Girl Unreserved is an intimate coming-of-age narrative told from the perspective of a "mixed-blood" girl from an Anishinaabe Indian reservation in Northern Minnesota. The story addresses how the concepts of identity, gender, and sexuality are shaped by both our cultural environments as well as the intrinsic, spiritual landscape we grow and carry inside of ourselves throughout our lives. Other themes this book addresses are: the prevalence of sexual assault in Indian Country; poverty and malnutrition and their effects on the mental states of children; alcoholism; and one of the worst coping mechanisms for suffering, the "I Don't Care" mentality, which allows subscribers the belief that they are in control of their own suffering--leading to cycles that recreate the suffering over and over again. This mentality is currently devastating Native communities, with particularly harmful repercussions for the youth in these communities. Girl Unreserved is loosely based on the author's own coming-of-age story and has woven into it elements of fiction and a touch of magical realism. This is the author's first book.
Girl Unreserved