Seven Fallen Feathers won the 2018 RBC Taylor Prize, the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing, and the First Nation Communities Read: Young Adult/Adult Award. It came in as a finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Nonfiction Prize and the BC National Award for Nonfiction, was CBC’s Nonfiction Book of the Year and was in the Globe and Mail Top 100 books list.

** I have read Seven Fallen Feathers, so I feel comfortable giving a more in-depth summary of it. I have not read any of her other books, so I will not be writing about them. **

Seven Fallen Feathers is Tanya Talaga's first book, published in 2017. It is a work of non-fiction, about seven Indigenous youth (the seven feathers) who disappeared or died under suspicious circumstances in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

It examines and critiques how inadequately the police responded to Indigenous deaths and disappearances, and how systematic the disregard is. The book illustrates how heart-breaking and demoralising the Canadian judicial system is for Indigenous Peoples.

Robyn Harper died of alcohol poisoning, due to excessive drinking. She was staying in a host-family in Thunder Bay, away from her family, to attend high school (most Northern Indigenous communities do not have secondary education, forcing youth to move in order to get their education). She died in her home in the early morning, after being unconscious for several hours. The host she was staying with had seen her, but had not checked to make sure she was alright. This was clearly seen as neglect, but the host family did not receive any consequences.

While Tanya Talaga has raised awareness about this issue, the inquest into the seven fallen feathers still states all the deaths as either accidents or with undetermined cause. There is no mention of violence or neglect in the reports, though there is proof of both in many cases.