This is an important novel for New Zealand - culturally and historically - it seems wrong to give it a critical review. This is a debut novel - i think her second novel is more balanced. Incl an excerpt from the NZ Herald for background. The novel is told with 3 POVs - Mere, Lula and an ancestral spirit. Mere‘s story is beautifully told but it peters out -Lula and the spirit get most of the second half of the book. I can see that Makereti wants ⬇️