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As winter approaches, I want to immerse myself in a world of snow: bleak and beautiful all at once. Plus, it’s been a long time since our book club has read something thriller-ish. After loads of research and novel-sampling, I found the one. An excerpt I read from Rice’s book suggests Moon of the Crusted Snow has that slow burn suspense I crave while also being met with deeper thematic elements like survival and community. I suspect I’ll read this in a single breath!
Details:
Literary fiction, post-apocalyptic, 224 pages, published in 2018
“Rice seamlessly injects Anishinaabe language into the dialogue and creates a beautiful rendering of the natural world … This title will appeal to fans of literary science-fiction akin to Cormac McCarthy as well as to readers looking for a fresh voice in indigenous fiction.” — Booklist
“In addition to being a new spin on the tech-pocalypse, it's also an eerie, slightly fabulist novel . . . If you want a thoughtful, uncanny, snow-bound read that will have you battening your hatches for winter and rethinking what apocalypse means, pick this one up ASAP.” — Book Riot’s Swords & Spaceships
Premise: With winter looming, a small northern Anishinaabe community goes dark. Cut off, people become passive and confused. Panic builds as the food supply dwindles. While the band council and a pocket of community members struggle to maintain order, an unexpected visitor arrives, escaping the crumbling society to the south. Soon after, others follow.
The community leadership loses its grip on power as the visitors manipulate the tired and hungry to take control of the reserve. Tensions rise and, as the months pass, so does the death toll due to sickness and despair. Frustrated by the building chaos, a group of young friends and their families turn to the land and Anishinaabe tradition in hopes of helping their community thrive again. Guided through the chaos by an unlikely leader named Evan Whitesky, they endeavor to restore order while grappling with a grave decision.
Blending action and allegory, Moon of the Crusted Snow upends our expectations. Out of catastrophe comes resilience. And as one society collapses, another is reborn.
Grab your copies, in any form you wish, and let’s read baby!
I’ll see you in my chat (in the Substack app!) to discuss this book while we read during November!! Yay! Who’s in? Let me know in the comments. Also, isn’t the novel’s title, “Moon of the Crusted Snow,” absolutely beautiful???
Just picked this one up from the local library! Excited to start reading!
Yay Carissaaa! Really look forward to reading this with you
actually have read this one and really enjoyed it! hope yall do too!
You have!! Well at least I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it :)