Moon of the Crusted Snow

el dang reviewed Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

The power of a tight focus within a bigger story

5 stars

Content warning plot, setting, and ending spoilers

It took me a little while to get hooked by this book, but in the end I loved it and found it very haunting.

What really made it work for me is that there's a cliched SF cataclysm in the background--electricity and everything that depends on it going down--but the story is so focussed on one small community's response that we never learn why or how that happened. The lack of answers could have been frustrating, but I found it really tightened the focus and let this be a story about a few characters instead of about technology.

There were two things that frustrated me a little. One was a bit too much explaining vs showing, both about Anishinaabe culture and sometimes what was going on in a given character's head. I can see the first part of that being necessary to give the book a wider audience, but I wish it had been footnotes or something like that.

The other frustration, which I see at least one other reviewer on here shared, was at the characters themselves for not doing more about Scott sooner. But that's not really a weakness of the story, in that it feels quite plausible that Evan and his closest friends all realised how big trouble Scott was going to be and simply couldn't act, between being very preoccupied with day to day survival, and having to navigate a very disunited community.

That said, the ending really did take me by surprise. I'd been assuming that Scott's plan was to raid the canned food store and maybe some families' frozen meat stashes, which would have been a much less interesting way for it to go. I am curious whether someone more steeped in windigo stories would have been quicker to pick up on that being what Rice was painting Scott as; for me the reveal was a gut punch.

#SFFBookClub

MrRaccoon13 reviewed Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

Review of 'Moon of the Crusted Snow' on 'Storygraph'

3 stars

I give the concept and imagining of this book 5/5, but the writing was not as strong in places and I think overall it could use some more polishing. That said, I enjoyed it and think it is worth reading. A great look at indigenous possibilities in a post apocalyptic world, and the dangers of greed and power.

WardenRed reviewed Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

None

3 stars

Yes, apocalypse. We've had that over and over. But we always survived. We're still here. And we'll still be here, even if the power and the radios don't come back on and we never see any white people again.

There were parts of this novel that I really, really enjoyed: the overall claustrophobic feel of it, the focus on how a small community fares when they get cut off from the rest of the world, rationing power and food supplies while they don't even know what's happening beyond their borders and dealing with the hardships of winter. It was interesting to see how the cultural beiefs and old history came into play for these survivors.

At the same time, I fill like there was some missed potential here. On one hand, there's a lot of focus on characters here: most of the plot is driven by dialogue, and there are …

Yes, apocalypse. We've had that over and over. But we always survived. We're still here. And we'll still be here, even if the power and the radios don't come back on and we never see any white people again.

There were parts of this novel that I really, really enjoyed: the overall claustrophobic feel of it, the focus on how a small community fares when they get cut off from the rest of the world, rationing power and food supplies while they don't even know what's happening beyond their borders and dealing with the hardships of winter. It was interesting to see how the cultural beiefs and old history came into play for these survivors.
At the same time, I fill like there was some missed potential here. On one hand, there's a lot of focus on characters here: most of the plot is driven by dialogue, and there are a lot of character-focused scenes. But on the other hand, there wasn't enough character development. After finishing the book, I don't feel like I know these people I've been reading about very well, and I feel like the journey they went through could have been undergone by any other people placed in the same conditions. I think what makes disaster/survival stories interesting for me is seeing how compelling characters deal with them, grow and fail through them, encounter the darkness within themselves as the darkness from outside surrounds them. There was some of it in this novel, but not enough for my taste, I suppose?

DThoris reviewed Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

Review of 'Moon of the Crusted Snow' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Wow! This is one that will stay with me. Fascinating, lovingly crafted, with delicious prose, it's the story of a community surviving an apocalypse they can't know anything of. You should read it if you haven't.

https://medium.com/@zachary_houle/a-review-of-waubgeshig-rices-moon-of-the-crusted-snow-7bb20e6b7583

altlovesbooks reviewed Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

Review of 'Moon of the Crusted Snow' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

I ended up pretty disappointed in this one. The book is a short look at the downfall of society from the perspective of a remote First Nation tribe in Canada where information and supplies are in short supply. Without supplies, the reservation has to make do with what it has on hand through the first winter, and conflict arises amongst the community quickly.

It bills itself as a post-apocalyptic thriller, and while it is post-apocalyptic, I found it really less than thrilling. The cast of characters is relatively small and two dimensional, with no real growth or change occurring throughout the book. Dialog does the heavy lifting of the book, but even that is flat and full of "he said", "she said", etc. Without spoiling the ending or the conflict, I found the ultimate confrontation at the end unexpected....but also out of place. For a bit more spoilers, an outsider …

I ended up pretty disappointed in this one. The book is a short look at the downfall of society from the perspective of a remote First Nation tribe in Canada where information and supplies are in short supply. Without supplies, the reservation has to make do with what it has on hand through the first winter, and conflict arises amongst the community quickly.

It bills itself as a post-apocalyptic thriller, and while it is post-apocalyptic, I found it really less than thrilling. The cast of characters is relatively small and two dimensional, with no real growth or change occurring throughout the book. Dialog does the heavy lifting of the book, but even that is flat and full of "he said", "she said", etc. Without spoiling the ending or the conflict, I found the ultimate confrontation at the end unexpected....but also out of place. For a bit more spoilers, an outsider joins the community fairly early on that nobody really gets along with. He brings guns, booze, and quickly usurps authority amongst leadership. Near the end of the book when food is in short supply, we find out why this outsider hasn't been looking thin -- he's been eating people. I found that a little out of place, especially in the first winter when food was still available, if not exactly pleasant. I don't like canned meat either, but I'd eat it over a person.

We also never really find out what exactly caused the collapse of the larger society, which I found unsatisfying. I realize they're remote and disconnected under normal circumstances, but even just a mention would have been far more satisfying, I think.

It's a short read, but I don't know if I'd recommend it highly.

tivasyk reviewed Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

Review of 'Moon of the Crusted Snow' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

eh... well. great potential, but finally nothing much happens in this story.

Eric Lawton reviewed Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

Review of 'Moon of the Crusted Snow' on 'Storygraph'

5 stars

A well-told story of an Indigenous community when power and communications from the outside world are cut off and how traditional ways help them cope. Good descriptions of community life and how the hard decisions are made, with enough suspense to keep you reading until late into the night.