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jayisreading's review against another edition
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.25
Waubgeshig Rice returns with an equally quiet yet bold sequel that continues to explore the meaning of “post-apocalypse” to Indigenous peoples. This time, though, it is to consider what comes after. Following the same Anishinaabe community from Moon of the Crusted Snow, the sequel takes place a little over a decade after the blackout, and the community must address their dwindling food resources. As a result, a small scouting party of six, led by Evan Whitesky, is formed to venture into the unknown and find a new place to call home. More specifically, they decide to return to their ancestral home.
I admit that I found the first third of the novel to be a little too slow, but thinking back to my overall reading experience, I’m realizing that this was Rice laying out the foundations to build up to an intense series of events. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it was explosive in action, but the sequel definitely felt more intense to me as a result of the stakes being higher. On a different note, something that struck me about this novel was the ongoing theme of reclamation (at least, that was how I understood it). Years after the blackout, nature reclaimed much of the land that was once taken by settlers. Relatedly, I felt that Rice was reclaiming Anishinaabe culture with how he presented beliefs and traditions throughout the novel, particularly emphasized by the untranslated conversations in Anishinaabemowin between characters and the way they looked towards the future of the Anishinaabe people. While colonialism wasn’t explicitly discussed, the blackout gave them the chance of restoration. There were moments that threatened this chance, which I interpreted as an allegory to the numerous attempts to erase Indigenous cultures and histories, but Rice makes clear that they will always survive and will always be present.
The novel has been marketed as a standalone, but I think it would really help to read the first novel to really understand Rice’s themes and why this sequel was written the way it was. Overall, this was more of an intense read than I expected it to be, while still maintaining a sense of quiet that resulted in a rather reflective reading experience.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, and Racism
Moderate: Grief and Suicide
Minor: Cannibalism, Kidnapping, and Colonisation
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