Tuesday, October 5, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Yume by Sifton Tracey Anipare

 


Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on October 12, 2021 in exchange for a potential review.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.


Yume is the debut novel by Canadian author Sifton Tracey Anipare, inspired clearly in part by her own experience as a foreigner teaching English in Japan.  It's an urban fantasy novel featuring as a Black Canadian woman, like Anipare herself, teaching English to kids....and struggling with the fact that after years of being in Japan, she's still treated as a foreign curiosity (or worse) more than anything else.  Oh and then there are the Yokai who thrive in people's dreams, and perhaps in the real world as well, and the boy turned man who found himself tied to one such deadly Yokai.  

The result is a novel that is fascinating to read, and a really strong debut novel.  The story deals with the difficulty in fitting in as a foreigner in a strange land, especially as an obvious one, how difficult it can be to stand up for oneself to one who might seem to be a protector at first, and how running away to a new place isn't going to make one whole and solve one's problems, even if it can result in some good.  And while parts can be painful to read, as main protagonist Cybelle deals with the shitty treatment by her boss and fellow teachers as well as just general strangers, it can also be pretty fun as its Yokai protagonist encounters other yokai in her hunt just to consume...and for home.
------------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-----------------------------------------------------
Cybelle has spent the last 7 years teaching as a native English speaker in Japan for kids.  Despite spending 7 years in the country, outsiders always act like she's just another gaijin who can't speak Japanese, and lately her coworkers - one ambitious one in particular - have been making it worse.  Her school's manager is jerking her around, and some of the students are still acting afraid of the Black Canadian woman she is trying to teach them.  With her contract coming up for renewal and her mother begging her to return home for Cybelle's sister's wedding, Cybelle feels unsure of what to do next, even if she doesn't actually want to return home.  What she mainly feels though is hunger...for food...and something else.  

Zaniel has spent the last few years in a dangerous partnership with a Nightmare Yokai named Akki who mostly lives in peoples' dreams.  Akki demands Zaniel provide him with women for companionship in exchange for protection, and Zaniel is sick of the whole thing, and distantly wishes there was a way out.  But when a strange new Yokai enters the scene, consumes Akki's house and begins eating more and more in Akki's own territory, Zaniel finds himself fascinated by the newcomer, and desperate to find them in search of his own way out.  

But Akki and Japan won't let go of their holds on Cybelle and Zaniel so easily......
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Yume is a story that takes a while for it to become obvious what's going on, but the individual aspects of the story from the start work well enough for the story to grip you even before the truth becomes evident.  The story seems to alternate between a third person perspective that mainly follows Zaniel or the new Yokai (with occasional bits from Akki's point of view) and first person bits from Cybelle's point of view, before things stop being so systematic later in the book.  In essence the book seems at first to flip between a fantasy world and a real one, although the hints are there from the start that the two are more closely tied than they seem, with antagonist and nightmare demon Akki obsessing about Japanese purity and being blind to how much of what he thinks is modern Japanese is actually borrowed from other cultures.  

But the star here is Cybelle, whose first person viewpoint carries us through around 60% of the book.  On one hand, Cybelle is some ways well accustomed and enjoying life in Japan - she loves pretty much all the food, enjoys the television and anime (notably she will at times watch an episode of an anime before doing something or sleeping without even noticing that it's anything special), and well has been there 7 years.  On the other hand, after 7 years, you'd expect her to be treated like something other than a black gaijin girl, especially by those who know her at work, which is not the case - her manager jerks her around, the newish teacher who seems to want the manager job makes constant demands on her that the manager can barely fight off, and that teacher and most of the others, except for one friend, act like she can barely speak Japanese (she's fluent of course) and is the uncooperative problem....even when most of them can barely speak english despite teaching at a school for kids to learn English.  And Cybelle's role being as a "Native English" speaker doesn't help, since as part of it she's not allowed to speak Japanese at work.  With those same teachers leading her to parties where other japanese men (and occasional other foreigners) act like rude lecherous creeps towards the foreign girl, it's a wonder that her mother's constant pleas to come home to Canada for Cybelle's sister's wedding aren't more appealing....except as Cybelle puts it memorably to one other character, it's not like running to a new (or old) place ever solved her problems - in this case being treated as an other. 

Zaniel is essentially our second main character (the Yokai is the third), being a half-Japanese man who fell into Akki's orbit due to his ability to dreamwalk, which made him vulnerable to yokai when he didn't have Akki's protection.  But years later Zaniel feels lost, with Akki's demands to bring him women feeling more and more demeaning and yet, Zaniel can't escape them.  But when he sees the Yokai effortlessly consume Akki's house and infringe upon Akki's territory, he knows he has to find her, to find a person who can just freely go through life enjoying things (and consuming them) without a care as to who's territory it is.  Zaniel learns from the Yokai how to be free and how much he wants such freedom, despite him being a half-Japanese boy who used to be desperate for protection. 

Naturally, it's not really a spoiler to say Zaniel and Cybelle's worlds do eventually collide, even if it takes about 60% of the book to get there - but it never really feels like things are going slowly because of how well the book writes each of their worlds, whether that be Cybelle's crappy one as a gaijin (and a black woman at that) in Japan who won't get the respect she deserves from teachers or students (one child treating her like a monster is a notably depressing moment) or Zaniel's incredibly colorful dream world filled with yokai of all types, which the book describes and brings to life incredibly well.  And the book concludes on a strong note, with Cybelle realizing she can own her being a "monster" in some ways, and can find something to complete her no matter whether she's home, in Japan, or elsewhere, and Zaniel finding that freedom as well - even if certain things in Japan, and certain beings, remain the same.  There are some things that don't really work - there's a lot of hints that certain characters in Cybelle's world are aware of the yokai world and are either part of it or have turned their back on it, and these hints don't really go anywhere and just feel kind of pointless - but for the most part this is a pretty strong first novel from a perspective that most readers won't have seen before.  

Recommended.   


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