Elatsoe
By: Darcie Little Badger / Narrated By: Kinsale Hueston
Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
Would LOVE to say I loved it; alas, ‘twas only >MEH<
First off, as sooon as I’d finished Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger, I dashed over and Googled narrator Kinsale Hueston. Certainly, she had to be Native, but whatthehey? Can not someone Native emote properly? And, dude, I was soooo surprised to hit her website, listen to her spoken words (She’s a poet(ess) of note), and absoLUTEly fell in love. Oh my good golly gosh. Anyone who can despise Sherman Alexie as much as I do? I’ll give them a Listen. But anyone who can put it in such an aMAZing way, and deliver it all with such passion, such eloquence, such despair/disgust that HE is held up to be THE “Indian” writer, the ONLY one, and when Native American Heritage Month rolls around, HE is the one that’s done in school rooms. Never mind the fact that he’s a despicable person, a macho type o’ guy who has zippo respect for women… seriously? That’s all we can offer? (And I do confess we did one of his offerings for NAHM, but damned if I won’t be able to find different voices this coming November…)
ANYWAY, I’m digressing, but I doooo wish to state here that Hueston is drop dead wonderful, she delivers her rallying cry so beautifully there speaking her own words.
Which makes me wonder WHY she couldn’t do that for the >MEH< Elatsoe. By Darcie Little Badger, this valiant attempt at a World Kinda Like Ours but Different (Think Vampires! Think ghost dogs! Think ghost wooly mammoths!) neeeeeded to be well-acted out, and I gotta tell ya that sans stellar vocal acting, it very much falls flat, as flat as the tones Hueston uses. She baaaaarely adds some quickly taken breaths near the end when All Hell is Breaking Loose, to add excitement? when she could’ve/should’ve been delivering it all: Think Vampires! Think ghost dogs! Think ghost wooly mammoths! with the same attempt at emotion.
Alas, she does not. It’s pure vocal flatness all the way through.
Ellie, short for Elatsoe, is taken aback and totally frightened when her ghost dog, Kirby, alerts that something is TERRibly wrong. Off like a shot, she cycles to find her parents and is relieved to find that they are okay. Unfortunately, it turns out that her cousin, Trevor, has been grievously injured in a car accident and is expected to die, leaving behind a wife and child. And that night, as she sleeps, Ellie is visited by a disfigured Trevor who tells her it was no accident, and to please please please keep his family safe, that all is not as it seems. Also, he gives her the name of the man who killed him.
And so the family travels to care for Trevor’s widow Lenore, and soon Ellie and her best friend Jay are on the trail of the suspect. There are Vampires! Ghost dogs! Ghost wooly mammoths! There are mushrooms that are ubiquitous but which should NOT be seen as this is arid Texas, so that’s all suspicious. Then too, aaaaallll the inhabitants of Willowbee, where the suspect doctor lives and practices, are glaring at both Ellie and Jay, following their every move with suspicious and condemnatory glares.
All right, let’s just get to the fact that there’s zippo world building done. That this is a sorta parallel USA? Dunno, it’s only alluded to in minor throw away sentences here and there. Apparently the Vampires! can actually be jolly decent folk, getting engaged to the hoi polloi and not ominously stalking and sucking blood. Who knew?
And fossilized creatures can be called from the dead by just the right person, ELATSOE NATCH, such as Trilobites who can kinda sorta be cute little large roach-like pets, unless one’s mind wanders, and they multiply and one accidentally slips into the Underworld (If you can’t follow THAT line, don’t worry cuz it’s not explained too well in the text either).
And one can create ghosts by digging up a dead person (Uh-oh, Lenore, is that dirt underneath your nails? Kinda? Oops, but don’t worry, other people have dirt under their nails tooooo!), and ghosts are MOST unfortunate creatures who have decidedly HUUUUGE chips on their shoulders. Plus, ghost dogs can kinda sorta do aMAZing stuff, until they can’t, and then they can again. This soooo could’ve been structured more adequately, given a bit more time to gestate in the author’s mind before being thrown on paper, all jumbled-like.
Plus, there are the Usual Nowadays Teen Tropes, but they’re only delivered in single lines such as: “Ellie, I know you’re asexual, but…” and “She’s staying with a married couple and both women are…” and “Jay, what about your cheerleading video…?” Yesssss, this is a diverse and All-Embracing kinda book.
It’s just NOT a terribly well-written one (The aforementioned poor structure to go with teenagers written like pre-teens who make DESperately questionable choices), and tho’ I DID fall in love with Kinsale Hueston as a poet(ess!) and find her to speak bravely about what matters to her? Oy, p’raps delivering enthusiasm and emotion in Elatsoe didn’t quite make the cut.
This all sorta ends with an open end, suggesting sequels, but hey! in no way did it NOT wrap things up, in no way did it leave a Shoved to Buy the Next in the Series Ending (Dude! I’m soooo gonna get around to YOU, Michael J. Sullivan!). This was okay, but it coulda been better, dunno about why it was sooo roundly lauded.
>Heavy Sigh<
Not sure I’m trusting all those “100 Best of ALL TIME!!!” lists right about now…
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