This book follows two timelines: the present and the summer of 1986, and revolves primarily around events that are related to the Broussard family. It all starts off when an employee of the Grand Nacre Casino runs over Noemi Broussard's boyfriend, Roddy, as she is leaving work and according to her, he runs right into her Jeep. As the news trickles throughout the community and the matter is investigated, old stories come to light. Noemi's Uncle Louie, who is already there for the big powwow, is specifically reminded of the very weird summer of 1986, and all the deaths that occurred back then, so the story is told through teenaged Louie's eyes, as well as Noemi's during the very traumatic present.
Louie got off the rez when he was about 18, the only one to escape the life of the Takoda, and in doing so, he left behind his angry sister, Lula, and his beloved 5-year-old niece, Noemi. He hasn't kept in contact with his family, so everyone is pretty surprised when he returns for the powwow. Some in the community are happy to see him, and some are not, for reasons that happened way back when. As he watches Noemi deal with the trauma of loss with Roddy's death, he begins to wonder if something else isn't starting back up again.
Back when he was a teenager, there was a summer that rocked the Takoda tribe with strange occurrences, between a beloved community member going missing, the desecration of some ancestral graves, and a handful of mysterious deaths. Louie was unfortunate enough to be smack dab in the middle of what happened, starting with his neighbor, Miss Shelby, a Takoda Legend Keeper, going missing. Her 600 lb. son, Ernie, never leaves the trailer parked next door to the Broussards, and Miss Shelby cares for him. But now she is missing.
And then the mysterious deaths start occurring, and after each one, strange things happen at the respective funerals including corpses sitting up and making sounds. Louie also can't help but notice that animals he's seen die keep coming back, clearly injured yet not quite dead. Ern says that perhaps the spirits have become imbalanced in some way, but Louie thinks it has something to do with the legend of the Takoda Vampire, a tale that has haunted him since he was a kid and poor Horace Saucier was found murdered, without his heart and drained of blood. Something is definitely happening on the rez, but is this evil mystical in nature, or just wicked human behavior?
Amidst all of this, Louie is facing his first powwow as a man of 16 years old, and he's made his own buckskin outfit and headdress and is working on his warrior dance. His best friend, Jean-Luc, couldn't care less and just wants to pursue girls, but Jean-Luc and Louie have been growing apart for a while now and this summer only solidifies that, as Louie realizes that he really doesn't know J.L. at all. To make matters worse, Louie and Lula's mother is absent at best, spending life drunk and in a daze in her bedroom, guzzling beer after beer. She is spiraling towards doom, even if Louie can't make her see it. Something evil is out there, attaching itself to those most vulnerable and it is coming for Noemi, but Louie is the one who must protect his family at any cost.
This eerie mystery is wrapped in a blanket of melancholy related to alcoholism, desperation, and suicidal tendencies. The reservation back in 1986 is anxiously awaiting the breaking ground of a new bingo hall, and they've all pinned their hopes for financial wealth on it, meanwhile, the reality in the present day is that the casino that eventually came to be is thriving financially, but the Takoda people only see a small check each month and rather than providing a financial escape, it seems to be more like a tether.
I am being fairly vague with the story because a lot of the shocking moments come from what exactly happens regarding each death and how they tie in with Louie and Noemi. I can say that this is a fascinating and exciting read, fraught with creepy supernatural moments, but also genuine moments of human introspection and interaction. I love the way Nick Medina weaves a story and, while this story is a bit more rooted in the supernatural than his first book, which was mostly about the human variety of evil, I've enjoyed it just the same. Highly recommended, but with a warning of alcoholism and suicide triggers.
