Review
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Title: The Missing Morningstar: And Other Stories
Author: Stacie Shannon Denetsosie
Publisher: Torrey House Press
Genre: Fiction, Native American Literature
Year Published: 2023
Number of Pages: 148
Binding: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-978814-85-0
Price: $16.95
Reviewed by El Call for the Association of Mormon Letters
Content warnings: sex, swearing, and abuse are part of many of the narratives.
The Missing Morningstar is a collection of snapshots, focused on the lives of modern Navajo people, all tied in some way back to Kayenta, AZ, in the Navajo Nation. The language of the book feels grounded, threaded with similes and vocabulary that do not apologize for their potential unfamiliarity. The characters in these stories feel real, as if I could go visit them and have them tell me these stories.
Mormonism is an echo throughout many of the stories, with reverberations as brief as a mention or as pivotal as a teenage boyfriend who’s supposed to serve a mission. The generally incidental nature of such references serves to underscore how strong one’s heritage can be despite efforts to erase culture and tradition.
“Snow Bath Season” reminded me of the Finnish sauna tradition passed down through my family–of jumping out of a hot wooden room into icy cold snow. The story itself ties together elements of tradition and modernity, with a mother’s ghost haunting the Alexa that sits on her daughter’s counter. The mother insists on going into the snow, requiring a portable charger to keep her soul connected to the physical world in the interim.
The stories range in length from six to twenty pages, and there’s sure to be at least one that stays with you long after you’ve finished.