Book Review: “Sisters of the Lost Nation” by Nick Medina

Apr 19

Håfa adai! November is Native American Heritage Month in the United States. Throughout November 2025, I will post reviews for works across various genres written by Native American authors and depicting important experiences within Native American communities. My first selection of Native American Heritage Month 2025 is Sisters of the Lost Nation by Nick Medina.

This book review consists of two parts: a spoiler-free plot summary and my thoughts on the story. In the second part, I give my personal rating and break down the setting and worldbuilding, storytelling, cast of characters, and themes. There may be some lightweight spoilers—such as how characters interact with each other and the world around them—but I will not give away any major plot twists or endings. I want to share my opinions of the book and maybe encourage you to purchase a copy of your own.

Click on the tags at the bottom of this post to see all reviews with the same tags in the Horror bookshelf.

Spoiler-Free Plot Summary

Anna Horn is many things: an eldest daughter and sister, a high schooler, a part-time employee at her reservation’s casino, a social outcast, and a protector of her Tribe’s myths and stories. At all times, Anna tries to maintain balance between sustaining her community’s history and keeping her and her family safe in the modern world, whether that be from school bullies, to entitled casino guests, or supernatural entities. This delicate balance becomes rocked once girls start to vanish from the casino. And when Anna’s younger sister Grace becomes the next girl to go missing, it is all she can do to face the darkness of the reservation’s present so that Grace is not left in the past.

Important Trigger Warning for Sisters of the Lost Nation

Sisters of the Lost Nation centers the disappearance of a teenager and heavily depicts racism, domestic violence, sexual assault, substance abuse, and human trafficking. These themes are essential to the story. If these themes would cause you stress or distress in any way, then please take the necessary steps to prepare and protect yourself before and after reading this book.

The Devastating Statistics of Missing People in the United States

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) is a non-profit organization in the United States that aims to bring home missing children and erase child exploitation and victimization. Almost 30,000 children were reported missing to NCMEC in 2024. The available statistics are horrifying, but they reflect cases that have been reported to NCMEC. It is unknown how many children have gone missing in the United States without ever being reported to law enforcement, NCMEC, or another agency or organization. It is highly likely that the true-to-reality number of missing children in the United States—regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity, citizenship, etc.—is far more devastating.

Indigenous People Go Missing and are Murdered at Disproportionately Higher Rates

Sisters of the Lost Nation centers the abduction of a 15-year-old girl from the fictional Takoda tribe in Louisiana. Although the specific community Nick Medina references is fictional, the experiences and data of missing children from Indigenous communities is very real. According to a NCMEC analysis summarizing 2,966 reported cases of missing Native American children in the United States from January 2012 to December 2021:

the average age of reported missing Native American children is 14 years old
55% of reported missing Native American children are girls or young women
Native American children go missing at a disproportionately higher rate than non-Native American children

The disproportionately high rates at which Indigenous children go missing tragically extends to the rates at which Indigenous adults are murdered or go missing in the United States and Canada. According to the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, Native American communities experience violent crimes, sexual assault and rape, and homicide at rates higher than the national average. And a 2017 study from the Urban Indian Health Institute identified homicide as the third leading cause of death for Native American women. These startling statistics have led to the rise of social movements like Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW), Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women & Girls (MMIWG), and Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, & Two Spirits (MMIWG2S). Organizations like the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, Native Hope, the Human Rights Research Center, and many more are incredible resources to learn more about these social movements.

My Thoughts on Sisters of the Lost Nation: 4 stars

Set in the fictional Takoda reservation in 1990s Louisiana, Nick Medina’s debut novel follows high schooler Anna Horn. Anna Horn is a relatable and complex protagonist. She is intelligent but sometimes foolish, wise but sometimes naive, and vigilant but sometimes clueless.

The overarching theme of Sisters of the Lost Nation is the price an entire community pays when its traditions and people are lost and forgotten about. This takes several forms throughout the story: in the traditional ghost story told to Anna by her Uncle Ray, in Anna’s father’s belief that she can advocate for conserving their tribe’s culture and storytelling traditions, and in the true crime aspect of girls going missing from the casino. In many communities around the world—Indigenous or non-Indigenous—elders are acknowledged as the keepers of traditions and stories, with the youth given the responsibility of assuming that role as they age. So, when a community loses someone, it is not just a person who is lost, but all the knowledge they held with them.

I was initially hesitant about the fact that Sisters of the Lost Nation is set in a fictional tribe. Considering the devastating reality of missing and murdered Indigenous persons across the United States and Canada, any real tribe could have been depicted in this story. It occurred to me several chapters into the book that THAT is the heartbreaking point! It absolutely matters that this is observed in individual communities. And it becomes real-life horror that it is experienced by Indigenous communities at rates for higher than others.

I give Nick Medina’s Sisters of the Lost Nation 4 out of 5 stars. This is an incredible story! Nick Medina masterfully weaves the role of traditional storytelling into a harrowing tale of a girl risking her life to save her little sister. There were several scenes after the midpoint that felt a lot more like telling instead of showing, which is a pet peeve of mine, but those were the only parts of the book that took me out of the story in those moments. I recommend Sisters of the Lost Nation by Nick Medina to fans of horror that reflects real-life terror so vividly.

Dångkulo' na' saina ma'åse'! Thank you so much for reading my review of Sisters of the Lost Nation by Nick Medina.

Rating Cheat Sheet

4.75 - 5.00 stars: As many people as possible should read this book!
4.00 - 4.50 stars: I appreciated many aspects of this book. I recommend it!
3.00 - 3.75 stars: I liked some aspects of this book. I will not revisit it, but someone else might really like it.
2.00 - 2.75 stars: There were some things I appreciated about this book, but I do not recommend it.
0.25 - 1.75 stars: I do not recommend this book! I did not enjoy or appreciate the experience of it!