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The Missing Morningstar: And Other Stories
"Propulsive and complex, this is a gorgeously written debut." —KIRKUS REVIEWS (starred review) In The Missing Morningstar and Other Stories , Stacie Shannon Denetsosie confronts long-reaching effects of settler-colonialism on Native lives in a series of gritty, wildly imaginative stories. A young Navajo man catches a ride home alongside a casket he’s sure contains his dead grandfather. A gas station clerk witnesses the kidnapping of the newly crowned Miss Northwestern Arizona. A young couple’s search for a sperm donor raises questions of blood quantum. This debut collection grapples with a complex and painful history alongside an inheritance of beauty, ceremony, and storytelling.
144 pages, Paperback
Published September 12, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews
October 25, 2023
I’m a little biased because Stacie is my good friend, but her book is so beautiful and funny and raw. I ate up every story. The characters were interesting and engaging. The way she describes the landscape is rich and lovely. It was a pleasure to read.
September 1, 2024
Very good overall, each story is very well written, and overall, they paint a complex and intricate portrait of the modern Navajo experience, with the many diverse experiences coming together to make a beautiful mosaic of immense breadth and majesty. I am especially struck by the small details of everyday experience she describes, experiences which she expertly uses to craft her larger, more holistic themes. Definitely worth a read!
May 27, 2024
Every once in awhile, a short story collection comes into my possession (even if it's only for a fleeting moment), and it reminds me why I love short stories/story collections, and Stacie Shannon Denetsosie's debut collection, The Missing Morningstar: And Other Stories was one of those collections. It wasn't a five-star collection, but it was so darn tootin' good!
This collection was what I hoped the writing in Night of the Living Rez would be like in terms of the quality and what I expected from the writing in The Sorrows of Others: Stories. Unfortunately, those two were disappointing reads for me, and I think that if you're interested in reading short stories from an emerging writer, you can't go wrong with Denetsosie's collection.
I buddy read this with Jo Smith, and I think we both understood why it was longlisted for the 2024 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection (I know, I know. I won't mention the PEN Awards again). Interestingly, I DNF'd other contenders in that longlist (Temple Folk and Welcome Me to Kingdom) and still feel that The Sorrows of Others is one of the most poorly-written short story collections I've ever read. So I would have held hope for Denetsosie's collection which I feel rightly deserves to be on the longlist.
If you're interested in reading short story collections about parent/mother-child relationships, coming-of-age topics (like menstruation and first sexual encounters), birth, loss, heterosexual relationships, and/or the love/hate relationship we can have with "home", then this collection might be for you.
[Physical, borrowed from library]
This collection was what I hoped the writing in Night of the Living Rez would be like in terms of the quality and what I expected from the writing in The Sorrows of Others: Stories. Unfortunately, those two were disappointing reads for me, and I think that if you're interested in reading short stories from an emerging writer, you can't go wrong with Denetsosie's collection.
I buddy read this with Jo Smith, and I think we both understood why it was longlisted for the 2024 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection (I know, I know. I won't mention the PEN Awards again). Interestingly, I DNF'd other contenders in that longlist (Temple Folk and Welcome Me to Kingdom) and still feel that The Sorrows of Others is one of the most poorly-written short story collections I've ever read. So I would have held hope for Denetsosie's collection which I feel rightly deserves to be on the longlist.
If you're interested in reading short story collections about parent/mother-child relationships, coming-of-age topics (like menstruation and first sexual encounters), birth, loss, heterosexual relationships, and/or the love/hate relationship we can have with "home", then this collection might be for you.
[Physical, borrowed from library]
May 1, 2024
Nine stories involving Navajo tribal members both on and off the Rez. A mixed bag. Sheep and ghosts figure predominantly as does the land. There’s also the other issues any culture deals with: murder, rape, alcoholism, and LGBTQ identity. No romanticism here. Life is hard and it’s harder for a Navajo but there’s joy too. My favorite was the story in which the ghost of a mother takes over the Alexa device to talk to her daughter.
January 2, 2026
a wonderful little collection ruminating on grief and culpability, all tinged with generational trauma. of the whole collection, i loveddddd “the casket in the backseat” the most
*this review is for an uncorrected proof ARC edition of the missing morningstar, wherein the contents are subject to change.
*this review is for an uncorrected proof ARC edition of the missing morningstar, wherein the contents are subject to change.
