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Jonny Appleseed

Joshua Whitehead

4.20 · Rating details · 612 ratings · 97 reviews

"You're gonna need a rock and a whole lotta medicine" is a mantra that Jonny Appleseed, a young Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer, repeats to himself in this vivid and utterly compelling novel. Off the reserve and trying to find ways to live and love in the big city, Jonny becomes a cybersex worker who fetishizes himself in order to make a living. Self-ordained as an NDN glitter prin ...more

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Paperback, 224 pages

Published May 15th 2018 by Arsenal Pulp Press

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4.20 ·

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· 612 ratings · 97 reviews

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Nov 04, 2018 Meike rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2018-read, canada

I've never read anything like this, and I just loved it: Joshua Whitehead wrote a coming-of-age story about Jonny, a young 2SQ (Two-Spirit, queer Indigenous) person who leaves the rez to make a life for himself in the city. There, Jonny is supporting himself as a sex worker and gets caught up in a love triangle with Tia and Jordan who are also Native American (if you want to know their gender, just read the book! :-)). When Jonny's stepfather dies, he has to make enough money to travel back to t I've never read anything like this, and I just loved it: Joshua Whitehead wrote a coming-of-age story about Jonny, a young 2SQ (Two-Spirit, queer Indigenous) person who leaves the rez to make a life for himself in the city. There, Jonny is supporting himself as a sex worker and gets caught up in a love triangle with Tia and Jordan who are also Native American (if you want to know their gender, just read the book! :-)). When Jonny's stepfather dies, he has to make enough money to travel back to the rez in order to support his mourning mother...

This novel shines with its fantastic protagonist and first-person narrator who, while trying to come to terms with who he is, contemplates questions of family, home, tradition, sexuality, love and friendship - and Jonny is not the passive type: For all the setbacks, pain and hardship he has endured, he is still someone who dares to feel life with all its ups and downs, who throws himself into it, who unapologetically lives the way he wants to. All characters in this novel are highly complex, with their personal tragedies and traumas, but also their own dreams and aspirations.

I have to admit that first I didn't know what 2SQ was, but there's an interesting text by Whitehead which he wrote when he withdrew from the Lambda Award that had nominated his book full-metal indigiqueer in the "Trans Poetry" category. Whitehead explained: "I recognize the difficulty of categorizing Two-Spirit (2SQ) within Western conceptualizations of sex, sexuality, and gender. I cling to Two-Spirit because it became an honour song that sung me back into myself as an Indigenous person, a nehiyaw (Cree), an Oji-Cree; I have placed it into my maskihkîwiwat, my medicine bag, because it has healed and nourished me whenever I needed it. To be Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer, for me, is a celebration of the fluidity of gender, sex, sexuality, and identities, one that is firmly grounded within nehiyawewin (the Cree language) and nehiyaw world-views."

This quote also sheds light on "Jonny Appleseed", where Whitehead frequently includes Cree words and talks about Oji-Cree traditions and how they shape the protagonist and his life both on the rez and in the city. This is not a didactic book though - the reader learns about Oji-Cree culture while learning about Jonny's thoughts and emotions, which is a realistic representation of how our upbringing and cultural contexts influence our personalities.

I don't feel like I can write a review that does this novel justice. This is a book that makes you feel like you can connect to and understand people who live in a country you never visited and in a culture you know almost nothing about. You close the book and you start missing Jonny, because his humanity and his humor transcend all that separates you from him. Joshua Whitehead needs to write more books ASAP. ...more

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Jul 09, 2018 CaseyTheCanadianLesbrarian rated it it was amazing

Shelves: canadian, poc-canlesbrarian, indigenous, queer, two-spirit, fiction, sex-work, 5-stars

What a beautiful, sad, funny book. It's the most poignant reminder I've had in a while about how powerful and effecting a first person narrative can be. Jonny, the two-spirit main character, carries the book with his raw, hilarious, and insightful voice. The story meanders through his memories, mostly of his kokum, mom, and his great first love Tias, while in the present Jonny prepares to go back to the rez for his mom's boyfriend's funeral.

