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A review by nooralshanti
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
4.0
Moon of the Crusted Snow is a post-apocalyptic tale set in a northern Anishinaabe community. It has a much slower pace than your typical post-apocalyptic tale and while I found it a bit too slow at first, I do appreciate the way it took the time to show the characters dealing with their day to day survival and struggling to reconnect with their traditional ways and to overcome some of the horrors of their past including residential schools, their forced displacement from their original lands to this northern community, and more.
The story mostly follows one character, Evan, but it also has some POV chapters focusing on other characters in the community. I felt a little sad that we didn't get to see much of the new life they eventually settled into, only getting a hint of it in the epilogue. I also felt like the relationship between Evan and his wife could have been more fleshed out as they didn't seem to communicate much after the first couple of chapters so at the end when they made a change in their lives I didn't really feel like it had been a decision they had come to together, it just kind of happened.
I also feel as though the book skipped over a lot of potentially interesting scenes in the first half, such as family dinners and interactions, and chose to instead focus on Evan's inner thoughts and worries. Eventually, in the second half of the book, we got to see more of other people and more social and family interactions, which was good, but I still felt like something was missing. For example, there's a scene when his brother's girlfriend tells him he should really talk to his brother/talk some sense into him and then we never get to see him do this or know if he tried and the next chapter is just more thinking a week later... so definitely some missed opportunities there which knocked the book down a star.
Overall, though, it was a great read, and a much more real and honest look at post-apocalyptic type survival than the stuff that focuses on gun-battles and unrealistic social structures and stuff. Definitely check this out if you like post-apocalyptic fiction or if you are interested into diving into a northern First Nations survival story!
The story mostly follows one character, Evan, but it also has some POV chapters focusing on other characters in the community. I felt a little sad that we didn't get to see much of the new life they eventually settled into, only getting a hint of it in the epilogue. I also felt like the relationship between Evan and his wife could have been more fleshed out as they didn't seem to communicate much after the first couple of chapters so at the end when they made a change in their lives I didn't really feel like it had been a decision they had come to together, it just kind of happened.
I also feel as though the book skipped over a lot of potentially interesting scenes in the first half, such as family dinners and interactions, and chose to instead focus on Evan's inner thoughts and worries. Eventually, in the second half of the book, we got to see more of other people and more social and family interactions, which was good, but I still felt like something was missing. For example, there's a scene when his brother's girlfriend tells him he should really talk to his brother/talk some sense into him and then we never get to see him do this or know if he tried and the next chapter is just more thinking a week later... so definitely some missed opportunities there which knocked the book down a star.
Overall, though, it was a great read, and a much more real and honest look at post-apocalyptic type survival than the stuff that focuses on gun-battles and unrealistic social structures and stuff. Definitely check this out if you like post-apocalyptic fiction or if you are interested into diving into a northern First Nations survival story!