Sadly I feel I'm in the minority for reviewing this book. After reading reviews of this and Louise's other novel The Night Watchman, I thought I would enjoy it far more than I did. I found myself struggling with the storyline as there seemed to be too much crammed into one novel. However I did like the idea of a resident ghost in a bookshop, any avid reader would love to haunt a bookshop. Thanks to Netgalley and Little Brown Book Group for the opportunity to read this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review

A quirky book that's full of lived life and current events, written even as the events it describes, like covid and black lives matter, are still going on.

From the fabulous title to the bookstore setting and the sheer range of issues the book covers, you are in safe and absorbing hands with Erdrich's ability to craft not just one but multiple stories that touch the lives of many.

The Native American lens applied to current affairs lends a depth to the view when shored up by the histories and experiences of the characters of injustice, the effects of crime and the love of community and family that they build to see them through.

Tookie is a totally flawed heroine of the story and totally likeable as a result, she has a long and complicated history and has a unique way of getting through life.

The book is light and funny and massive in scope, it moves from current affairs to Native American history and community to hauntings and crime, and keep you reading through challenging events. Loved it.

Sometimes a book dates really easily if you focus on points in time and this book did that. Not really for me. Glad I read it. Was well written but the story wasn’t my genre.

An OK read, interesting to see covid and trump through a native American lens, but this book is all over the place.

This wonderful book includes a bookshop, indigenous Americans, a death, a haunting, a baneful book, the coronavirus pandemic, the George Floyd murder and subsequent demonstrations. So much story and, for me unusual content, but I felt relaxed being enchanted by a master storyteller.
It starts with Tookie’s crime, followed by ten years imprisonment, which are briefly passed over because they are not the story, and whose waste might be redeemed by Tookie’s engagement with books. The story is what happens next, the whole thing, books and people, everything interconnected.
Highly recommended and I will be reading more by this author.

This is the first book I have read that talks about the pandemic for more than a name-check and I hope that others can depict the onset and early period of uncertainty as well.

I received a Netgalley copy of this book, but this review is my honest opinion.

Bonus: this book includes, as an integral part of the story, some lists of books to read, and an admonition to buy them from an independent bookshop.

As this book encompasses one of my favourite genres, the supernatural, and as I have a penchant for ghost stories in particular, I was really looking forward to reading.

The story starts off really well, with the protagonist, Tookie, being involved with two “ladies” who are in cahoots to get her to help dispose of a body with hidden “assets”. This results in Tookie doing jail time for her involvement.

Sadly, after Tookie’s release and her new role working in a book shop where Flora is introduced, the story starts to become less interesting. The plot line lacked direction and tried too hard to be current and political.

Whilst this wasn’t a book for me, I’m sure anyone with an interest in Native American folklore and stories may find it to their liking.

Thank you NetGalley.