Favourite quotes:
"Humility is just a humiliation you lo ...more

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Jan 03, 2019 Gerhard rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019, favorites, gay-interest

I recently read an article by Jonathan Rauch, Contributing Editor at The Atlantic, entitled ‘It’s Time to Drop the LGBT From LGBTQ’. Rauch’s basic argument is that we need a new term that effectively humanises all sexual minorities, as opposed to reducing them to gloops of alphabet soup.

To some extent, the very artificiality and awkwardness of the acronymic acrobatics speak to their ecumenical aspirations. Unlike designations popularized by oppressors (Negro, Oriental) or based on national or et I recently read an article by Jonathan Rauch, Contributing Editor at The Atlantic, entitled ‘It’s Time to Drop the LGBT From LGBTQ’. Rauch’s basic argument is that we need a new term that effectively humanises all sexual minorities, as opposed to reducing them to gloops of alphabet soup.

To some extent, the very artificiality and awkwardness of the acronymic acrobatics speak to their ecumenical aspirations. Unlike designations popularized by oppressors (Negro, Oriental) or based on national or ethnic particularism (Italian, Jew, wasp), LGBTQ is pointedly coalitional and inclusive, and we chose it ourselves. In that respect, its intended message is admirable. But it carries an unintended message as well: an embrace of the identity politics and group separatism that have soured millions of Americans on progressivism and egalitarianism.

And we all know where that has ended up, with Trump chipping away at hard-won civil liberty freedoms and victories on a daily basis. I think this point is brought home quite forcefully by a novel such as this, where Joshua Whitehead manages the miraculous task of placing the reader within the skin of a “Two-Spirit and queer Indigenous folx”.

Jonny’s positioning in the alphabet soup of contemporary identity and gender politics is, er, a bit fluid, but that is precisely Whitehead’s point. We need to understand everybody as people, and not as acronyms.

(Speaking of which, there is no explanation in the book for ‘NDN’, which lead me on a rambling but highly informative Google search … so perhaps that is part of the author’s project here as well, to force the reader to investigate further, and get out of his or her comfort zone a bit more.)

The writing here is gorgeous. You can’t simply quote a single sentence, but rather long swathes of ecstatic prose. So I just gave up, as virtually my entire Kindle version was turning yellow. Colour, ethnicity, and cultural heritage are major themes here, which resonated particularly with me in a South African context.

Whitehead is too savvy a writer to wear his polemic on his sleeve though, so instead hides it in the secret folds and orifices of Jonny’s body, who comments at the beginning that “There are tons of unfuckable holes in me that need to be filled.”

One would expect such a story to have a traditional and conservative non-happy ending, but again Whitehead is effortlessly subversive in the way he subverts reader expectations. This is a beautiful and important book that demands not only to be read, but to be lived out as a manifesto of tolerance and equality. ...more

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Nov 19, 2018 Krista rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2018, can-con, indigenous

It turns out that Johnny Appleseed is some American folk legend who became famous by planting apple trees in West Virginia. I didn't understand why we'd sung about him in camp – I wanted to know about Louis Riel, Chief Peguis, and Buffy St. Marie, but instead we were honouring some white man throwing apple seeds in frontier America. Apparently he was this moral martyr figure who remained a virgin in exchange for the promise of two wives in heaven. Oh, and he loved animals, and I heard he saved

It turns out that Johnny Appleseed is some American folk legend who became famous by planting apple trees in West Virginia. I didn't understand why we'd sung about him in camp – I wanted to know about Louis Riel, Chief Peguis, and Buffy St. Marie, but instead we were honouring some white man throwing apple seeds in frontier America. Apparently he was this moral martyr figure who remained a virgin in exchange for the promise of two wives in heaven. Oh, and he loved animals, and I heard he saved some horse by hand-feeding him blades of grass, Walt Whitman-style. I would bet my left nut that he was a slave owner too and planted his seeds on Treaty territory. All I know is this: apples are crazy expensive on the rez and they had now become bad things in my head.

