SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline: https://t.co/vC3a31AYEI
— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) November 20, 2020
Short Review: 8 out of 10
1/3
Short Review (cont): An Urban Fantasy thriller set in a Métis town in Canada in which a woman discovers her missing husband seemingly alive as a reverend in a traveling church, under the spell of a Rogarou (a monster) is a solid story, altho it didnt quite fully work for me
— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) November 20, 2020
2/3
Empire of Wild is the second novel* from Cherie Dimaline, a Canadian writer from the Métis community. Her first novel, The Marrow Thieves, was a really strong (I reviewed it here) post apocalyptic YA novel in which the Native community was once again hunted for something the rest of the world didn't have (dreams). So I was really interested to see Dimaline's first book for "adult" audiences and so here we are.
*Confusingly, the book's marketing lists this as her "American Debut," despite the fact that her first book was published in the far away land of Canada and was highly acclaimed in both countries.*
And Empire of Wild is a solid novel....but I kind of expected more from it after The Marrow Thieves? It's a story of a woman in the Métis community trying to get back her husband from a White Christian preaching group run by a man who might be a mythological Métis monster, who has aims on using his preaching business to enable the continued appropriation of Métis/Native resources. And it works, with believable characters and an interesting plotline from beginning to conclusion, but it honestly does less than I expected after her first book. I don't know, this might be an expectations problem more than anything and let me try to better explain after the jump.
It has been 11 months and 6 days since Joan's husband Victor disappeared from the Métis town of Arcand - right after a rare argument between them over what to do with Joan's family land. Joan's mother has told her to move on - not that her mother has ever been helpful - but Joan just can't, and has been silently searching for him all this time. But one day, Joan discovers a tent filled with a traveling Christian preaching group in a local parking lot....and acting as a reverend within is a man she is absolutely sure is Victor, who claims instead to be someone else with no memory of her. Even worse, the group's leader, a white man named Heiser, is clearly more than he seems...and when Joan's grandmother is killed by a beast on the very same night, it seems clear to Joan that Heiser is secretly a Rogarou, a wolf-like monster of old Métis tales.
But Joan hasn't spent the last 11 months in misery to merely give up after the death of a loved one after seeing Victor for the first time in nearly a year. Aided by her 12 year old cousin Zeus and elder Ajean, she sets out to find Victor again and remind him of who he is and who they together are, and if a Rogarou gets in the way, she'll find the way to beat it back. But the truth about what happened to Victor is very different than what Joan could imagine, and Heiser and his church have their own plans for the reverend - plans they won't let one woman get in the way of.....
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As described above, Empire of Wild seems like a more straightforward novel than as it's actually written. The bulk of the story follows Joan, our protagonist, as she searches first for Victor and then for a way to bring Victor back to her - and to deal with anything supernatural that might get in her way. But the story jumps around, with occasional chapters from Victor's point of view in a strange wood, which teases out what's actually going on with said supernatural, but also with chapters from occasional other characters' points of view - her cousin Zeus, the major antagonist Heiser, and a woman involved with the traveling church Cecile - showing their viewpoints on reality as well. Joan's quest forms the heart of the story, but Empire of Wild is also interested in showing off what is going in the world from other perspectives as well.
Joan's story works well, because Joan, Zeus and Ajean are strong characters, especially Joan - a woman who left her home because there was nothing there for her but her own culture and came back with happiness, getting the best of both worlds: a chance to explore outside and find someone new but also the ability to live with her own people instead of outsiders in the end. It's no surprise therefore she can't let Victor go, and when she finds him in the seemingly amnesiac reverend, that she won't stop at anything to bring him back. Joan's determination as well as her simultaneous care for her people as well as interest in the outside world make her a strong protagonist, and when she finds out Heiser's plot to use his church to help outsiders take Native land, she's only renewed in her determination. Her foul mouthed dialogue (well not as foul mouthed as I've seen but it's very there) only helps things.
