Book Review: The Marrow Thieves, by Cherie Dimaline (2017)

Cover of The Marrow Thieves, by Cherie Dimaline, 2017.

Author Cherie Dimaline, with several stacks of The Marrow Thieves.

It’s either the best possible time or the worst possible time to read a dystopian novel. Cherie Dimaline’s 2017 young adult novel The Marrow Thieves was the main selection for the city of Saint Paul’s 2020 Read Brave program. The theme of Read Brave this year was climate change—the other selection was Climate Justice, by Mary Robinson, which I reviewed here. 

The Marrow Thieves is set in Canada in a future that has been ravaged by climate change. For some reason, white people have stopped dreaming, while Native Americans still retain the ability to dream. As you can imagine, this had led to the Native Americans being hunted down and captured. The novel, written in the first person, follows 16-year-old Francis, nicknamed “Frenchie,” as he runs from the authorities and encounters a rag-tag collection of Natives who are traveling north, always on the run.

The Marrow Thieves is a quick, engaging read, and Dimaline does an excellent job of giving the uncertainty of the character’s lives a visceral impact. Dimaline is a member of the Georgian Bay Metis Community, and The Marrow Thieves is her fifth book and first young adult novel. According to Dimaline’s website, she is working on the sequel to The Marrow Thieves.

Book Review: Climate Justice, by Mary Robinson (2018)

Climate Justice, by Mary Robinson, 2018.

Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland.

Mary Robinson’s distinguished career has taken her from the Presidency of Ireland to working for the United Nations on human rights and climate change. In 2018, Robinson published a book titled Climate Justice: Hope, Resilience, and the Fight for a Sustainable Future. Climate Justice is one of the books chosen for Read Brave Saint Paul 2020, a citywide reading program that focuses on a theme and picks two books to read and discuss, one fiction, one non-fiction. The theme for 2020 is “Our Climate Crisis,” the novel is The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline, and Climate Justice is the non-fiction book. 

At around 150 pages, Climate Justice is a quick read. Each chapter focuses on someone who is living with the day-to-day realities of climate change. For me, I found it a compelling look at the lives of these people. I believe that climate change is happening, but I’ll admit that I’m still fairly ignorant about the issue. Climate change is something I’ve known about for a long time—I remember reading the paperback 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth in the early 1990’s. I remember reading it in school, so yay for Windom Elementary School for being on the cutting edge of that curve. And I remember feeling good that I had never left the water running while I was brushing my teeth. I don’t remember any concrete actions that my school took because we read that book, but at least it was a topic being discussed. 

Climate Justice focuses mainly on women around the world, and it convincingly makes the argument that it’s women who are bearing the brunt of the effects of climate change. Bloomsbury, the publisher of Climate Justice, changed the subtitle of the book for the paperback edition to “A Man-Made Problem with a Feminist Solution.” Because Climate Justice tells you the first-person experiences of these women, you feel the immediacy of the issue. 

Climate Justice is a book that I would recommend to anyone seeking to broaden their understanding of climate change, and how imperative it is that we work together as a global community to address this issue.

Book Review: Burn Baby Burn, by Meg Medina (2016)

The banner for Saint Paul's Read Brave program, author Meg Medina, and the cover of the Read Brave paperback edition of Burn Baby Burn (2016).

Meg Medina’s 2016 young adult novel Burn Baby Burn focuses on Nora Lopez. Nora is seventeen years old as the novel opens, and she’s ready to leave high school behind. Nora isn’t quite sure what she wants to do with her life, but she knows one thing: she wants to move out of the small apartment she shares with her mother, Mima, and her younger brother Hector. 

Burn Baby Burn is set in Queens in 1977, one of the worst years in New York City’s history. The city was on the verge of bankruptcy, a 25-hour blackout on one of the hottest days of the year sparked rampant looting and arson, residents were terrorized by the serial killer eventually known as Son of Sam, and the Mets traded their ace pitcher Tom Seaver to the Reds. All of these events form the backdrop for Nora Lopez’s story, and they all play a role in the novel. (Yes, even Tom Seaver’s trade is mentioned.) 

Author Meg Medina does a superb job of bringing Nora’s voice to life, and Nora is an engaging and witty guide to the trials and tribulations that she faces as the narrative unfolds. Medina grew up in New York City, and she grounds the novel in a sense of place that paints a vivid picture of a big city in crisis.

I read Burn Baby Burn as part of the city of Saint Paul’s Read Brave program, a citywide reading effort that in 2019 focused on the issue of housing. Nora’s family is living paycheck to paycheck, and to pay the rent they are dependent on the monthly child support checks that come from Nora’s father, who has remarried and lives in Manhattan. When those checks don’t come on time, it’s Nora’s job to call her father and be the go-between, since her parents aren’t on speaking terms. 

There’s a lot of rich texture in Burn Baby Burn—Nora’s job at Sal’s Deli, her flirtation with Pablo, her handsome new co-worker at the Deli, Nora’s relationship with her best friend Kathleen, and Nora’s deteriorating relationship with her brother Hector, who has started using drugs. Burn Baby Burn is an excellent novel that deals with substantive issues. I liked hearing Nora’s voice as she detailed her complicated life, and I’d be eagerly on board if Medina ever wants to write a sequel and continue Nora’s tale.