Two-Spirit, Indigiqueer author Joshua Whitehead has created a really remarkable character with Jonny Appleseed: knowing himself to be different from the other boys while growing up on the rez, Jonny eventually declares his own Two-Spirit nature – which comes as no surprise to his rock-solid mother and doting kookum – and after high school, moves to Winnipeg where he hopes to find love. As the story starts, Jonny's stepdad has died, his Mom wants Jonny to return home for the funeral, and the only way he can hustle up the money is to turn a few more tricks as a (mostly cyber-based) “NDN glitter princess”. Over the time it takes for Jonny to make enough money, the narrative fluidly traces Jonny's history and present, showing pain and love and friendship and family; Jonny has had it hard without becoming hard.

Throughout his life, Jonny has had one good friend, Thias – a “friend with benefits” who claims he isn't gay – and throughout the story, this relationship is Jonny's rock:

Instead of saying we liked or loved each other, we just lay there on our backs, our brown skin shiny in the rosy light that poured in from the evening sun. We surveyed each others' body: him seeing the scar above my clavicle from when I fell down the stairs as a kid, and me seeing the patch of hair missing from his scalp. I knew then that I loved him.

Funny how an NDN “love you” sounds more like, “I'm in pain with you.”

The book is full of these quotable lines, but also full of pop culture references, quirky observations, and social commentary (it's not overtly political, but it's apparent that history and politics have shaped reality for Jonny and those he knows). It also has plenty of graphic sex, violence, and addictions. And still: Jonny isn't broken or defeated; he likes to walk around Walmart and imagine how he'd furnish his own house some day. The most vital part of Jonny Appleseed is best described by Joshua Whitehead himself in the afterword:

I write this book with the goal of showing you that Two-Spirit and queer Indigenous folx are not a “was”, that we are not the ethnographic and romanticized notations of “revered mystic” or “shamanic”, instead we are an is and a coming. In nehiyawewin, there are no masculine or feminine attributes, instead we have animations in which we hold all our relations. We are accountable to those kin, be they inanimate or non-human, or be they unabashedly queer, femme, bottom, pained, broken. We put our most vulnerable in the centre and for once I do just that: 2S folx and Indigenous women are centred here. I hold our relations accountable for us for once. Jonny has taught me a lot of things but there are two that I want to share with you: one, a good story is always a healing ceremony, we recuperate, re-member, and rejuvenate those we storytell into the world; and two, if we animate our pain, it becomes something we can make love to.

Like many others, I've heard the term “Two-Spirit” and imagined I had an idea of what that meant, so it was very interesting to me to read a story that focussed on what the lived experience of a Two-Spirit person is actually like. This book is both an eye-opener and a thought-provoking read; I'll round up to four stars. ...more

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Apr 11, 2018 Mya rated it really liked it

There are so many things in this novel that make it beautifully queer. Its 2-spirit protagonist; its nonlinear timeline that intentionally meanders through past stories of family and tradition, trauma and survival; its descriptions of eroticism and the discovery and exploration of sexuality ... I could go on.

Joshua Whitehead is a master of words. There were at least a dozen killer sentences that I felt compelled to highlight as I was reading, particularly because I felt they captured the experie ...more

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Nov 11, 2018 Emmkay rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2018-reads, fiction, gender-stuff, indigenous, canadian

Some beautiful and poignant writing, and also some very funny lines, in this story about a two-spirited young indigenous man in Winnipeg, trying to earn enough money webcamming to catch a ride back to the rez for a funeral. It felt kind of like a one-man Fringe show in its tone and its focus on the protagonist - I would have appreciated more narrative momentum (and maybe fewer bodily fluids and smells, but hey, that’s me). 2.5.

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Sep 04, 2018 Shawn Mooney marked it as did-not-finish

Shelves: did-not-finish-2018

This read like a shitty first draft, alas. There were enough tender, raw sentences scattered throughout the first several chapters to keep me going, mesmerized by a wee bit of evidence of an exciting new voice. But after that, unfortunately, it read like slapdash notes toward a novel rather than fully realized fictional prose—and notes published in haphazard order at that. Bailed 60% of the way in.

