This book opens with a startling image; our main character, Mackenzie, a young Cree woman, awakens from a terrifying nightmare only to discover that she is clutching the severed head of a crow in her hands. From there, we are off and, through a series of increasingly disturbing dreams, Mackenzie finds herself drawn back to her tiny hometown in the rural wilds of Canada to revisit the trauma that drove her from that town years before. Ultimately, the book weaves a story of generational trauma, grief and Native American mythology that I found absolutely riveting. This book is one of the best debut novels I’ve read in years and has instantly put Jessica Johns, herself an indigenous woman from Canada, on my list of authors to watch.
The book is a slow burn and the story is told with remarkable patience, so that the characters of Mackenzie and her extended family of aunts and cousins all come beautifully to life. At its heart, this is a story about loss and sorrow and it’s deeply impactful as it explores the ways in which the loss of those we love can scar us and push away from the others that we love. But the book is also very creepy and packed with unsettling dream imagery. I usually find the dreams in stories like this to fall flat, but here, the dreams have some of the best writing in the book and by the last third, I was finding the dream sequences to be as scary as anything I’ve read in a really long time (and I read a lot of horror). The story itself isn’t anything particularly shocking, I suppose. This ultimately boils down to one of those “what really happened in the woods that night?” stories and that’s a story that is certainly well-worn. Then again, maybe it’s well-worn because it taps into something primal about our relationship with the wilderness, something left over from those ancient days of our ancestors. Regardless, it really worked for me, even though I’ve seen it done before. Likewise, the identity of the “villain” of the story is an entity that I feel like I’ve just seen used way too often when the story is about Native American folklore. But again, it’s done in an incredibly creepy and striking way.
At the end of the day, it’s the quality of the writing that really elevates this one. It knows how to get inside its characters and bring them to life; it knows how to build an environment and fill it with atmosphere, so that it feels both lived in and alien; it knows how to deliver thrills and chills, while also dealing with serious psychological and emotional issues. It just basically gets everything right and I can’t wait to see what Johns does next. 4 stars.
tl;dr – incredibly strong debut novel tells a story of indigenous horror and generational trauma that feels more archetypal than well-worn; compelling, well-characterized & genuinely creepy. 4 stars.