Elatsoe is one of my favorite books of all time, so I thought there was no possible way that Sheine Lende could compare. 

AND YET!

I LOVED Sheine Lende. This book was reminiscent of a warm hug from your parents when coming inside from a thunderstorm. Building upon the amazing world Elatsoe held, this prequel is centered on Ellie's grandmother, a Lipan Apache teen named Shane. This book had it all - a beautiful and exciting world, a strong, smart, and brave main character, a reckoning with generational trauma, an appreciation and deep love of mothers and the matriarchal line. Not only was this book all of this and more, it was clever and well-written, with descriptive scenes and characters that felt like friends.

I'm grateful to be in a world where Darcie Little Badger's writing exists. And where Rovina Cai's art exists!! Darcie Little Badger is easily an auto-buy author for me and Sheine Lende only solidifies this. 

I encourage all who read this book to learn more about the Lipan Apache Tribe, who continue to endure after hundreds of years of attempted colonization - i learned a lot from lipanapache.org, which also has a nice list of recommended reads (https://www.lipanapache.org/LAT/books.html) including “The Light Gray People: An Ethno-History of the Lipan Apache's of Texas & Northern Mexico,” by Nancy McGown Minor. 📚