Moon of the Crusted Snow - Waubgeshig Rice

⭐ 9.0/10

(Originally written by Magdalene)

This book is a dystopian novel set in a northern reservation, featuring almost all Anishinaabe characters. One day the power just goes out, followed by the Internet and phone lines, and because the reserve is so isolated, they have no idea what's going on. The town leaders start rationing oil and food, but unrest increases, plus a strange white man arrives saying he can help, but he's making a lot of people uncomfortable. Luckily some of the people living there have still kept some of the old ways, and are able to hunt and build fires to help them, but the winter is long...

I really enjoyed this book. It shows the realities of reservation life in the far north, which isn't even their ancestral land, but the land the white people pushed them onto. It shows both how they are more capable than most at surviving off the grid, but also how we all become dependent on technology and modern conveniences. It's a haunting post-apocolyptic novel (although there are no huge tragedies), and just like the characters, you can never be sure of what's happening in the outside world, since they have no way of finding out. Very atmospheric and dread-inducing about the coming winter.