Thursday, November 30, 2017

Mild Cover for Real Terror

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline
Toronto, Ont. : Dancing Cat Books, an imprint of Cormorant Books Inc., [2017]
234 p. ; 21 cm.

The cover of this book doesn't prepare you for the horrors that await between the covers.  Dimaline's award winning dystopian thriller is a darn good read and I hope it will be reissued with a cover that better conveys the dangerous, terrifying world that confronts the heroes of this tale - a band of indigenous survivors and resisters who are on the move in the middle of this century when global warming has ruined the North American continent, and made Indians once again the hunted targets of white "recruiters."

The recruiters hunt Native Americans in order to bring them into the control of "schools" where they are subjected to cruel and murderous medical procedures aimed at removing their bone marrow.  The idea is that the marrow will somehow restore "dreaming" to the whites who have lost the capacity of dreaming due to the harrows of climate catastrophe.  I like the metaphoric value of the loss of dreaming, but thought it would have worked better if that loss were a symptom that led to death for the whites, since I honestly don't think a loss of dreaming would trouble people enough to hunt and kill others.  Regardless of the plot motives, the recruiters are determined, dangerous and sometimes assisted by Indigenous collaborators.  It's a horrible world. 

This book reminded me of two other disturbing, but excellent books I've read: the historically accurate City of Thieves by Benioff and the dystopian novel, The Road by McCarthy.

I really liked The Marrow Thieves and will recommend it.  It's an added plus that the author is a Metis, Canadian Indigenous author, adding to the diversity of YA collections.  As far as the cover, my main reason for wanting it different is that I'd like to see a cover that tempts more YA readers to pull this fine book off the shelf.




Tuesday, November 7, 2017

A Fun, but Tangled Web

Miles Morales, Spider-Man by Jason Reynolds
Los Angeles : Marvel, 2017.
261 p. ; 22 cm.

Jason Reynolds is a talented writer (I really enjoyed the last book of his I read) and this story bears that out. It's a fun, clever and fleshed out novel that takes the Brian Michael Bendis' reboot of Spider-man as its jumping off point.     

The fun and attraction of Reynold's novel is the way it just treats as totally believable the idea of a late middle-schooler from Brooklyn having Spider-man-like super powers and runs with it.  Think of the problems and dilemmas having such powers would be while trying to navigate middle school and adolescence.  Add in the pressures of racism on our young African American superhero and you have a great recipe for storytelling. 

I was with Reynolds for all but the villainous (and somewhat mystical, magical mythical) role played by the Chamberlains of the novel.  This character(s) seems to represent the embodiment of White Supremacy and though interesting, I think it ultimately becomes too magical and unresolved.  Does this ruin the novel?  I don't think so.  I still enjoyed the read - great characters, great descriptions of the Brooklyn setting, and some action packed episodes of Spider-man adventures.  However, I would have liked it better if the racism and set-backs were just the usual racism and discrimination that Miles Morales would have experienced - instead of it being in the shapeshifting, creepy incarnation of Chamberlain.