Book Review: “Moon of the Crusted Snow” (Moon #1) by Waubgeshig Rice
“Moon of the Crusted Snow” (Moon #1) by Waubgeshig Rice (2018)
Genre: Fiction, Horror, Thriller, Dystopian
Page Length: 213 pages (paperback)
Synopsis:
With winter looming, a small northern Anishinaabe community goes dark. Cut off, people become passive and confused. Panic builds as the food supply dwindles. While the band council and a pocket of community members struggle to maintain order, an unexpected visitor arrives, escaping the crumbling society to the south. Soon after, others follow.
The community leadership loses its grip on power as the visitors manipulate the tired and hungry to take control of the reserve. Tensions rise and, as the months pass, so does the death toll due to sickness and despair. Frustrated by the building chaos, a group of young friends and their families turn to the land and Anishinaabe tradition in hopes of helping their community thrive again. Guided through the chaos by an unlikely leader named Evan Whitesky, they endeavor to restore order while grappling with a grave decision.
Review:
I usually don’t read as much dystopian fiction as I did in my high school days since today’s world often feels like one (dystopian) itself. But something about the cover and synopsis of Moon pulled me into the story so I decided to pick this title up for the library.
Reading a Winter themed novel set during Winter added to the immersion of my reading experience. Living in a state where the Winters are often long and cold (sometimes brutal too) helped me connect with the story on another level. More than a dystopian novel, I felt like this was more a survival story with many thriller elements. Though the story is told from Evan’s point of view, his constant interactions with family, friends, and tribal members create a world lush of characters. Because of the close proximity to each other on the reservation readers see how this tight-knit community and their bond is put to the test. When the snow seems never-ending, no clue as to when help arrive, and the resources slowly dwindle the relationships become strained.
Rice does a solid job of world-building and creating characters that are relatable and feel fully fleshed out (especially since some appear in the story more than others). Because the readers become close to Evan and his family, some moments of the story had me on edge of the seat to see how they would survive their day-to-day battles. Tensions quickly run high and the more the story goes on the reader isn’t sure who to trust. Friend quickly becomes foe, and the detailed writing allowed me to put myself in the characters shoes wondering what my next move would be.
My only complaint about this novel (and why it went from being a four-star to a three-star read) is that it was so slow to start. I understand the story needed time to set up the plot until the action gets rolling almost half-way through the novel. For the short page length it has it spends too much time doing just that, in my opinion. It got to a point where I almost DNF’ed the novel, but in the end I stuck with it. I still do recommend this novel if you like thrillers or survival stories. I’m curious about the follow-up novel as the book has somewhat of an open-ending.
Final Verdict:
This story takes place just south of where I’m living so I especially enjoyed that part of the story! And I didn’t expect things to move quickly because I had read his other fiction (so much about a sense of time and space, relationships, and landscape), but I can see where, if your first thought was about it being a dystopian novel it would seem to move slowly. Did you know there’s a sequel out now too? From what I’ve heard, it moves a little faster.
Ah okay, good to know that it is his writing style because wasn’t familiar with the author prior to reading the novel. I do plan on reading the sequel though. I’m invested in the story!