I received an audio review copy of this book via NetGalley.
Your mileage on this is going to vary, but even though some elements didn't quite work for me I'm glad I read it and do think it's worth your time! The audio narration is very good as well. That's not for everyone, but I wish it had just leaned into that throughout rather than trying to make things suddenly so dramatic at the end. I see some reviewers talking about how this is a slower book, and it is. There was just so much going on in the story already that throwing in some of those added plot points late in the game felt like too much. Where it didn't quite work for me was how convoluted Nina's story became, especially leading to the ending. It's worth noting here that Nina is asexual, but it's not a big part of the narrative, more a casual piece of who she is and how she moves through the world. The pacing isn't traditional so you do have to take your time with it. There was a lot that I loved about this- strong family relationships, friendship, many charming animal side characters, and two individuals trying to figure out how their identities fit into the worlds they inhabit. Their stories run parallel until they ultimately intersect. Meanwhile Oli is a cottonmouth snake who can shapeshift, seeking his place in the world.
Nina is a Lipan Apache teen girl trying to translate a story she recorded from her great-grandmother in her native language. While there is an overarching plot, a lot of it is made up of a series of vignettes set in the parallel world of the animal people. Both draw on Lipan Apache culture and mythology, but the structure and type of story here is quite different. You should know that A Snake Falls to Earth is a very different book from Elatsoe.
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