May 3, 2024
I met the author, Stacie, at a publishing conference. She was kind enough to sign my book. Wonderfully and carefully crafted. Loved this!
March 3, 2024
A beautiful series of portraits of modern indigenous life in Navajo territory. I learned more than I needed to about breaking down a sheep carcass but this was a great little read and all the stories were unique and powerful on their own.
March 26, 2024
Usually when I read a collection there are stories in the collection that I skip through but that was not the case with The Missing Morningstar. Ms.Denetsosie has a knack of making stories universal no matter the subject or location. The author is from the Navajo Nation and many of the stories are young people trying to make connections and dealing with the grief of having to let go of those relationships.
December 23, 2025
I definitely liked it more than I initially expected. Each chapter was a different story from Navajo people growing up in different areas, all different but each dealing with serious issues like coming of age, rape, infertility, death, and even spirits finding ways to make peace from the afterlife. The stories were often related with a clever sense of humor that helped offset the dark subject matter.
I really liked that they reflected the perspective of trying to hold onto their heritage, the things that make them uniquely Navajo, despite the influence of white culture and modern problems. Light spoiler: I really found the characters believable, written from the heart, and was moved by every story.
I really liked that they reflected the perspective of trying to hold onto their heritage, the things that make them uniquely Navajo, despite the influence of white culture and modern problems. Light spoiler: I really found the characters believable, written from the heart, and was moved by every story.
April 8, 2025
4 stars! This collection of short stories is full of culture, emotion, and insightful observations. I loved all the different Diné characters and their stories. A great read!
November 5, 2023
Unflinching and sharp-eyed, The Missing Morningstar is a knockout collection of short stories brimming with originality. Stacie Shannon Denetsosie invites us to look around Navajo Nation through the eyes and thoughts of highly observant characters who are straddling multiple worlds, pondering their identities, and considering their options.
Denetsosie’s female protagonists are forthright and perceptive. She writes with a blunt style that is engagingly matter of fact. Denetsosie gets her stories up and running quickly, bringing us along for the ride as easy as climbing into a car. Many of the stories take place around Kayenta, Arizona but Denetsosie also takes us to Utah, Idaho and Houston. There are convenience stores and trailers, hopes and dreams, ghosts and spirits. “Snow Bath Season” is one of the wittiest ten pages I’ve read in a long time.
In “Dormant,” grocery store bagger Bernadine helps Aaron, a high school student teacher and former Mormon missionary, deliver a stray cat from Kayenta to a vet in Tuba City. After the delivery, they stroll through a flea market and stop at a food tent for a piccadilly, a “Navajo delicacy” with pickles on top of shaved ice. As in many of the stories, Denetsosie takes us inside how her characters believe they are being perceived. “A group of liver-marked elders with yellowed bifocal lenses stopped talking as Aaron and I sat down at a table near them. I shot them a knowing look. Aaron and I were a strange match, to them, but it was none of their business. Interracial couples always had a hard time on the reservation, especially when the woman was Navajo. We were only thought of as leaders and matriarchs when our bodies bore brown babies, born for Navajo men. Outside of that, we were lost Indians, left to live with our reservations.”
Later, as their summer relationship drifts into September, Bernadine needs a pregnancy test. She imagines herself moving in with Aaron and having a “beige baby,” but then realizes she’s not going anywhere, that she’s stuck living at home with her alcoholic mother and the sketchy men she brings home. “Intuitively, I knew it would always be that way, burned Spaghetti-O’s, and drives to the gas station for chewing tobacco … My mother was erratic, but we belonged to one another.”
In “Conception,” a candid story about struggles with fertility, Roanna wonders why she’s having trouble conceiving with her husband, Matt. “Were my antibodies torpedoing his swimmers like a game of Battlestar Gallactica? Or maybe I was so dedicated to decolonizing that my Navajo body rejected Matt’s Euro-sperms.” Roanna goes to extraordinary lengths to conceive by looking up an old flame. “It surprised me that he could live his life so honestly, be a dentist, and still be a rezzy. Talking to him was natural. I didn’t have to overcompensate or over explain anything. Casey just understood. Even when I started dropping my t’s and slipping into my rez accent, he matched rhythm.”
Denetsosie writes with a fine touch. Four examples:
“It got hot too, our shirts sticking to our bodies and hardening into little shells like we were stink bugs on an errand.”
