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littleseal's review against another edition
A beautiful book about compassion, grief, and bravery. It has its "boring" parts but the ending to me made it all worth it.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Slavery, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
abaumler's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
panda_incognito's review
2.0
Kaya learns important life lessons in this book, and because it is a full-length novel, it involves additional character development and advances some loose ends from the main six books' story arc. However, almost nothing happens in the first half, and the mystery involving a traumatized, speechless woman is far too neatly resolved, with what appears to be a literal deus ex machina.
Because this book has a huge emphasis on spirit guides, it is possible that the denouement is supposed to show spiritual powers at work, or it may just be a coincidence that the tribe interprets that way. The open-ended conclusion respects native spirituality by not passing a judgment on whether it is true or false, but this does not make for a satisfying mystery novel. It is far too convenient, and the book resolves an extremely dramatic PTSD situation by tying everything up neatly in a bow.
This rubs me the wrong way as an adult, and I can see why I did not like this book when I was a child. I remember reading this at the pediatrician's office during a sibling's appointment, and I found it extremely boring and stressful. The emphasis on spirits and on the consequences of a traumatic fire were way too dark for me, and since the woman practically takes over ownership of Kaya's dog, it was frustrating on other levels as well.
Also, parents of sensitive children should know that there is a scene in this book where a predator kills another dog. I think that the author included this to raise the stakes, since Kaya thinks of this scene while going after her dog and the woman in the snow, but it is completely unnecessary, and surprised and blindsided me as an adult. I'm sure that it bothered me when I was a child, even though I did not remember that detail.
Ultimately, this book is just as lackluster and disappointing as I had remembered. In other cases, I have gone back to American Girl mysteries and found that they were better than I had thought, but this book is still boring, stressful, and unbelievable, and its only value lies in its educational details and continuation of some core details from Kaya's original series story.
Because this book has a huge emphasis on spirit guides, it is possible that the denouement is supposed to show spiritual powers at work, or it may just be a coincidence that the tribe interprets that way. The open-ended conclusion respects native spirituality by not passing a judgment on whether it is true or false, but this does not make for a satisfying mystery novel. It is far too convenient, and the book resolves an extremely dramatic PTSD situation by tying everything up neatly in a bow.
This rubs me the wrong way as an adult, and I can see why I did not like this book when I was a child. I remember reading this at the pediatrician's office during a sibling's appointment, and I found it extremely boring and stressful. The emphasis on spirits and on the consequences of a traumatic fire were way too dark for me, and since the woman practically takes over ownership of Kaya's dog, it was frustrating on other levels as well.
Also, parents of sensitive children should know that there is a scene in this book where a predator kills another dog. I think that the author included this to raise the stakes, since Kaya thinks of this scene while going after her dog and the woman in the snow, but it is completely unnecessary, and surprised and blindsided me as an adult. I'm sure that it bothered me when I was a child, even though I did not remember that detail.
Ultimately, this book is just as lackluster and disappointing as I had remembered. In other cases, I have gone back to American Girl mysteries and found that they were better than I had thought, but this book is still boring, stressful, and unbelievable, and its only value lies in its educational details and continuation of some core details from Kaya's original series story.
bahareads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
informative
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
A classic American Girl book, the mystery should be enough to keep any young person on the edge of her toes. I even was kept guessing for a bit of the book. Kaya is a girl worth getting to know through her works though I wonder how accurate all of the description is of indigenous life.
theresidentbookworm's review against another edition
2.0
I'm not sure why they started to write a series of American Girl mysteries, but I'm not a huge fan. I've never been a big Kaya fan to begin with, so this book did very little for me. The only plus of it is that it is a little longer and more mature than the typical American Girl fare.
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