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A review by starrysteph
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
"Our world isn't ending. It already ended."
This is a quiet, somber tale of the apocalypse - but from the viewpoint of a group that has already faced exile and devastation and several "world-ending" events.
We follow Evan, his family, and his isolated Anishinaabe community in northern Canada. They're already quite distant from the rest of the country, and loss of cell service and internet and even power is a fairly normal event (in fact, they've only recently installed a cell tower). When a couple of family members rush back home from the south, they realize that things are falling apart in the wider world.
Their community is prepared to live off the land, but not everyone has kept in touch with traditional skills. When a group of white strangers arrive, things quickly become uneasy and then downright dangerous.
The plot is simplistic, and this is mostly a character-driven piece. I appreciated the glimpse into culture and spirit and the take on the end of the world from an indigenous point of view.
While the world feels deeply authentic, the writing itself was very dry. The premise is so compelling that I was disappointed when the prose wasn't rich at all. I didn't feel like I got nearly enough insight into the minds of the characters, and many felt unchanged from start to finish.
Though we have a wide range of personality types (many reflective of how current societal groups have reacted to our current pandemic - and this novel was written in 2018!), many of the side characters felt too similar to each other. Within this group of smaller characters, it was often difficult to remember who was who. The villain was also a bit stereotypical - a hulking, scary bad guy without any sort of history or clear motivations.
Ultimately, I felt like this short, sad piece asked a lot of compelling questions (such as: how do indigenous communities stay connected with their identities - that have so often been ripped from them - in a modern world? who is best prepared to survive an apocalyptic event?), but the follow through wasn't quite enough for me.
CW: gun violence, death, murder, violence, animal death, cannibalism, alcoholism, suicide, racism
This is a quiet, somber tale of the apocalypse - but from the viewpoint of a group that has already faced exile and devastation and several "world-ending" events.
We follow Evan, his family, and his isolated Anishinaabe community in northern Canada. They're already quite distant from the rest of the country, and loss of cell service and internet and even power is a fairly normal event (in fact, they've only recently installed a cell tower). When a couple of family members rush back home from the south, they realize that things are falling apart in the wider world.
Their community is prepared to live off the land, but not everyone has kept in touch with traditional skills. When a group of white strangers arrive, things quickly become uneasy and then downright dangerous.
The plot is simplistic, and this is mostly a character-driven piece. I appreciated the glimpse into culture and spirit and the take on the end of the world from an indigenous point of view.
While the world feels deeply authentic, the writing itself was very dry. The premise is so compelling that I was disappointed when the prose wasn't rich at all. I didn't feel like I got nearly enough insight into the minds of the characters, and many felt unchanged from start to finish.
Though we have a wide range of personality types (many reflective of how current societal groups have reacted to our current pandemic - and this novel was written in 2018!), many of the side characters felt too similar to each other. Within this group of smaller characters, it was often difficult to remember who was who. The villain was also a bit stereotypical - a hulking, scary bad guy without any sort of history or clear motivations.
Ultimately, I felt like this short, sad piece asked a lot of compelling questions (such as: how do indigenous communities stay connected with their identities - that have so often been ripped from them - in a modern world? who is best prepared to survive an apocalyptic event?), but the follow through wasn't quite enough for me.
CW: gun violence, death, murder, violence, animal death, cannibalism, alcoholism, suicide, racism
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Alcoholism, Animal death, Violence, Racism, Gun violence, Grief, Death, Cannibalism, Blood, and Suicide