Wednesday, May 24, 2023

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Nightland Express by J.M. Lee

 



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 November 8, 2022 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.

The Nightland Express is an antebellum young adult weird west novel by author J.M. Lee, published by one of my favorite publishers Erewhon Books. The novel takes place in 1860 America, where two teens try to obtain a special job for the Pony Express to travel the unusual and unheard of Nightland route to California with a special package, one which is unusual and not one that normal Pony Express Riders would take. But the two teens - Jesse and Ben - are each holding secrets that they are deathly afraid of getting out: Ben, for being a mixed race boy who passes for White and is on the run as a runaway slave from his pure White Brother, and Jesse, for being born female but feeling more comfortable in boy's clothes, even if calling Jesse a "boy" doesn't quite work either. And then there's the strange supernatural spirit creatures that the two of them start to see as they journey across the country with a strange young girl.

The result is a fascinating and generally well done story as the two teen struggle with their secrets, their identities, and the realities of a United States that is built upon not just the works of slavery, but colonial oppression of indigenous peoples and spirits. There's a grand overarching plot here as Ben and Jesse find themselves caught up in a battle for the future of the Spirit World, but really the strength of this novel is finding the two teens struggling with who they are and what they want to be - and how they deal with the revelations about the other. The book deals with these themes and oppressions pretty well, never equating the different hardships of the two and rejecting the times where a character tries to do so, and as a result is a stronger more interesting and powerful/useful story as a result of it. It's not a long book, but The Nightland Express packs a bunch into it, and it's worth your time.

More specifics after the jump:

Mild Trigger Warning: A minor scene of sexual assault in flashback, slavery and abuse in flashback.



--------------------------------Plot Summary--------------------------------
Missouri, 1860. An advertisement on posters reads: "Pony Express - Special Assignment! Two riders - two young skinny, wiry fellows not over eighteen...willing to risk death daily - wanted for a ride from St. Joseph Missouri to Sacramento California."

For Ben, the advertisement is a way for him to get money while still running as far away as he can get. For while Ben can pass for white, he's actually the son of a slave and a plantation owner, who freed Ben on his deathbed....of course Ben's brother Randall doesn't accept that and is after him as a runaway slave. If Ben can get the job and the money without anyone realizing who he is, he might be able to get away.

For Jesse, born as the girl "Jessamine", the advertisement promises a number of things: money, to support Jesse and her sister Alice, pregnant thanks to some male lout; and a chance to track down their father, who abandoned them out in California. But it also gives Jesse the chance to dress as he's more comfortable, in boy's clothes, without the pressure of having to be the girl that Jesse isn't. As long as no one realizes, Jesse will be safe, surely.

So when they get the assignment, neither Jesse nor Ben thinks much of the other - they're more concerned about keeping their own secrets. But when the special assignment puts them in contact with mysterious and deadly spirit beings, as well as a girl with some magical connection to them, they find that only by sticking together despite their secrets and differences will give them a chance to find a happy ending....
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The Nightland Express is a novel that features what seems like a pretty typical YA setup: you have a pair of protagonists who each have their own secrets and desires, which they both are afraid to share with the other - considering that the other is a stranger to them.  The story alternates between their perspectives every chapter, allowing each of their mentalities to take a bit of center stage, and the characters' backstories and development really guide this plot.  That's all something that should be familiar to YA readers.

What's less familiar is how Lee uses this standard setup, with its two protagonists' wants, desires, and struggles.  Ben for example, is a mixed-race son of a plantation owner, who can pass for White and was technically manumitted by his father's will upon his father's death...but who knows that his fully White brother will refuse to allow him freedom and that American Southern society on the eve of the Civil War is not going to believe Ben's papers of freedom over his brother's claim to his body.  Ben is gay, although he doesn't understand what that means or even what the word "gay" might mean in this context (he remembers desiring a boy back on the plantation but never has the chance to act upon any such desires in this book's present) and has more than enough troubles just from his race.  For Ben, the job on the Nightland Express is a chance to escape as far away as possible, with the money and distance being the key.  And yet, despite all of the above being a reason for Ben to be cynical and jaded, he also still is good hearted and caring about people and the world, even as shitty as it's been to him.  

For Jesse, well Jesse is supposedly a "girl", but he has never felt comfortable dressed in girl clothes as opposed to that of a boy's.*  In our world, Jesse would easily be categorizable as non-binary and trans, but those words don't exist for Jesse, who merely wishes they could be themselves rather than the girl everyone thinks of her. And so Jesse looks to this trip not just as a way to bring back the father who abandoned them, but also as a way to escape a society where everyone thinks they now who he is and refuses to let Jesse be who Jesse feels most comfortable being.

*Jesse's perspective starts with she/her pronouns, but at times shifts to he/him pronouns.  For this review, I will be using all pronouns interchangably*.

Most interestingly is how Lee uses these two character backgrounds and themes, as the secrets of both inevitably come to light. The story features themes of discrimination and oppression on multiple angles, but notably, the story does not try to equivocate different kinds of oppression and rejects it when characters like Jesse try to do so - the oppression Jesse faces is horrible, but it can in theory be lived through, while the oppression Ben faces is the threat of outright slavery and execution and is not of the same kind...Jesse can escape the oppression temporarily by changing his clothes, while Ben can't escape who he is. The two characters also come into contact with indigneous peoples (who have faced their own oppression and genocides) and the question of ownership of land and property and whether that all makes sense, and of course a plotline that involves spirits of the American continent struggling to survive in a new world without faith in them, and being forced to either adapt...or make horrible choices as dictated to them by outsiders from another continent - itself essentially a metaphor for the effects of colonization. This book touches on a lot of interesting themes, and it works really well at examining them without providing answers (and easily avoids any white savior tropes), even as it ends on a hopeful note.

I had a better exploration of the themes and such here in this review once, but I actually failed to save my original review. But The Nightland Express is really good and interesting in its themes and characters and is hopeful without being unrealistically optimistic and is well worth your time, so I highly recommend it.
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