Thank you to the publisher for allowing me to read and review this ARC. Full review to be found on Goodreads and on my website.

I loved this book, a stark crisp take on an end of the world narrative set on a reservation. The characters were fully realized and unpredictable. This is a story I’ve been wanting to read for a very long time and I think Rice hit it out of the park. Can’t wait to read whatever he does next.

It feels weird to say I enjoyed a novel about apocalypse and disaster, but I really did! I'd been circling this one for a while and didn't get to it in my year of focusing on Canada, so it got back burnered a bit. It tells the story of an Anishinaabe community (in what could also be northern Ontario), already pretty isolated, and what happens when the power goes out. The author and the audiobook narrator are both from Indigenous Canadian backgrounds - Waubgeshig Rice is an Anishinaabe writer and journalist from the Wasauksing First Nation, and Billy Merasty is a Cree actor.

The narration was excellent, so much so that I found reasons to keep listening. If you have #hoopla you have access already!

My only beef is that there is one character that reminds me too much of the tropey Big Bad similar to Randall Flagg of Stephen King fame. To me, there is enough story and drama within the community itself, but I understand it highlights the contrast.

A quiet, post-apocalyptic story that definitely adds something new to the genre. Eerie, slow, and absolutely amazing. Looking forward to incorporating this into a curriculum for post-apocalyptic stories and writing.

Here’s something that’s a bit of a twist on the conventional post-apocalyptic thriller: one written by a member of the First Nations peoples of Canada, set on an Anishinaabe reserve in a fictitious version of Northern Ontario. The plot of the book follows a young man named Evan Whitesky who is a hunter in the traditional sense as an Aboriginal, but also someone who has another foot set in modern ways. He is an everyman who could be anyone, really, no matter his heritage or colour of skin. Well, one day, the TV goes out in his home. So do the cell phones and, later, the landline. The power then gets cut off from the reserve. Isolated from the rest of the world, the people of the unnamed community struggle to survive and hope that help comes from elsewhere. However, the rest of the world seems to have plunged into a power blackout — with nobody really knowing what’s going on. Then a visitor arrives on the reserve, and others soon follow, and, eventually, the reservation has a wide-scale panic on its hands.

Moon of the Crusted Snow is Canadian journalist and author Waubgeshing Rice’s second novel. It is taut and unforgettable, and holds a candle up to other thrillers of this sort, such as Station Eleven. I’m impressed with Rice’s journalistic eye for detail, ear for dialogue and his skill with plotting. What’s especially impressive about this work is that Rice manages to shoe-horn in references to problems facing the indigenous community in Canada — suicide, alcohol and drug abuse, missing and murdered Aboriginal women and the harmful legacy of residential schools — without these things getting in the way of the story. That’s because they are all part of the story — not only of this novel, but the Aboriginal community as a whole. Rice also sets up a believable reserve as a setting, but doesn’t resort to the usual clichés of rez life as a place of unrelenting poverty. His characters are ordinary Canadians who watch hockey or have an impressive DVD collection, while some of them still have knowledge about traditional ways, languages (Ojibwe is spoken in this book) and stories that make their lives fascinating — even though they are dealing with an unknown crisis that is a threat to all of these things.

The tone of the book moves from light and humourous to serious and tragic without missing a beat or feeling cloying in the least. While the details as to why the world has been plunged into chaos are sketchy, they just serve to highlight how isolated the community of the book’s world can be — even as it depends on the rest of Canada to some degree for food, electricity and supplies. While Rice is careful to use fake city names (which is a little bit of a distraction) so, I would assume, a real-life reservation would not be identified, he is really writing about the realities of many northern communities and how they must lean on resources from the South to exist.

What also makes this work is that most of the characters are quite likable and you want to see some kind of happy or peaceful resolution for them. While the ending of the book is a little abrupt — which is probably the novel’s only true failing — it also underscores the novel’s key theme (with a mild spoiler here): that First Nations communities have been wiped from the map long ago through the stealing of their lands, but still its peoples still manage to keep on surviving somehow. The beat goes on, as the saying goes, and in Moon of the Crusted Snow, it does go on and on and on and on.

