Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I previously reviewed Running Barefoot and bought Where the Lost Wander at a bookstore. I enjoyed Where the Lost Wander more than Running Barefoot however I felt like I needed to address the elephant in the room: Harmon is an author who says she's fascinated with the stories of the Navajo, yet her personal media says otherwise. Regarding Running Barefoot, I actually semi-enjoyed the book but I was a bit uncomfortable with some of the sentiments expressed within it. The male lead, Samuel, at one point expresses his frustration with being biracial and as someone who is biracial, I completely related to him in that moment. That being said, Harmon writes the female lead, Josie, to reply essentially with "Yeah, you're biracial but I'm weird and quiet so you have no reason to be any more angry than I am". Samuel then responds as if this is the most magical argument he's ever heard even though I, and my other biracial friends who I showed it too, found it quite belittling. It was as if the author was equating the struggles that come with being biracial to the struggles of being an introverted white girl. Spoiler alert: They're not equal in any shape or form. They're not even paralleled. In Where the Lost Wander, you do see the same storytelling techniques. Yes, Harmon is extremely good with her prose and you do fall deep into the world she has created. That being said, we still run into the same problems that were amplified in Running Barefoot: A deep-dive into the issues that arise when struggling with cultural identity that are not handled in the most delicate way or even, it seems, with adequate knowledge of what it actually feels like. However, out of curiosity (and being a person in their early twenties), I looked the author up on Twitter. Harmon is an author who has written books including Indigenous characters in at least two books (Running Barefoot and Where The Lost Wander). I expected her to be an author who would proactively defend these biracial, indigenous, people of colour characters she has written about in great detail. However, her Twitter nowadays is filled with material that displays someone who does not support the Navajo or other people of colour. She frequently likes Tweets from certain political supporters who are anti-immigration, anti-racial equality, and anti-women's choice about their own bodies. As I said in my review of Running Barefoot and I just have to post it here too: I'm sorry but no matter how "good" a person's writing is, I will not purchase a book from an author who would probably not even support the characters she writes about in real life and who writes about the struggle of being biracial or a racial minority with such dismissal (hint: It's more than just "being angry"). I probably will not be buying another book from Harmon because of this. However, if you are someone who can look past all these things, you might enjoy these books.