Rain Is Not My Indian Name

[sanguinity]

12. Cynthia Leitich Smith, Rain Is Not My Indian Name.

This one threw me for a loop: Rain is the first Native character I have ever pinged recognition on. (Did I mention ever? Ever.) Sometimes mixed characters ping for me, and sometimes lighty characters ping, but those characters have never been Native before. And yes, that matters.

For the record, Rain is nothing like me in important ways: she's enrolled in her mother's tribe, and culturally connected to her mother's tribe, too. However, like me, she is Native-white mixed blood, white-looking (in fact, her physical description almost precisely matches mine), and culturally disconnected from her father's tribe (as is her father and his mother before him). Which means that any number of times during this book something would happen and I'd freeze in recognition: "Yes, it's like that. It's exactly like that." And then I'd have to shut the book for a minute while I let the emotional whipsnap settle. But only a minute, because there was more book to read.

("Emotional whipsnap" is a highly sanitized term. But I'm not going there in this post.)

The elements that I pinged on are significant parts of Rain's characterization, but fairly minor parts of the story -- by no means is this a problem novel about being a lighty -- but my reactions to those absolutely dominated all my other reactions. Even if this book was utter crap in all other ways, it'd still be getting a special place on my shelf. Like I said, these things matter.

Fortunately, this book is not utter crap. In fact, I suspect that it's probably a pretty good book, even for people who aren't me. Much of the plotline is about recovering from grief, and Smith nails that: how bored you get of the pain, long before the pain is done with you; how it offsets your life several months from those who weren't experiencing that grief; how it calcifies around you and exhausts you, creating a barrier between you and others that has to be surmounted again and again, if you choose to surmount it at all.

Oh, and the thing with Rain's ruptured friendship with Queenie? Again, Smith nails that you can't really decide to ignore each other: you both know too much, you're both too dangerous to the other. Ex-friends are for life.

Also, it's a messy book, which is something I heartily approve of. F'rinstance: (skip spoiler)

as precious as Galen was to Rain, he still betrayed Queenie twice (once by dumping her for being black, and a second time by blaming Queenie for the break-up) and then co-opted Rain into both betrayals (switching his affections to Rain, who is conveniently, and non-coincidentally, almost white; allowing Rain to break off her friendship with Queenie on the basis of the lie he had trumped up to save his own face). What can Rain do with those betrayals, especially given that Galen is dead?

(And while we're on the topic, Smith's willingness to embrace messiness is also part of why the book "pings" so hard for me on mixed, lighty, and disconnect stuff: those are messy experiences. If Smith had neatened them, there would be no ping.)

One last thing: it's a well-crafted book. I've been re-reading bits and pieces here and there while writing this review, and there are lots of little details that didn't have meaning on the first read-through, but are little bombs of significance on re-read.

Most books come into my hands, I read them, and I let them go again; this one is definitely getting a place on my shelf.

(Additional tags: Muscogee - author; Muscogee - character; Ojibwe - character)

'Blaze of Memory' by Nalini Singh

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

This is the latest of Nalini Singh's Psy-Changeling series, which I continue to read. I've actually not read any of the books for a while, and so had to go back and read the previous two, just to make sense of this plot, which I think is fairly indicative.

Basically, if you've read the rest of the series, then do read this. The plot continues to be interesting and engaging, with a heavy layer of romantic schmaltz and slightly dubious alpha male/broken female power dynamics thrown over the top. Dev, the hero in this, is the Director of the Shine Foundation, Talin's boss from 'Mine to Possess'. He's also the first hero to be both PoC and have a clearly defined and explored culture - he's obviously Asian, has an Asian name, and speaks Hindi with his grandmother. I quite liked this, but other than that, he's a fairly standard Nalini Singh Alpha Male.

There are some nice moments from the characters from the previous books - Judd Lauren, Lucas, Sascha, in particular - and I did like some of the character development for the counselors. Overall, I did like this book, but I just wish Nalini Singh weren't quite so wedded to her slightly squicky male/female power dynamics.