“Her hair was combed back into a low ponytail secured with white buckskin, and she wore so much turquoise jewelry she sounded like a walking penny jar.”
“His Navajo was authentic, clinging to his syllables like fat on mutton in a forgotten stew.”
“It’s funny how the dead become more than themselves and take on monolithic existences, like they are ancient dwellings themselves.”
The title story is a beautiful and beguiling contemplation of gender fluidity. According to “The Missing Morningstar,” the traditional Navajo culture once took a progressive and enlightened view of LGBTQ issues around identity. Our narrator, who describes herself as a “masculine-feminine,” tells us now that the reservation today is “entrenched” in western gender roles. “A girl I knew was removed from the Women of the Navajo calendar because she was outed to the publishers for transitioning. There is a resurgence of two-spirits on the reservation, but the reservation is synonymous with isolation. We’re isolated as hell.”
Denetsosie wraps her tale in a tale of kidnapping at a convenience store that ends the story collection where it began on page one—amid the town trash.
The Missing Morningstar is beautifully written, start to finish. Congratulations to Torrey House Press for shining a light on this remarkable writer.
Denetsosie’s female protagonists are forthright and perceptive. She writes with a blunt style that is engagingly matter of fact. Denetsosie gets her stories up and running quickly, bringing us along for the ride as easy as climbing into a car. Many of the stories take place around Kayenta, Arizona but Denetsosie also takes us to Utah, Idaho and Houston. There are convenience stores and trailers, hopes and dreams, ghosts and spirits. “Snow Bath Season” is one of the wittiest ten pages I’ve read in a long time.
In “Dormant,” grocery store bagger Bernadine helps Aaron, a high school student teacher and former Mormon missionary, deliver a stray cat from Kayenta to a vet in Tuba City. After the delivery, they stroll through a flea market and stop at a food tent for a piccadilly, a “Navajo delicacy” with pickles on top of shaved ice. As in many of the stories, Denetsosie takes us inside how her characters believe they are being perceived. “A group of liver-marked elders with yellowed bifocal lenses stopped talking as Aaron and I sat down at a table near them. I shot them a knowing look. Aaron and I were a strange match, to them, but it was none of their business. Interracial couples always had a hard time on the reservation, especially when the woman was Navajo. We were only thought of as leaders and matriarchs when our bodies bore brown babies, born for Navajo men. Outside of that, we were lost Indians, left to live with our reservations.”
Later, as their summer relationship drifts into September, Bernadine needs a pregnancy test. She imagines herself moving in with Aaron and having a “beige baby,” but then realizes she’s not going anywhere, that she’s stuck living at home with her alcoholic mother and the sketchy men she brings home. “Intuitively, I knew it would always be that way, burned Spaghetti-O’s, and drives to the gas station for chewing tobacco … My mother was erratic, but we belonged to one another.”
In “Conception,” a candid story about struggles with fertility, Roanna wonders why she’s having trouble conceiving with her husband, Matt. “Were my antibodies torpedoing his swimmers like a game of Battlestar Gallactica? Or maybe I was so dedicated to decolonizing that my Navajo body rejected Matt’s Euro-sperms.” Roanna goes to extraordinary lengths to conceive by looking up an old flame. “It surprised me that he could live his life so honestly, be a dentist, and still be a rezzy. Talking to him was natural. I didn’t have to overcompensate or over explain anything. Casey just understood. Even when I started dropping my t’s and slipping into my rez accent, he matched rhythm.”
Denetsosie writes with a fine touch. Four examples:
“It got hot too, our shirts sticking to our bodies and hardening into little shells like we were stink bugs on an errand.”
“Her hair was combed back into a low ponytail secured with white buckskin, and she wore so much turquoise jewelry she sounded like a walking penny jar.”
“His Navajo was authentic, clinging to his syllables like fat on mutton in a forgotten stew.”
“It’s funny how the dead become more than themselves and take on monolithic existences, like they are ancient dwellings themselves.”
The title story is a beautiful and beguiling contemplation of gender fluidity. According to “The Missing Morningstar,” the traditional Navajo culture once took a progressive and enlightened view of LGBTQ issues around identity. Our narrator, who describes herself as a “masculine-feminine,” tells us now that the reservation today is “entrenched” in western gender roles. “A girl I knew was removed from the Women of the Navajo calendar because she was outed to the publishers for transitioning. There is a resurgence of two-spirits on the reservation, but the reservation is synonymous with isolation. We’re isolated as hell.”
