A Mysterious Danger on the Prairie: Shadows By Night is an unputdownable historical horror novel of revenge

 

 

Shadows by Night

Zach Ellenberger

Independently Published, 2025

ISBN-13: 979-8343983807

Ebook, 164 ppg.

Buy link

 

According to what we learned in school and from nonfiction books, life on the prairie was hard in the old days. We learned about the constant battles between US soldiers and the white man against the Native Americans living on their land. What we hardly ever got to learn about was any incidents of “revenge” the natives may have sought after the white man who stole their lands.

 

Well, readers will get to read about it here! In Shadows by Night by Zach Ellenberger, we follow the Noble family as they trek across country to land they have laid claim to which once belonged to a Native American tribe. In fact, the father in this family, Elijah, was one of the soldiers who participated in the merciless slaughter of the tribe that had lived on that land. What he and his soldiers don’t know is that a group of those natives escaped, later creating a supernatural force of creatures hell-bent on revenge.

 

Adam Noble is the only survivor of that tribe that died by the hands of Elijah’s army (as far as he knows). His name is not really Adam, but that is the name which the Noble parents gave to him when they took him in as a young child. Typical of many Western families at that time, they basically “whitewashed” Adam, stripping him of his name, his language, his heritage, culture, language and even clothes that he knew as part of the tribe and raised him as the “white way.” They gave him a Christian name, raised him in the Christian faith and threw upon his young shoulders the responsibilities and lifestyle of the way they lived. All of this made Adam forget who he was, so of course, he is confused when other people question his relation to the Nobles or treat him like he is a native.

 

The natives are called “savages” in the story, but I refuse to identify Native Americans by this term. In fact, reading this story made my blood boil, as I have Native American blood and I am well aware of the atrocities many, many Native American tribes faced at the hands of the white man. It’s no wonder that they soon grew to hate each other and showed no mercy in choosing to kill each other.

 

One thing I love about reading Zach Ellenberger’s books is the attention to detail and historical research that he brings to his stories. We normally don’t get to fully absorb ourselves in the way things were back in the day, but in reading this story, it felt like I was really there. I actually felt the same hardships the families endured as they tried to eke out a life on the prairie. I also appreciated how the portrayal of the US Army’s takeover over the lands the natives once lived on was so true-to-life.

 

But this story does capture a sad fact of history: How many Native American children were taken from their families and basically “whitewashed.” In fact, there was a whole orphanage dedicated to taking in Native American children absconded from their tribes and raised as white, having to wear the same clothes, speak the same language and live the same way white people did.

 

Even so, the bigger part of this story is the terrors which the Noble family faces upon settling in on their land. Even before they have a house built, danger strikes. The horrors inflicted on this family come from a mysterious source and they can only fight this evil without even knowing what they are fighting, or why.

 

Shadows by Night is a fascinating, riveting historical horror novel that was hard to put down. This story drew me in from the very beginning. Brimming with historical fiction, terrifying horrors and captivating suspense, this novel provides a gripping story of retribution and redemption.

 

 

 

Five stars

 

 

Disclaimer: I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A voice for the voiceless: a shelf of my ancestors is a cry of injustice against the dead

 

a shelf of my ancestors

By Kate Pashby

Wrong Publishing, 2023

29 pages, Ebook

Link

 

One may look at the title of this book and wonder, why are one’s ancestors on a shelf? As though they are on display? But a shelf of my ancestors by Kate Pashby shows just how their ancestors ended up on a shelf. And in drawers. And on display in museums.

 

For, you see, their ancestors were what we call today “Native American,” though theirs was a tribe in Mexico. The author uses the word “Indians,” adopting the colonial name for the natives the settlers slaughtered and stole land from. 

 

As someone with Native American heritage, words from these poems resonated with me. Like this stanza here, from the first poem:

 

“patrimony—heritage

national patrimony—the nation’s heritage

which is to say

it belongs to the nation

it belongs to the government

which is to say

not you”

 

And this line here, in another stanza: “How can a government claim the remains of the dead?”

 

Within these poems, you can feel the author’s anger towards the government for seizing, keeping and basically taking ownership up the remains of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of the tribal members who died on their own land. Land that the government took away from them. Land that they lived on, grew up on and hunted on then lost their lives fighting for. There is also a bit of sarcasm as they rephrase colonial beliefs over having the right to take possession of something that is not theirs.

 

As a student of anthropological research, Pashby is aware of how the bones of their ancestors are used as instructional tools for studying the tribes that once populated so much of this country many years ago. They had to watch, without comment, as a skull was removed from a drawer and held up for all to see. Their classmates saw it as an object to study, they saw it as an affront to their ancestors yelling “give me back my fucking bones!” and an insult to their legacy.

 

Pashby also shares stories portraying the lives of their people in verse. They try to put a human face to the bones on display “like trophies in a case” so that readers can see that the bones are more than just bones. They are more than skulls. They were once real people with real lives whose bones must now be scattered throughout the confines of academic institutions curious about who they were. Instead of looking to the stories, they look to the bones. We would not be so bereft of their history if the settlers had not been so busy slaughtering them all.

 

Readers who pick up a shelf of my ancestors by Kate Pashby are in for some hard truths. This is a person descended from those natives saying “this needs to stop” and sharing how they are fighting to have the bones returned to their rightful place. This book acts as a “mission statement” of sorts sharing how the author believes that a wrong has been done and offering reasons why theirs is a mission that should not be ignored. We may have ignored the cries of the natives who were slaughtered but we cannot ignore the cries of their ghosts who want nothing more but to finally rest in peace in one piece, and in the ground of their native soil.

 

Five stars

 

 

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.