Ms. Hen reviews Moon of the Crusted Snow

 

Moon of the Crusted Snow

Waubgeshig Rice

ECW Press

2018

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel because she listened to a Halloween sci-fi books episode on a podcast from the website Bookriot. Sometimes, she listens to this, and she has always found good books to read. Ms. Hen has a tendency to read random books that fall into her lap, but she likes to seek out sci-fi books that she knows she will like.

This novel didn't seem like a Halloween novel to Ms. Hen. It felt more like a November novel, that's headed into winter. It's also fitting because the author is Indigenous, from Canada, and November is Native American Heritage Month in this country.

This novel is about a reservation community in northern Ontario. The people tend to stay there, even though not a lot of work is available; they like to stick to the area they know. The story centers around Evan and his young family, his partner, Nicole, and their two children. The satellite goes out with the Internet and the TV, and their cell phones don't work, and then the heat and electricity stop. The people try to figure out what's wrong.

Two members of the community who had been attending college in the South arrive on snowmobiles to tell everyone that the power stopped there as well, and chaos ensued. They were afraid for their lives, so they ran away. The group decides that they have to get through winter by helping each other. A strange white man comes to the village, and says he is a hunter and will help them. The tribe doesn't trust him. People are angry, and they suffer. They don't know what will happen.

This reminded Ms. Hen of a lot of books she has read about the end times, including THE ROAD, and STATION ELEVEN. This novel is different, however, because the story isn't completely hopeless, the tone of the novel throughout makes the reader think that everything will be okay in the end. Problems arise, but the community pulls together to solve them.

Ms. Hen read this novel very quickly, because she could not stop reading. It's a fantastic book to read to help a person feel better about the world: even though things seem bleak, there's always hope. The world can change, but it will still turn around, and people have to find a way to survive, and flourish, and even be happy.