Denetsosie wraps her tale in a tale of kidnapping at a convenience store that ends the story collection where it began on page one—amid the town trash.
The Missing Morningstar is beautifully written, start to finish. Congratulations to Torrey House Press for shining a light on this remarkable writer.
January 15, 2026
The Missing Morningstar: And Other Stories is a sad collection of fragmented tales. These stories are told from the perspective of numerous youths, each surrounded by the tragic and pathetic realities that they face as Native American descendants stuck on a dying reservation. Littered among these accounts are numerous young mothers left alone to work the remainder of their lives away, communions with deceased elders despite the cursed nature of associating oneself with death in Navajo culture, and teenagers making stupid mistakes as they struggle to find their place in a world that seems to hold no place for them at all. The echoes of a beautiful culture draw shattered pieces of lives together slowly and with delicate threads of wisdom and the familiarity of tradition. These threads break under the cruel blows of a world with no respect for what once was, for what could have been. The threads slowly weave again. Grotesque descriptions are given of sex, birth, and filth, making it clear that Denetsosie is not afraid to face the repulsive, twisted realities of the human existence in a world so dilapidated as a culture forced into fences and left to rot. The uncomfortable descriptions and depressing topics are intended to be distressing and ugly and make you want to close the book. Denetsosie is writing a mournful ode to a sacred inheritance while shoving this harsh reality into your face any time you dare to open a page, saying "look. This is what is happening. This is what the Navajo people were made into, and it is not something I am going to let be pushed to the periphery of society any more."
July 24, 2025
Each story in this collection is gracefully written with a Navajo perspective of varied relationships and interactions. Resilient characters struggling with loss or other life challenges are the stories. An element to these stories that I enjoyed were the ties the characters had with the land and people, especially mothers, be it in the here and now or the afterworld.
This author crafts wonderful sentences, often connecting nature and behavior, such as, “Sometimes it seems like the only thing that changed around here was the direction of the wind,” from “Reservation State of Mind.”
4 stars to “The Casket in the Backseat,” “Under the Porchway,” and “Snow Bath Season;” three imaginative stories of connecting the here & now with the past, making amends, and the power of love.
The title story, “The Missing Morningstar,” also rates 4 stars. This story about a kidnapping takes the reader - took me - in an unexpected direction. With her vivid descriptive writing - evident in all the stories in this collection - the story involves raising sheep and how a LGBT person fits within the Navajo culture.
This author crafts wonderful sentences, often connecting nature and behavior, such as, “Sometimes it seems like the only thing that changed around here was the direction of the wind,” from “Reservation State of Mind.”
4 stars to “The Casket in the Backseat,” “Under the Porchway,” and “Snow Bath Season;” three imaginative stories of connecting the here & now with the past, making amends, and the power of love.
The title story, “The Missing Morningstar,” also rates 4 stars. This story about a kidnapping takes the reader - took me - in an unexpected direction. With her vivid descriptive writing - evident in all the stories in this collection - the story involves raising sheep and how a LGBT person fits within the Navajo culture.
December 18, 2025
Good collection with variety. Bit heavy with recurring theme of missing and murdered indigenous women. In particular the Sheep is a Body of Knowledge was chilling especially with the slice of life vibe ending and the unique writing structure. I liked the open ended endings which felt authentic. I also liked the writing style and the descriptions of setting. Not much mystical elements throughout, but when there was it was hit or miss for me. I wasn't a fan of the more modern tech-focused imagining of that in Snow Bath, but did enjoy The Casket in the Backseat which felt more grounded and eerie while being humorous too.
September 18, 2025
Like most short story collections, it felt quite hit or miss. Many of the stories were full of life and detail, and I especially liked the stories with bits and pieces of magic and spirituality mixed in. They delve deep into Navajo cultural issues, exposing you headfirst into the gritty details of life on and off the reservation. I enjoyed learning about Navajo life, but I felt like I was missing some important context that would have made the stories hit harder - and towards the end the stories started to feel quite repetitive (which I'm sure was intentional!) and fell a bit flat.
August 28, 2024
A strong, well-written (short) collection of short stories focusing on a culture I am not very familiar with. My only gripe was that many of the narrators felt like they could have been the same person, so at a certain point I started wondering if these stories were at all interconnected -- many of them, after all, take place in the same town. Alas, perhaps I was just not catching enough of the nuance. Regardless, these stories, taken independently, were quick and enjoyable reads.
