J.L. Chalfant
Book Reviews
BlueInk Review
Pohoi and Comanche Spirit Power
J.L. Chalfant.
iUniverse, 324 pages, (paperback) $19.95, 9781475973365
(Reviewed: October, 2019)
J.L. Chalfant’s Pohoi and Comanche Spirit Power is a well-researched, dramatic novel that opens in a small Comanche village in 1860 West Texas. Here, 15-year-old Pohoi pesters her aunt Hunts Medicine about the secrets of Spirit Power, even though tribal custom forbids such knowledge to one so young. Nevertheless, the girl persists, making the dangerous climb to Eagles’ Perch, the source of the Power that will allow her to “sing the song of her own creation.”
But soon her world is threatened; the girl’s mother, stolen from a white family as an infant but now married and thoroughly integrated into Comanche life, is kidnapped by Texas vigilantes bent on recovering the lost children, and her father is killed fighting the marauders. Moreover, Pohoi has evidence that Hunts Medicine is aligned with the raiders and resolves to track the Texans, rescue her mother and avenge her father’s death. As she joins with her “best friend” Yellow Bear, who she secretly hopes to wed, and (unexpectedly) her uncle’s six-year old “captive child” Little Rattler, they confront a host of dangers and discoveries, until a final confrontation.
Central to the plot is an exploration of Spirit Power and how it determines outcomes. For example, Pohoi is guarded by her deceased father (now shape shifted into a cougar), warned of danger by coyote and wolf cries, and aided by a sudden tornado that sweeps away a would-be attacker. Some may be confused by the piling-on of episodes, especially near the end where Pohoi learns her mother’s fate, the truth about her aunt, and becomes involved in a dispute between Texas Rangers and American soldiers—all while acting with an unusual maturity. Others may wish the main characters were more transformed by their challenges. But none can deny the author’s highly charged description of events and dedication to her subject. Despite the novel’s drawbacks, readers will appreciate its insight into a largely unfamiliar culture and the spirituality driving it.
Also available in hardcover and ebook.
Kirkus Review
POHOI AND COMANCHE SPIRIT POWER
J. L. Chalfant
iUniverse (324 pp.)
$29.95 hardcover, $19.95 paperback, $5.99 e-book
ISBN: 978-1-4759-7337-2; March 22, 2013
A Comanche teenager violates tradition in order to save her mother and her people in this debut YA novel.
West Texas, 1860. The looming Civil War has intensified the bad relations between Native Americans and their Texas neighbors—and revived the tribes’ hopes of driving the whites from the land once and for all. Fifteen-year-old Pohoi, the daughter of a Comanche father and a white mother, is curious about the Spirit Power sacred to her people, the Kwahadi Comanche of the Llano Estacado. Her medicine woman aunt, Hunts Medicine, warns her that Pohoi’s desire—or that of any young woman—to seek the power is taboo. The precocious Pohoi, who is already seeing visions, is prepared to buck tradition. Then tragedy strikes: A group of Texans murders Pohoi’s father and abducts her mother. When the warriors of her tribe appear reluctant to rescue her mother, Pohoi, filled with a desire for vengeance, takes up the task herself. She uses the Comanche Spirit Power to transform into a Ghost Warrior of legend and heads off to rescue her mother from the men who stole her. She is led by the ghost of her father, assisted by her friend—and crush—Yellow Bear, and accompanied by Little Rattler, a Mexican captured in a raid who is the son of her aunt. She will have to move quickly, as her visions seem to predict the destruction not just of her family, but her entire people as well. Chalfant’s detailed prose is well tailored to her protagonist’s rhythms and worldview: “As she ran, she heard chattering voices begin to echo throughout the village. Dogs yapped amid the sudden burst of the warriors’ excited shouts inside the council lodge while Pohoi relished the comforting sound of mothers, no longer fearful of the thunder, cooing to their crying babies.” The tensions between the characters and their relationships to their own roles within Comanche society make for some intriguing drama, though the story takes a while to get going. But the immersive setting and Pohoi’s plucky personality do much to sell the novel and readers will be more or less content to follow her wherever the Spirit Power leads.
A rewarding, if conservatively paced, coming-of-age tale set on the Texas plains.
Clarion Review
Pohoi and Comanche Spirit Power
J. L. Chalfant
iUniverse (Mar 21, 2013)
Hardcover $29.95 (324pp) 978-1-4759-7336-5
Pohoi and Comanche Spirit Power is a historical tale of vengeance, courage, and self-discovery.
In J. L. Chalfant’s historical novel Pohoi and Comanche Spirit Power, a fifteen-year-old girl risks her life to avenge her father’s murder and bring her mother home.
Rebellious Pohoi is not content with following tradition. Against her parents’ wishes, she pursues Eagle Power, hoping that it will allow her to protect her family from white soldiers and settlers. But when a beloved relative betrays the family, helping white soldiers to kill Pohoi’s father and kidnap her mother, Pohoi takes it upon herself to effect a rescue and seek vengeance, no matter what dangers—natural or supernatural—stand in her way.
Set in 1860, when the Comanche were beset by both federal troops and Texas Rangers, Pohoi and Comanche Spirit Power follows Pohoi’s dangerous quest across unknown territory. Pohoi is a traumatized teenager caught between the impetuous desires of childhood and the impending responsibilities of adulthood. This conflict sometimes results in brattish behavior and repetitive dialogue, but for the most part it is portrayed well. Still, despite Pohoi’s bravery and determination, she too often serves as a damsel in distress.
Other characters are indecisive, distrusting each other one moment and trusting each other the next. They express contradictory thoughts, and their dialogue is cinematic rather than natural; further, it tends to be expository. This is most noticeable when Pohoi listens in on her white captors’ conversations, which are written out in their entirety, even though the story is told from Pohoi’s perspective and she doesn’t know enough English to understand what’s happening. Pohoi cannot participate in or even comprehend their troubles; as a result, the white characters’ subplot is abruptly introduced and out of place on the whole.
Derogatory language is used, mostly by villainous characters, and some of the fantastical plot elements, including arrows that shoot lightning, are not well established. Characters are wont to stop to have long conversations about their plans, doubts, and disagreements; such exchanges slow the pace. More exciting are the book’s action scenes, as when Pohoi and her companions are caught in a buffalo stampede and the book’s climactic moment.
Evocative descriptions capture changes in the antagonist’s bearing and the barren beauty of Pohoi’s home in Texas’s Llano Estacado, whose gorgeous, vibrant landscape is used to great effect, almost acting as a character in and of itself.
In the end, Pohoi has to heal from the sting of loss and to deal with her lingering uncertainties, even though she accomplished much of what she set out to do. Her maturation is rewarding.
Pohoi and Comanche Spirit Power is a historical tale of vengeance, courage, and self-discovery.
EILEEN GONZALEZ (October 30, 2019)
