This is wildly amazing and also taxing and draining to read at times. What presents as a whodunit crime becomes an exploration of the socioeconomic conditions that would instigate the brutal crime.

There are a lot of content warnings for this, but most predominantly is sexual assault and harm to a 13 year old girl. So, you best be in the mind set for that. While the actual crime is not depicted in extreme detail, it’s centering is reframed from a lot of different perspectives, from privileged racist cop guy to a mother who reports the assault and has to comfort her children shortly after.

It is probably the smartest use of a whodunit, as it directly connects the reader to problems in Canada, such as racism and musing indigenous women. And it does so in such a way that it points to nearly every factor why this could happen. People often weaponize racism as a form of dehumanizing indigenous people, especially on reserves, and cite events like this (as if things like this didn’t happen more often in urban areas regardless, but I digress) as “reasons” and the “problems” on reservations. This completely exposes the generalization and then educates the reader.

It’s really just absolutely stunning, if you’ve got the stomach for it. I will say, I think the narrator does a good job but the themes and characterizations would come together a lot sooner for me had I been reading it, I think.