curiouslykatt's Reviews (1.12k)

“What was so confounding about the fact of an ordinary man’s violence? So many people needed monsters to look monstrous. They couldn’t accept, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that the demons looked just like them.”

This one started off really strong for me, and I was excited to read another psychological horror rooted in indigenous lit, and while this may have not hit the itch I was looking for, I’m intrigued enough to want to read more from the author in the future. 

Dawn is returning home to help her father who is in a stage where he can no longer care for himself. Her brother is being released from prison at the same time and returning home with a new friend who is a bit peculiar. Dawn has to return back home to a place she left, she got out. Does returning home offer her closure or an easy slide back into the past? 

The was the Patios & Pages YYC March read and so far the least successful bookclub read we’ve done so far. I enjoyed our discussion and exploration of the themes and context of the story, but the overall reading experience fell a bit flat. This is a debut and I wonder if that’s contributing to my reading experience, I felt like all the plot points I was interested in fell a bit flat and I wanted more depth. Frankly some of the allegories went over my head but I was happy we had a group discussion to explore some of our ideas to try and add some clarity. 

I did absolutely do myself a disservice by tandem reading the physical with the audio because the physical read version my characters were more extreme in their apathy, in their stoked flames of small violences, in their paranoia. The audio took away from that for me and I honestly kind of regret not seeing this through all as a physical read. 

Overall the writing chops are there, and I can’t wait to read the next read by Chartrand even if this one didn’t entirely work for me.