Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

     I have been waiting to read this for FOREVER. Soon as I was approved, I kept making excuses on why I had to read it right then. I really wanted to love this book, but it ended up being just ok. I mean, there are TWO monster fighting scenes in the whole book about a monster slayer!

     Maggie Hoskie has been walking the earth with fellow five fingereds and even gods and heroes. But this also means there are monsters not far behind. After fighting off one for a small town, Maggie learns there is something way larger at stake. She and her "friend" Kai have to race the monsters to keep the five fingereds safe.

"...evil wasn't just some spiritual concept or the deeds of a bad man. It was real, physical, more like an infectious disease. And you could catch evil if something evil got inside you. And once inside you, it could rake you over. Make you do evil things. Hurt people you wouldn't have hurt otherwise, and eventually, kill."

6%

     I really liked certain things about this book, but others, not so much. One of the things I didn't care for, was the fact that this book was about a Navajo monster slayer, AND THERE ARE TWO MONSTER FIGHTS IN THE WHOLE BOOK. This book is over 300 pages and there are only two fights in the whole thing. I was just disappointed in it. Call me terrible, but I wanted to see more fighting and more monster slaying. "Retired" or not, I just wish there had been more.

"I remember the first time I saw the Wall. [...] It was beautiful. It was ours. And we were safe. Safe from the outside world, at least. But sometimes the worst monsters are the ones within."

9%

     However, I really LOVED the Navajo myths and legends and how they were depicted. THIS is the magic of #ownvoices y'all! I found myself getting swept away to Maggie world and wanting to understand it all, so I went and looked up some of their myths and legends and their gods and heroes to get more information on them. It was so interesting and I loved seeing the twists and turns that resulted in the one that this book was about.

"Greed is universal."

19%

     Then there was the writing style. It wasn't my favorite, but it wasn't BAD either. It just seemed like a filler; like it had second book syndrome, but it was the first one. (I'm not sure how else to explain it.) But, with the events from this book, the sequel will be EPIC and I can't wait to see what happens to a certain someone and I can't wait to see what will become of them.

"...sometimes you defeat your enemies by making them your friends"

95%

     This wasn't exactly the read I was expecting, but it was entertaining. And it taught me so much. And that's how I know that I've fallen for a book. If it can entertain me and teach me at the same time, then I know that this book was what I needed.