3 ½ stars

I feel quite conflicted over <i>The Sentence</i>. Although I loved the first half of this novel I found the latter to be boring and somewhat disjointed. While I’m sure many will be able to love everything about this book I wish it hadn’t quite tried to juggle so many different themes and genres.
<i>The Sentence</i> follows Tookie, an ex-con who now works as a bookseller at an Indigenous bookstore in Minneapolis after falling in love with books and words during her incarceration. Tookie’s winning voice is the book’s biggest strength. Her humor, remarks, and inner-monologue were a delight to read. It is rare to come across a narrator that is so genuinely funny. Her voice drew me in from the very opening pages which give us a recap of the events that led to her imprisonment. She could be down to earth, in a gritty sort of way, but she was also a compassionate and forgiving person. While her assessment of others (especially her customers) often poked fun at them (their appearance/reading habits/mannerism), she never struck me as a judgemental person. She was the kind of character that I wish existed so I could meet in real life. Not only did I find Tookie’s unruliness amusing but her love for literature certainly won me over. Throughout the course of The Sentence, Tookie talks about books, a lot of them, many of which I’ve read. Her analysis of these books, as well as their authors, certainly kept me engaged. It just so happens that in addition to the bookstore angle the narrative includes quite a few other storylines. A regular customer of the bookstore Tookie works at die. It just so happens that Fiona, the customer in question, was an annoying white woman who tried to legitimise her ‘interest’ in Native American cultures by claiming to have indigenous heritage. While Tookie did find her irksome, she's not happy about her passing, especially when Flora’s ghost starts haunting her bookstore. While Tookie’s partner, a former tribal police officer, is somewhat sceptical about these visitations, Tookie knows that Flora ghost is haunting her.
Now, I found this premise compelling enough, and I even appreciate the narrative’s slow-pace as I found Tookie’s voice to be engaging enough. Sadly, the story takes a swerve halfway through when the covid pandemic steals much of the ‘show’. Personally, it's too soon for me to be reading about the pandemic, given that it's still ongoing. It just aggravated my anxiety and unease at the current situation. I also had very little interest in reading about these relatively ‘fresh’ events in such detail. The narrative then also touches upon BLM in a not quite superficial way but not the tone of the story undergoes a jarring change. The ghost aspect of the story fades into the background. The latter half of the novel lacked direction and seemed too intent on being relevant and topical than on continuing the story it had so far worked to establish. There was just too much going on and because of this secondary plotlines and characters suffered because of it. They lacked depth, nuance, and page-time. This is a pity as I was really invested in Tookie and her story. There were certain portions of the book later on that would have been more suited to an essay or a work of nonfiction. I also found the inclusion of ‘Louise’ self-insert cringey. I’m not a fan of the whole author inserting themselves in a story following their fictional character thing. I mean, why? Because Tookie works at a bookstore? Eeh...it just rubbed me the wrong way.
Despite my conflicting feelings over this novel, I would still recommend it. Just because I found the more topical sections to detract from the whole ghost-story setup, it may very well appeal to other readers. Tookie, as I said already, is a fantastic character and certainly worth getting to ‘know’. The dialogues rang true to life, the setting was well-established, and the dynamic between Tookie and the other characters (be it her partner, his daughter, or her colleagues & customers) was entertaining. Maybe if I were to read this when this pandemic is but a distant memory (ah!) I won't be as critical of its 2020 setting. I appreciated the author's discussions on literature, as well as her reflections on race, grief, fear, history, and love.

It is just a favour that Tookie wants to do for her grieving friend, admittedly, a well-paid favour since stealing the body of the lately deceased boyfriend can solve all of Tookie's financial problems. Of course, things turn out as they always do and the young woman is sentenced to sixty years of prison. A good lawyer can bring her out after only a couple of them and as she spent most of her time reading, she starts to work in a bookshop. With her partner Pollox, she seems to be back on the good track of life, but sorting out her personal life does not sort out the world around her. And when simultaneously the pandemic hits, when police violence against people of colour escalates and becomes a public issue and, additionally, when the bookshop is haunted by the ghost of a former customer, Tookie has to handle a lot which threatens to bring back the angry young woman she once was.

Louise Erdrich has written maybe THE novel of the moment. "The Sentence" not only integrates several current events such as the pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement and America's fragile state before the 2020 election, or questions of identity, but also mythological aspects, old stories told over generations and over continents, stories which have been around as long a mankind itself. It is also the account of one woman, a woman who made mistakes, who has not always been fair since she is strong-minded, but a woman who has the heart on the right side.

It is not easy to determine where to put the focus on when talking about the novel. It seems to be eclectic, yet, this is just like life itself. It feels overwhelming at times with all the things happening at the same time, conflicting narratives which make it hard to make sense of all around you.

What I liked best was how the pandemic was integrated into the story. The author well incorporated everyday questions - why are people bulk buying? how dangerous will the virus be? what will happen to the bookstore? - into the plot, not giving it too much room but authentically showing how it affected life. This is also where we see Tookie's good heart when she worries about her customers and tries to find ways of providing them with further reading material.

The side line of the ghost was first a kind of gothic element but it ultimately triggers the question of identity. Tookie belongs to the indigenous population, which is simply a fact, yet, one that has a huge impact on the way her life went. With it comes the big question of racial appropriation which seems so easy to answer but actually isn't always.

The protagonist craves normal in a time when nothing is normal. It is a year of a chain of nightmares that finally closes. “The Sentence” is also a book about how literature can provide an escape and possibly also answers when reality does not anymore.

Towards the end of a year, an absolute literary gem with a wonderful annexe.

This started so well.
A great opener,a really interesting character.
Then we moved on to bookstores and ghosts,again,very good.
From there I struggled with it.
It became less interesting and by the end I was skim reading.
Just not the right book for me.

This is an interesting take on a ghost story. The book deals well with the pandemic as well as gently exploring racism. It was quite refreshing overall as I hadn’t read anything like it before.

This is a great book if you like to know how book shops work, If you’ve ever worked in retail or like people watching. The book handles the pandemic well in my opinion.