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Jul 02, 2018 Alanna Why rated it really liked it

Shelves: favorites

Like most queer lit, this book is SAD but also GOOD. I really liked the non-linear way it was told and how you really got to know the characters through the vignettes of Jonny's memory. The best part of this book is any scene with Jonny and his kokum because they LOVE EACH OTHER SO MUCH and it is VERY NICE.

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Jun 14, 2018 Kat Rogue rated it really liked it

At times I wanted to throw this book across the room. For good reason! Times when the world was cruel and Joshua Whitehead lays just the right train of thought to make you feel it in your gut. Or times when the throbbing horniness of it makes me feel like the last thing I wanna be holding in my hands at that moment is a book.

Whitehead has a gift for turning pain into pleasure, twisting the bullied moments our glitterprincess survives and making it an integral part of his self awakening. It is n ...more

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Aug 30, 2018 Jessie rated it it was amazing

Stop everything you are doing and read this book. It’s everything I love about Indigenous storytelling. About a young Oji-Cree two spirit Indigequeer NDN in the week leading up to his stepfather’s funeral, this book is a gift. I appreciate the contemporary nature of this book, both in it’s sense of now (the technology, the terminology, what’s current in the world of pop culture), but also in it’s sense of place (it’s the world exactly now, it’s Winnipeg and Peguis exactly now). The other thing a ...more

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Sep 29, 2018 Laurie Burns rated it it was amazing

Shelves: canadian

Jonny Appleseed is written by Joshua Whitehouse and is on the long list for the Giller Prize at this time. The short list will be announced tomorrow, September 30th, 2018. I have only read three of the long listed books, but I am rooting for Whitehouse. This book is important.

I just finished reading it and almost started reading it again right away.

I really like books that are written in this sort of free-verse writtentimeline. I love feeling the emotion of characters and it seeming like I was ...more

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Jan 05, 2019 Canadian Reader rated it did not like it

Shelves: did-not-finish, aboriginal-first-nations

I read to page 30 and found the book too raw and graphic to persist with.

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Jun 15, 2018 Lydia rated it really liked it

Shelves: first-nations-lit, lgbtiqa, arsenal-pulp-press, borrowed-from-the-library

Adored it. Full video review to come!

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May 21, 2018 Kevin rated it really liked it

Shelves: canlit, lgbtqi2s

A superb spitfire of a book that will surely be a keystone in both Joshua Whitehead's career, Indigenous literature, and two spirit expression. Accessible via the myriad of pop culture allusions included -- we millennials can tune into this perhaps unfamiliar social location through these recognizable shows, songs, characters, foods, etc. in order to get a glimpse at Jonny Appleseed's quest for understanding. Jonny Appleseed is ragged, puncturing, and true to its main character and community.

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Jul 30, 2018 Brooke rated it really liked it

"Who the hell gonna love me now, Kokum? Whose gonna suck the pain from my skin, teach me to love it into humility? Who, Kokum, who?”

This is a powerful book about a Two-Spirit/Indiqueer individual finding his way in a modern world, both on and off the reserve. It is a story of family, love and traditions, as well as a story of sexuality, trauma and survival. It is beautiful and heart wrenching.

“Sometimes I don’t like how life goes on. And sometimes I don’t think it should.”

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Oct 14, 2018 Elizabeth Chorney-Booth rated it really liked it

This is so beautiful.

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May 29, 2018 Hannah rated it it was amazing

Shelves: bodies-bodies-bodies, femme-author, gender, indigenous, queer

i think i haven’t read anything that made queer sex this everydaysacred in a long time. i need to reread this one a few times & i’m not mad about it.

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Jul 19, 2018 Lisa Serrano rated it it was ok

life described.