Moon of the Crusted Snow is a stellar book, and I would encourage anyone with more than a passing interest in Aboriginal affairs to give it a read. However, if you’re looking for something of a horror novel or thriller, the novel works on that level as well. All around, this is a well thought out and put together novel on survival and the means necessary to obtain it, and the importance of having a strong community that can band together to surmount obstacles. I’d be particularly interested to know what indigenous peoples thought of this book, and how the experience of reading this book rang true (or not) for them. However, if you’re a non-Native person and are interested in pursuing right relations with the First Nations peoples as a whole, this is a fun and entertaining read that is also educational. This is a book meant to be savoured. It is indeed very enjoyable, and you should definitely read it right now in one sitting as I did.

"Evan grabbed his sunglasses that lay beside his useless cellphone on the table and perched them on top of his mesh fishing hat. He caught a glimpse of his reflection in the television on the wall across the room. It had been off for almost two days now. He thought of how much he had paid for both the phone and the TV on a trip to the city back in the spring, and he was annoyed that he currently could use neither.

'Think it's the weather?' Evan had asked Isaiah while they worked on the moose.

'Doubt it. Probably just bad receivers. We can never have nice things on the rez!'"

Moon of the Crusted Snow is a fascinating look at what happens in a post-apocalyptic world for the people who are so isolated from everyone else that it takes them weeks to realize something has seriously gone wrong. Just as the first snow of the winter starts to fall, the small Anishinaabe community in the far north of Ontario is cut off from the rest of the world when their power lines go down and the communication lines stop transmitting.

Used to power outages, dropped communication lines, and delayed food shipments, the community has some back up plans in place: an old generator that can power the community, wood furnaces to supplement the electric heat, and plenty of food stores that have been put up through hunting and fishing to prepare for the long winter. It's not until some family members manage to return home from the south that the community realizes something has gone terribly wrong in the outside world.

This story is not the typical high-action thriller that I've grown to expect from anything described as post-apocalyptic. Instead, it's more of an examination of a Native community struggling to figure out its identity in a modern world. Being cut off from the everyday conveniences most of us take for granted affects some of the people in the community more than others. There is some tension built when some outsiders make their way to the community, but for me it resolves in a kind of anticlimactic way.

The true beauty of this story is in the quiet and unassuming way author Waubgeshig Rice portrays day-to-day life on the reserve, and how those who embrace a more traditional life still struggled, but seemed to be more at peace. I loved being introduced to Anishinaabe phrases and traditions, and I can imagine that this would be a powerful listen as an audiobook.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone who'd like to have a glimpse into the lives of those living in the far north without having to wear a parka and toque.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and ECW Press for providing me with a DRC of this book.

Unfortunately, I found this book to be very amateurish. The writing was a bit repetitive, and the characters weren't all that realistic. I didn't understand many of the actions taken on the Reservation during such a crazy time of turmoil. I did find the storyline of Scott, and his hidden agenda very interesting though. Lots of luck to you guys. I always feel bad writing a not so great review. I respect writers very much even when the book wasn't my cup of tea.

3.5 Stars
Moon of the Crusted Snow is an interesting take on the apocalypse. A remote Anishinaabe reservation in Northern Canada tries to survive its first winter of an apocalypse. The book is a slow burn but it kind of works with the bleak winter landscape that the story takes place. I like that the story takes place in a remote area and communication to the southern cities is difficult even when there is electricity. Although the reader is given enough information to understand the community dynamics and diversity, I wish there was more interaction between characters and more character development. Overall, I think this is a good addition for fans and non fans of apocalypse fiction.

Rice is definitely a storyteller, and the book is quite captivating. I found myself thinking about it and looking for moments in my day to sneak in a page or two. In it, we see a different perspective on an apocalyptic event and are confronted with our lack of preparedness. How far we’ve strayed from living close to the natural cycle of the earth. Would we band together to survive or turn on one another? Moon of the Crusted Snow explores the possibilities of each.

A fascinating and thoughtful- as well as unique- take on the post apocalyptic novel. This well written look at how First Nations people deal with the loss of technology and the invasion, once again, of outsiders seeking food etc. was compelling. How much does the loss of cell phone service mean to those who only recently acquired it? What difference would it make if people maintain their traditions and, say, stock food for winter? Evan, who finds himself in the unenviable position of leading his community, is a hero to some and a goat to others but he's always thinking of how best to keep things going. Auntie Eileen's thoughts, well, they'll make you reflect on how we live today. I liked that the precipitating event is kept unclear as the community deals with the crisis. Thanks to the publisher for the ArC.

