Reading Wednesday
Oct. 2nd, 2019 07:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabotabbyI must keep it very brief as there is quite a lot that I need to get through tonight. Which is too bad, because I would love to wax eloquent about...
Just finished: Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline. Fuuuuuuuck this book is amazing. And you thought The Marrow Thieves was good (I assume you've read The Marrow Thieves—if not, go read that). But freed from the narrative constraints of YA fiction, Dimaline goes full out weird on this one. It's about the Rogarou, the Métis version of a werewolf, and the complicity of religion in stealing Indigenous land to build pipelines and mines. Joan's husband has been missing for a year, and by chance she stumbles on a big tent revival, only to find that the reverend looks exactly like him, but doesn't seem to know who she is. So she does what any loving spouse would do and goes on a road trip with her 12-year-old nephew to get her man back from the evil white people. Every single character in this feels real and grounded and compelling, heroes and villains alike, and the landscape of small towns and Walmart parking lots and forests is vividly drawn. Like her other book, this one uses the supernatural to tell a very real story of land theft and resource exploitation without ever feeling didactic. Also it begs for a sequel.
Currently reading: Mister X by Dean Motter and too many other artists and writers to name. This is a super weird comic about an architect who designs a city that makes its residents go insane. To fix it, he engineers a drug that keeps him awake 24-7. It owes a lot to Art Deco, German Expressionism, and film noir, and it's quite excellent so far.
Also still reading Guardian, between other things. I'm reading it slowly both because of the translation and because I know said translation isn't done yet and I don't want to be annoyed.
Just finished: Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline. Fuuuuuuuck this book is amazing. And you thought The Marrow Thieves was good (I assume you've read The Marrow Thieves—if not, go read that). But freed from the narrative constraints of YA fiction, Dimaline goes full out weird on this one. It's about the Rogarou, the Métis version of a werewolf, and the complicity of religion in stealing Indigenous land to build pipelines and mines. Joan's husband has been missing for a year, and by chance she stumbles on a big tent revival, only to find that the reverend looks exactly like him, but doesn't seem to know who she is. So she does what any loving spouse would do and goes on a road trip with her 12-year-old nephew to get her man back from the evil white people. Every single character in this feels real and grounded and compelling, heroes and villains alike, and the landscape of small towns and Walmart parking lots and forests is vividly drawn. Like her other book, this one uses the supernatural to tell a very real story of land theft and resource exploitation without ever feeling didactic. Also it begs for a sequel.
Currently reading: Mister X by Dean Motter and too many other artists and writers to name. This is a super weird comic about an architect who designs a city that makes its residents go insane. To fix it, he engineers a drug that keeps him awake 24-7. It owes a lot to Art Deco, German Expressionism, and film noir, and it's quite excellent so far.
Also still reading Guardian, between other things. I'm reading it slowly both because of the translation and because I know said translation isn't done yet and I don't want to be annoyed.
