The Marrow Thieves (Marrow Thieves #1)

by Cherie Dimaline

Copyright © 2017 Cherie Dimaline

“The way to kill a man or a nation is to cut off his dreams,

William S. Burroughs (1914-1997), The Place of Dead Roads, 1983

Borrowed from CLP on 4/21/23 to read for the North Country Gaylaxians discussion on May 9, 2023. Nice concept, takes a while to get into it, but it builds and gets strong. Climate dystopia with native extirpation efforts; https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0kqzciPc9pUEmJrgLr5zVRc61P2RWRn7xxpiJzAxGSfWWWPy3RyvwK1sSRMvoD6Fil&id=4809235 Affinities to Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower (1993). Many similes, too many unhelpful, not adding to the story, some weird, some nonsense, some incomplete, some incoherent, some silly. Some useful and intriguing. Occasional interest, if not success, e.g., “And here we were now opening the lid of a sealed jar, and all the anticipation of a tomorrow planned a thousand yesterdays ago came skittering to our feet like slick-shelled beetles.” p. 60 Nonsense: I heard capture and release and a high whine over something that echoed off the trees growing downwards towards the brook like pious monks in all manner of fancy dress, voluminous green silks peeking out of their austere brown habits. 159 Reviews and themes: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/the-marrow-thieves Nice chill: “I didn’t want to know what they did [with the children they captured]. And I didn’t really want to know if I’d be capable of doing it.” 48 “Do you think circumstances make people turn bad? Or that people make circumstances bad to begin with?” 53 “We didn’t know that he was an animal we had yet to imagine could exist.” 128 “I knew he knew I was there.” pp. 49, 52 All the horror in the first half is (mercifully) in flash-back “coming-to” stories. They get ambushed at night twice - very poor perimeter defenses. Nice points: stark and motivating trauma 76 wet dreams 77-78 French as tree climber, 96, 112, French learns from his mistakes, e.g., pp. 108, French savors and secretes the native words he hears Adding and taking away colors, 138, 141 “As long as the intent is good, nothing else matters. Not in these days, son.” 145 Rogarou, The Four Winds pp. 66-68, Hunting p. 146 Tantalizing or spooky ideas: the language - is the one here real? Key 177, 209, (The miracle of Minerva, 171-73) Home 144,

Mitch

Simile

Simile

Simile

Council

Dad had taught us that the best way to hide is to keep moving,

school truancy officers — Recruiters,

“Francis,

Frenchie

screaming, “Tabernacle!

“Government of Canada: Department of Oneirology.”

I heard a bone snap

Question

TV reunion in my head:

Miigwans

Council

my f...

Isaac

“Jean,

“Mii...

based on the old residential s...

we were lucky we didn’t remember how it had been, so we had less to mourn.

The old people called it the New Road Allowance.

If you make something happen you can count on it being for sure.”

Weird circumlocution

having slipped the noose of the last suburb of East City.

Simile

Simile

Slivers of what? Simile

torrential rain and the lack of pollinators.

Simile

Their dad was there, after all, and they knew they were safe.

Simile nonsense

I was no danger to anything. At best, I was prey.

Simile

Simile metaphor

My stomach grumbled when I finished, but there was maybe a day and a half of food supplies left in my pack and I was heading into the woods. There’d be no grocery stores or abandoned duplexes to raid for leftovers and non-perishables.

Simile unhelpful

Simile weird

The smell from the lake here was nauseating. Once this was a popular city, being right on the water.

lake, like all the industry-plundered Great Lakes, was poison, and a tall fence blocked it off from the overgrown streets.

Nish-magnet.”

Simile k

Simile weird

the Ganges became a footpath for heartbroken pilgrims.

I split my lip on the last tumble and tasted wet pennies and heavy perfume.

Simile unhelpful