Linda LeGarde Grover presents us with a new generation of Gallette girls in this new family drama, At once sad, humorous, hopeful, and heartfelt, this book had me hooked from beginning to end. The voice of Azure is dynamic and believable; strong yet fallible women characters will make this candid story of family relationships appeal to many readers. Those who enjoyed Future Home of the Living God or Bastard Out of Carolina would enjoy this one.

Have you ever been sitting with a large extended family and they're trying to explain to you how every one is related all at once? And you're not really sure exactly what the relationships are, other than the fact that everyone is very insistent that it's important and they're family.

That's this book in a nutshell.

It was admittedly a bit confusing at the beginning, as it was told in a non-linear style by multiple members of the family. And as 200-some page book covers several decades of multiple different lives, things are glossed over a bit. There are sentences like "we were there for a couple years" before moving on to the next section.

But for all that it is confusing, there are some genuine heartwarming moments. I was truly sad to see certain characters go and happy with where others end up.

Definitely a read for anyone that enjoys family sagas.

I was captivated by this book from the beginning. Although I had to continually refer back to the family tree/character pages for a while, don’t let that stop you. This is a story of loss and recovery, trauma and beauty, sisterhood and “sisterhood.”

I look forward to reading LeGarde Grover’s other books.

Beautiful writing.

[3.5 stars rounded up]

In the Night of Memory follows two sisters who are taken from their mother early in their childhood and are eventually reunited with their family and community thanks to ICWA. We follow, primarily, one of the sister's POVs, but there are POVs from other family and community members who knew their mother, who ultimately went missing after the sisters were taken into custody of the state.

I think every novel that highlights the importance of ICWA and the dangers that Indigenous women, children, and two-spirit people face is a win. These are incredibly important topics that need to be discussed both so Indigenous people can tell our stories and heal from our trauma and so non-Native folk understand the violence that has been enacted upon Indigenous people since the late 1400s.

That said, while this book is important, I didn't fully connect to the characters. Though there were moments that were heartfelt and emotional, there's so much distance kept between the characters and the reader, because so much time goes by in this relatively short book, and we're only sort of told what happens and not really shown what happens. I wish there had been more moments of joy and laughter and light in between these really harrowing dark touch points in, essentially, every section of the book. I wish we had gotten to see more moments of the girls (and eventually women) in their community, learning their language, learning how to dance at pow-wows.

I also didn't completely love the representation of Rainfall, mainly because we rarely see from her POV. I can't speak to the representation, but I just never completely felt comfortable with her as a character. Maybe because we, again, never saw many moments between the two sisters in the moment, only in reflection.

Overall, I would recommend this book (CW for child abuse and possible child sexual assault--it's not on page, but hinted at), and I would definitely check out another novel by Grover.

This story felt regenerative. Even with all the heaviness there were so many moments that felt like we could still come home.

I really enjoyed this book although some parts were very sad to read. I liked how the story was told from different perspectives throughout the book. I did not want the book to end. I just wanted to know more about Azure’s story especially how she started dating and then got married and had a child. I also wish they could have found their mother Loretta but I was happy that they ended up loving with family. I look forward to reading more books by Linda LeGarde Grover. She just has an amazing way with her prose.