world, Quill would have gone to the police. But because she made the decisions she did, and chose to leave the police out of the loop. Because Quill had all of this information and chose not to tell the police, Brieanna feels like the police didn't even have a chance to be helpful at all.

That being said, police officers who are involved in Reservation disputes and significant issues within marginalized communities have a reputation for either being not helpful at all and lazy or actively and significantly harmful.

The Mystery

We thought that Cassandra was absolutely bananas. Crazy lady.

The final reveal for Raven LongEagle, the little girl who was kidnapped, having been left out in the cold to die, was extremely sad, but not shocking in the least. We were surprised that she died, but not necessarily how she died. We thought that she was being taken away to be trafficked far away. We think that Raven was dumped not because she was hard to keep, but because she wasn't interesting to the bad guys. We think that they didn't know she was alive.

In Conclusion

We hope that the two women are found, and we hope that the douchebags who did these crimes are caught and receive their comeuppance. Fingers crossed.

With love, see you soon!

Ceraya & Brieanna