The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

This book was very...okay. I feel like I would have liked it a lot better if I had read it in middle/high school but I'm just clearly not the audience for it. It also kind of felt like a “guy” read with all the fart/butt jokes and focus on sports. Other than that, I'm really glad I read this because I think I've read maybe 1 other book with a native American protagonist? (Yikes). As for what I did like about the book, I really enjoyed that it didn't play it safe despite being for young adults. It's not afraid to confront topics like death, systemic oppression, alcoholism, racism, and sex. I bet this book has been challenged by Christian, white moms before and that's kind of a badge of honor. I liked the characters, although some of them felt a little unrealistic to me. I had a tough time believing that Roger, the jock character who is introduced saying the N-word, automatically becomes the nicest guy in the whole book just because Arnold punched him. I felt like his introductory line was so evil that there's no way he would just be completely normal after that. Other things that felt a little out of whack were the teacher who gives Arnold the impassioned speech in the beginning and some of the dialogue written for Gordy. I think the strongest characters were Arnold's family members and Rowdy. Maybe I've just been on tumblr too long, but I have a headcanon that Rowdy is a closeted gay. He's got a homophobic dad who beats him, he's extremely defensive/aggressive, shows no interest in girls, and I dunno...I just got a vibe. Speaking of gay, this book had a lot of great nuggets about native American culture that I didn't really know about, like how gay people used to be considered super powerful by native Americans because they were both male and female. I would say it's the authenticity/representation of native American culture that made this a worthwhile read. That, and all of the great illustrations. Some really cracked me up.