But her storyline is the most straightforward thing about this book. You've also got Cecile, who recovered from a drug addiction she got when she went to LA to try and be something from nothing to instead find another addiction - to Heiser's church, which the book quite convincingly argues is no different than another drug. Cecile sees things at the church spiraling out of her control and takes desperate crazy action that others don't quite anticipate. You have Heiser, who clearly has a strange power he discovered from a young age, and uses that power and his church to manipulate Native/Métis people* by distracting them from protesting and stopping corporate exploitation of their lands.
*The people in question we see named here are Métis but Heiser doesn't discriminate or care about the difference between indigenous groups, hence me using both terms indiscriminately.
And then you have the Rogarou, the beast of Métis legend, who is what men turn into for their bad thoughts and actions, and comes for those at night on their own and can only be stopped by a combination of Métis remedies and being reminded of who they actually are. Even when never seen for the most part on page and remaining in the shadows, the Rogarou forms its own character in and of itself.
So honestly, with all the above, why did I feel so less than enthused about this novel like I was above the jump? I still can't quite say - it just feels like all of its themes are there and interesting to some extent and Joan's main story is well done and enjoyable to read, but I wanted more of an exploration than I got here. And the ending's ambiguity suggesting that it will all keep continuing fits the novel, and yet...didn't really hit either the spot of brutal hopelessness or of hopeful optimism, and being in between kind of didn't affect me as much as I wanted? I wish I had a better answer, but this is what I've got.
As described above, Empire of Wild seems like a more straightforward novel than as it's actually written. The bulk of the story follows Joan, our protagonist, as she searches first for Victor and then for a way to bring Victor back to her - and to deal with anything supernatural that might get in her way. But the story jumps around, with occasional chapters from Victor's point of view in a strange wood, which teases out what's actually going on with said supernatural, but also with chapters from occasional other characters' points of view - her cousin Zeus, the major antagonist Heiser, and a woman involved with the traveling church Cecile - showing their viewpoints on reality as well. Joan's quest forms the heart of the story, but Empire of Wild is also interested in showing off what is going in the world from other perspectives as well.
Joan's story works well, because Joan, Zeus and Ajean are strong characters, especially Joan - a woman who left her home because there was nothing there for her but her own culture and came back with happiness, getting the best of both worlds: a chance to explore outside and find someone new but also the ability to live with her own people instead of outsiders in the end. It's no surprise therefore she can't let Victor go, and when she finds him in the seemingly amnesiac reverend, that she won't stop at anything to bring him back. Joan's determination as well as her simultaneous care for her people as well as interest in the outside world make her a strong protagonist, and when she finds out Heiser's plot to use his church to help outsiders take Native land, she's only renewed in her determination. Her foul mouthed dialogue (well not as foul mouthed as I've seen but it's very there) only helps things.
But her storyline is the most straightforward thing about this book. You've also got Cecile, who recovered from a drug addiction she got when she went to LA to try and be something from nothing to instead find another addiction - to Heiser's church, which the book quite convincingly argues is no different than another drug. Cecile sees things at the church spiraling out of her control and takes desperate crazy action that others don't quite anticipate. You have Heiser, who clearly has a strange power he discovered from a young age, and uses that power and his church to manipulate Native/Métis people* by distracting them from protesting and stopping corporate exploitation of their lands.
*The people in question we see named here are Métis but Heiser doesn't discriminate or care about the difference between indigenous groups, hence me using both terms indiscriminately.
And then you have the Rogarou, the beast of Métis legend, who is what men turn into for their bad thoughts and actions, and comes for those at night on their own and can only be stopped by a combination of Métis remedies and being reminded of who they actually are. Even when never seen for the most part on page and remaining in the shadows, the Rogarou forms its own character in and of itself.
So honestly, with all the above, why did I feel so less than enthused about this novel like I was above the jump? I still can't quite say - it just feels like all of its themes are there and interesting to some extent and Joan's main story is well done and enjoyable to read, but I wanted more of an exploration than I got here. And the ending's ambiguity suggesting that it will all keep continuing fits the novel, and yet...didn't really hit either the spot of brutal hopelessness or of hopeful optimism, and being in between kind of didn't affect me as much as I wanted? I wish I had a better answer, but this is what I've got.
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