fun

The concept was really interesting, and the story was fun- it kept me engaged and entertained until the last 30 minutes when it went full Return of the King. And by that I mean it did not know which ending to pick, so it picked aaaaall of them.
The other thing is, it's set in the US. All but a couple of the characters are American. There are all of three English characters (at least two of whom were from Manchester). But everyone uses English slang/terms/phrasing. (Americans don't say rucksack, for one.) I hate that so much. It just reads as lazy editing. If you want to set your novel in another country, you should at least TRY to make it sound authentic.
And then. Ok, this is my last criticism, and it's a big one. The author's portrayal of Native Americans. Wow, it sucked. Straight up magical Indian trope. I can't. I just can't. You have a mother and daughter who were sold (?) to the maniacle Snake family, and everything about that subplot is problematic. I won't belabor the point, but when that part of the story was introduced, I deflated. It was so disappointing.
It sounds like I hated it. I didn't. The writing, for the most part, was solid. The characters were not the most fully developed, but they were interesting. And like I said, the concept was really unusual. Which leads me to the thing I found the most surprising.
The music was actually good. I was not expecting that. I dug the hillbilly ska sound. And even more surprising, the way they were placed within the story worked. Until the last 30 minutes. But still! I'd have to call it a successful experiment.

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