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A review by em_harring
In the Night of Memory: a Novel by Linda LeGarde Grover
4.0
[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.
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.