SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline https://t.co/gmZ1cqRT0m Short Review: 8 out of 10 (1/3)

— garik16(@garik16) August 13, 2018

Short Review (cont): In a post-apocalyptic future, where Native Peoples find themselves hunted for their abilities to dream, French & a group of other Native survivors find themselves on the run and searching for some type of future. Very strong. (2/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) August 13, 2018

The Marrow Thieves is the second Native-written SF/F book I've read this month - Rebecca Roanhorse's "Trail of Lightning" - and the second one to feature a post-apocalyptic setting.  That is the extent of the similarities (on the surface at least) - whereas Trail of Lightning is a fantasy story using Native myths (with serious issues discussed mind you), The Marrow Thieves is a science fiction dystopian story about a people hunted for their genes.  Not that Trail of Lightning was a "light" story (or that there are no light moments in this book), but the result is a much darker post-apocalyptic novel which uses its setting to make some pointed comment about how the world actually is in the present...and of course has been in the past.

And this results in a very effective and good story, thanks to a very strong protagonist whose story is told in his first person as he struggles to survive in this world with the group of characters he winds up in.  The story at times seems unclear in where it's going, and ends in on a very different note than I would have expected even 2/3 of the way in, but it all works and the direction of the plot directly follows from its conflicted main character and never really seems arbitrary.

Trigger Warning: Rape as backstory.  The details are not described, and it is a purposeful part of the backstory that fits the setting, so it is not spurious, but it's there for at least one character.  

More after the Jump:

-----------------------------------------------Plot Summary----------------------------------------------
In a near future after global warming changed the territories of the world, and the water wars were waged between powers, half the world's population was lost, and what remained found itself mentally broken, no longer able to dream.  But when it became clear that people of Native descent still found themselves able to dream, the world turned on the Natives, and began to hunt them.

French is a Native Boy who fled north with his family, only for the last of them, his brother, to give himself away to allow French to escape.  Finding a group of other children and adults on the run, French and his fellows continue to flee North, searching for a place where they can be safe....or something.  Along the way, French begins to fall in love with Rose, a girl who joins them along the way, but as their flight encounters greater and greater dangers, French finds himself changing and forced into actions that will haunt him and his chances of having something with Rose, forever.
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The Marrow Thieves is an interesting book because it seems to shift multiple times in the direction the plot is going, to the point where the ending might seem rather odd from the perspective of earlier in the story.  This shifting follows the heart and mind of its lead character, French, who is our narrator throughout (the only times he's not fully the narrator are where he retells other characters telling their own stories).  French is a teenager driven from his home into what is essentially a position of leadership (due to age, rather than anything else) of his group of fellow Native fugitives, which feature only two actual adults, one of whom is unable to provide leadership.  This is a burden that obviously takes an incredible toll on him, to only add to the horrible burden of being on the run from those who hunt for his own blood and have already taken away his family.

The result is a character who is incredibly strong and believable, even as his mental state goes through the ringer and causes him to make some really bad mistakes that the reader will immediately want to yell at him for.    Following him, the story switches from the tale of a frantic escape, to a tale of an attempt at fighting back directly, until it reaches an ending more of emotion than anything.  And it works because French is an extremely well done character - it would be easy for a lesser author to write him as whiny, but that he is anything but (and man does he have reason to be) even when his actions on the surface could seem as such.

The rest of the cast is more of a mixed bag.  The group's leader Miig makes up the story's other emotional lynchpin, and it works really well - I'm not going to say anything more so as not to spoil it.  Still, while the rest of the main group often have emotionally poignant backstories, they tend to fade into the background in terms of actual characters in the present day, particularly the love interest Rose whose feisty aggressive nature disappears after her early introduction.  She works, but I found I was hoping for a bit more from her.

Still, this story is really strong overall, even if it gets very dark at times.  The story has some moments of lightness - a particular moment where the group finds itself at a deserted lodge is an absolutely hilarious end to a moment the reader was expecting to happen sooner - and ends on a hopeful note - this is a story that is dark, but not grimdark, and the result is well worth reading.