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A review by rorikae
Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
‘Night of the Living Rez’ by Morgan Talty is a set of vignettes that tell one Indigenous boy’s story as he grows up and looks to find his place in the world. Shifting from his childhood into his young adulthood, we get to see pieces of David’s life and how he relates to the world.
This is an interesting book because I think that Talty’s writing is rich and evocative. It’s easy to care deeply for these characters and feel connected to them. He presents a very stark image of their existence and how their relationships shift over time.
Despite this, I also had a hard time with this collection. Part of this is because I don’t think it is appropriate to call this a story collection. The story follows one character through different points in his life, looping back and forth in time such that for the entirety, I actually thought we were following two characters, a child and a young adult. The title is also a bit misleading as it leads one to believe this will be a horror story collection while it is much more contemporary literature. The fault here is really in the marketing, not in the book itself, which is an affecting piece about growing up Indigenous in Maine and David’s specific life story.
I would recommend this book, but I think it is crucial to go into it understanding that it is not a horror short story collection as the title and description might lead you to believe but actually the story of a single character told through vignettes that loop through time between the character’s childhood and young adulthood.
This is an interesting book because I think that Talty’s writing is rich and evocative. It’s easy to care deeply for these characters and feel connected to them. He presents a very stark image of their existence and how their relationships shift over time.
Despite this, I also had a hard time with this collection. Part of this is because I don’t think it is appropriate to call this a story collection. The story follows one character through different points in his life, looping back and forth in time such that for the entirety, I actually thought we were following two characters, a child and a young adult. The title is also a bit misleading as it leads one to believe this will be a horror story collection while it is much more contemporary literature. The fault here is really in the marketing, not in the book itself, which is an affecting piece about growing up Indigenous in Maine and David’s specific life story.
I would recommend this book, but I think it is crucial to go into it understanding that it is not a horror short story collection as the title and description might lead you to believe but actually the story of a single character told through vignettes that loop through time between the character’s childhood and young adulthood.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Colonisation, Grief, Alcohol, Addiction, and Drug use