The Marrow Thieves

The Marrow Thieves is a story about finding and building a family, figuring out where you belong in a world that fears and hates you, and survival as an important part of resistance. It has a great, compelling story, characters that are immediately well-developed and easy to empathize with, and important, resonant themes.

A well-told dystopia should never just be about the future; it should also be a reflection on the hopes and fears of the society that it's created in. With The Marrow Thieves that's doubly true. The novel's central plot - of a society that's lost the ability to sleep, and which starts to kidnap Indigenous people due to a belief that they can bring the dreaming back, is a harrowing metaphor for the relationship that Canada has had with Indigenous people both in the past and the present.

The past aspect of that relationship is the most obvious one. Dimaline's characters speak openly about the history of the residential school system, and the intergenerational trauma that that system caused to Indigenous culture; beyond that, there are explicit parallels between the government's actions in the story and the actions of historical Canadian governments. It also speaks to how many non-indigenous people act today - they'll talk nonstop about dreamcatchers and spirit animals one day, and criticize movements like Idle No More and MMIW the next.