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Jan 17, 2019 Enid Wray rated it it was amazing

Oh how I love Jonny Appleseed. I love the voice. I love the unabiding, unconditional love between Jonny and his Kokum.
I love the lightness… notwithstanding some pretty brutal - horrific - realities… but Whitehead is not beating you over the head with it. He carries you along and prepares you for the deep, dark, painful realities… which are wrapped up in beautiful prose… not to mention incredible magical spirituality and belief systems.
This book broke my heart… but then put it back together aga ...more

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Jul 11, 2018 Jackie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

one of the most perfect novels i’ve ever read. whitehead’s writing is poetic, propulsive, so full of love and queerness. cheeky too!! the feelings they encapsulate are ones i’ve felt so many times but have never seen on a page so perfectly messy. also one of the most real, humane descriptions of sex work i think i’ve ever read. this book hurts but it’s more of a salve than anything. left me a blubbery mess and i turned right back to the first page to go through it all again. so so so beautiful. ...more

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Oct 10, 2018 George Ilsley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: canada, fiction, first-nations, gay, glbt, spiritual

A powerful fiction debut. I first met Jonny in the pages of Malahat, and was very pleased to see he was to have his own book. Jonny's voice is strong and visceral, and there is a lot going on in this novel. Worth reading and re-reading.

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Aug 15, 2018 Evie rated it really liked it

So many poetic passages.

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Jul 05, 2018 Wendy Caron rated it liked it

Heard about this book when the author was interviewed on the CBC program Q and it sounded interesting - a story about the life and loves of a two-spirit/indigiqueer teenager. Whitehead pulls no punches in this gritty, sex-positive novel.

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Jan 17, 2019 Froukje rated it liked it

Funny how an NDN "love you" sounds more like, "I'm in pain with you."

3,5*
I really need to stop reading all these super depressing books.

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Aug 22, 2018 Rana rated it liked it

Oh boy, this is a bit of a stream of consciousness doozy. No real plot, no real story, just a brief foray into somebody's life. In a very good way, though.

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Oct 01, 2018 Megan rated it really liked it

Shelves: the-gillers

Such a brilliant novel. Raw and heart breaking. It's disappointing this book didn't make the Giller 2018 short list.

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Jul 21, 2018 Priya rated it it was amazing

damn this was beautiful! funny, sad, and intimate. so many wise emotional moments that I want to keep with me forever. really complex characters that were loveable, pained, and sexy.

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Jun 08, 2018 Melissa rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2018

4.5 stars. What a voice! The writing is poetic and sublime. So many lines stopped me in my tracks - I had to pause, reread and savour the syntax. Just some astonishingly beautiful writing. Jonny’s relationships with his kokum, his mother, Tias, and Jordan are all compelling and moving. This is more of a character study than a plot-driven novel and it works because Jonny feels like someone knowable and flawed and loveable. Adding Joshua Whitehead to my list of must read authors.

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Sep 03, 2018 gwayle rated it really liked it

Shelves: e-book, native-american

Such a wonderful novel! Jonny is a young two-spirit indigiqueer NDN trying to make enough money via sex work to get back to Peguis to be there for his mother at his stepfather’s funeral. Through flashbacks we learn about his childhood, his family, his relationship with his beloved kokum (grandmother), his first love, and why he had to leave the rez. Jonny is one of the most lovable characters, so full of life, and the novel is rich in texture and emotion. It deals with tough subjects but my hear ...more

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Apr 28, 2018 Jennifer rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, lgbtqi, owned

I was hooked by this book as soon as I saw the beadwork bison on the cover -- then when I read the description I ordered it immediately. I mean, who doesn't need a book about an NDN glitter princess?

This book was easily the highlight of my readathon reading. Even at a distance of a few weeks, I'm still crushing on this book too hard to feel like I have very coherent things to say. So I'll just list some thoughts and feels about this book:
* Whitehead's matter-of-fact description of sex work remin ...more

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About Joshua Whitehead

Joshua Whitehead

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Joshua Whitehead is an Oji-Cree, Two-Spirit storyteller and academic from Peguis First Nation on Treaty 1 territory in Manitoba. He is currently working toward a Ph.D. in Indigenous literatures and cultures at the University of Calgary on Treaty 7 territory. His most recent book of poetry, Full-Metal Indigiqueer, was shortlisted for the 2017 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Poetry. In 2016, h ...more