March 23, 2025
3.5 stars. Good regional fiction. If you like Sherman Alexie or The Great Taos Bank Robbery, you'll probably like these short stories. The one with the possessed smart speaker was excellent: great concept, and the metaphor at the end was beautiful and clever.
I have the sense that I am missing some cultural knowledge that would make these even better, but as it is, I'm glad this book showed up on the Southwest Book of the Year list.
I have the sense that I am missing some cultural knowledge that would make these even better, but as it is, I'm glad this book showed up on the Southwest Book of the Year list.
December 10, 2023
A series of short stories, which all feel like quick reads. The characters are all interesting. The stories sucked me in. Well written. Beautiful imagery. Great tension. My favorite is the funeral story. I found learning language terms and other cultural awareness both important and inspiring. I want to read more literature by native authors. Recommend.
February 18, 2024
Some of these shocked me with truth of reservation life being revealed. Two were funny with spirits of the dead speaking with the author. Stacie writes so well that you are immediately drawn into the character. This is not a book to be read for entertainment. These are stories of life told by one who has seen it and lived it.
March 24, 2024
The Missing Morningstar is a beautiful and thought provoking debut short story collection from a new voice in indigenous literature, one I hope to hear much more from. Denetsosie shares glimpses of reservation life and Navajo customs through different family relationships. One of the best examples is “The Casket in the Backseat,” the story of a grandson and his recently deceased grandfather.
June 6, 2024
Usually when I read a short story collection, I review each story individually. And I have to confess, I haven't been doing very well with the short story collections lately. And then I picked up The Missing Morningstar.
From the very first story, I was hooked. The title story is also fantastic.
I'm so glad I own this and look forward to reading more from this author.
From the very first story, I was hooked. The title story is also fantastic.
I'm so glad I own this and look forward to reading more from this author.
August 18, 2024
This book was probably 4.5 stars for me. It was very good. As someone who worked and lived on the Navajo Nation I think I appreciated it even more, but really any human can connect to the themes in these stories. I loved all of them, but I think the first half was a bit better and the stories felt more fully formed. They were also longer so that makes sense.
April 14, 2025
Various perspectives on embodiment. One favorite was "Snow Bath"-- a deceased mother infiltrates Siri so she can accompany her daughter on a strengthening snow bath. In "The Missing Morningstar" a young woman midwifes a rebirth out of the earth. "The Casket in the Backseat" was a lot of fun and moving too.
January 26, 2026
Transported to a different world
I enjoyed the juxtaposed stories with Diné cultural references. I lived in NM for many years and developed a strong affection for Diné culture, the land and the people. This book of short storied speaks to all of these interests with an authentic native voice.
I enjoyed the juxtaposed stories with Diné cultural references. I lived in NM for many years and developed a strong affection for Diné culture, the land and the people. This book of short storied speaks to all of these interests with an authentic native voice.
December 1, 2023
this was such a great exploration of the daily lives of Native Americans - not trauma porn, just beautifully written short stories that made me wish my subway rides were longer so I could keep reading them
January 13, 2024
Moving collection of Native American short stories. The detail in the settings and characters were superb. I drive through Navajo Nation frequently and could follow along to the stories with great visuals in my reading mind.
January 30, 2024
Wow. I’m amazed by how tactful, vulnerable, and poetic the imagery was across all the short stories. I felt wholly encompassed by the lives of these magnetic characters and know that it’s only a glimpse to what it means to be Diné and to live these experiences. Stunning.
July 4, 2024
A beautiful and raw collection of stories surrounding the lives of different indigenous individuals. Denetsosie is a vivid and poetic storyteller. My personal favorite story was Snow Bath Season; it was so cute, sweet, and heartwarming
August 8, 2024
Fantastic stories! The only problem is the collection is too short. I need at least twice as many stories! The Missing Morningstar, the final story in the collection, can read as Navajo 101, with great little references throughout the story. My emotional favorite, though, was Snow Bath Season.
November 21, 2024
I read this collection of short stories in one sitting and it was fantastic. Such rich, emotional storytelling, and a couple of them almost made me tear up. I think my favorites were Wool Dolls and Conception, but they were all good. I’m eagerly anticipating more from this author!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews