Free ALC received in exchange for a review from Libro.fm

Shout out to @erins_library and her great review for giving me the nudge to listen to Apple (Skin to the Core) sooner rather than later! I really enjoyed this one, the latest in my mini binge of books in verse. I think I've decided that for memoirs told in verse, audiobooks read by the author are the way to go! However, the print edition of this book does also appeal, since Gansworth also incorporates illustrations and photos to tell his story. I didn't feel like I missed out too much, since he describes the photos in detail on the audio, and he paints such a vivid picture with his words anyway.

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Apple (which is a slur used to refer to Indigenous folk who are supposedly 'red on the outside, white on the inside') tackles themes of racism and the traumatic legacy of residential schools, which is difficult to take in and important not to look away from. Gansworth's grandfather was sent to a residential school, and he grapples with the fact that that's only two generations removed from him; how narrowly he avoided the same fate. These institutions were a horror show, where Indigenous children were forcibly stripped of everything that made up their identity. The aim was to 'wipe them clean', erase any trace of Indigeneity so they have nothing left to pass down to their own children, effectively homogenising the population.

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Gansworth, enrolled Onondaga, also talks a lot about pop culture, which I enjoyed despite not being a fan of or even familiar with many of the bands and shows he talks about. It was a super interesting way of telling the story of his childhood, through that lens of pop culture, in which he rarely saw himself represented. This is another book that examines the notion of belong, of feeling 'enough' of something, and Gansworth puts his own unique spin on it.

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I don't even think I realised it was marketed as a YA memoir until I was midway through, but like most good YA, it can be appreciated by anybody. I'd love to get a physical copy one day to see Gansworth's illustrations, but for now I can highly recommend the audio as it was brilliant to hear him read it!