These days, most of us live lives almost completely divorced from the hard, unpredictable work of keeping ourselves warm and fed. Most of us get our food from grocery stores and restaurants. We flip a switch to turn on the lights or fiddle with a knob to turn on the heat or the cool to adjust the temperature of our living spaces. But on the Canadian reservation where Evan Whitesky lives, in Waubgeshig Rice’s Moon of the Crusted Snow, he and his relatives and band members live closer to the land. And when the power inexplicably goes out—seemingly forever—life on the Anishinaabe reserve is about to get even closer to the bone.

When we meet him, Evan has just shot a moose for his family. His worry about keeping everyone fed for the winter is assuaged, at least for the moment. Getting the body back home is a bit of a struggle, but he manages. The Whitesky family has food. They’ve good firewood. They’re in good shape. He’s still a little anxious about his brother, but he’s mostly content. Within 24 hours, however, the power from the nearby dam goes out. Evan gets a little more worried. Still, they have a generator for emergencies and food and diesel trucks are schedule to arrive in about a week.

At first there’s no need to panic or even ration—until two young members of the band arrive on snowmobiles after fleeing the town where they were going to college. The power went out there, too, and no one can get in touch with the government in Toronto. Things go quickly to hell and the two men barely manage to escape. After they turn up on the reserve, an unsettling white man turns up and asks for a place among the Anishinaabe. Justin Scott says he’ll be an asset to the band, but he doesn’t feel right to Evan. Before long, Scott becomes as much of a problem for Evan and the rest of the band as hunger and cold do.

Moon of the Crusted Snow is a brief tale of survival against a terrifying opportunist and against the elements that touches on cultural reclamation, self-determination, language, and faith. These touches elevate the book from simple dystopia to an opportunity for the Anishinaabe at this reserve to, perhaps, return to their ancestral way of life. Do we cheer? Do we lament the terrible price that was paid? The open ending of Moon of the Crusted Snow has no answers for us. Instead, it leaves us with some very interesting questions to think about long after we finish the last page.

i read this book in two sittings, which is not what i do, like, ever.

it's a compelling post(-possible)-end-of-the-world (we never learn what happens, which reminded me a little of [book:Station Eleven|20170404]) story set in an indigenous community in northern canada, i.e. freezing coldland. it's paced well and suspenseful and always a bit ominous. the most powerful theme, treaded on intelligently and delicately, is that indigenous folks are not new to apocalypse. so, as the younger people go into understandable freakout, the most elders serenely survive through yet another phase of their history of loss and expropriation.

of course, those among the reserve people who have made a point of learning how to live off the land do well, and those who haven't do less well, but the author makes a point of reminding us that that land is not these people's native land. they were relocated here at gunpoints. and then their children were ripped from them and brought to residential schools.

so, yeah, apocalypse schmapocalypse.

all of this is gently buried in lovely storytelling, with lots of snow and ice and cold and wood cutting and moose hunting and all that roughing it up that is so pleasurable to read about when it's still the height of summer in miami and you are lying on your bed with the a/c cranked up and a tropical storm raging outside.

The book "Moon of the Crusted Snow" by Waubgeshig Rice is an incredible look at a post-apocalyptic world from a fresh point of view. The characters in this novel are ones you want to get to know better. This book is written in a down-to-earth style that makes the reader believe this could be happening now.

I loved this book. It isn't your normal post apocalyptic tale. This is about an Ojibwe tribe who at first doesn't realize they are in a world without power or electricity as theirs goes out so often normally. I loved the use of the Ojibwe language. I highly recommend this book.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a review copy in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion of it.

As someone who has read many dystopian/post-apocalyptic novels, I enjoyed the change in pace with this one. Rather than taking place after society has crumbled, this one takes place as it is just beginning and focuses on an Anishinaabe community. It is a slow-burn, but from the very first page I could tell that there was something sinister lurking. I love that the author included snippets of the Ojibwe language and culture, and that he subtly included First Nations history and current wrongdoings against First Nations communities (such as the exorbitant prices of food in Northern communities). This is a story of family and community, a story of self-reliance and a connection to the land, and a story of racism and the outcomes of colonialism.

“And when it became clear that they were never supposed to last in this situation on this land in the first place, they decided to take control of their own destiny. Their ancestors were displaced from their original homeland in the south and the white people who forced them here had never intended for them to survive. The collapse of the white man’s modern system further withered the Anishinaabeg here. But they refused to wither completely…”

Thank you to NetGalley and ECW Press for a copy of Moon of the Crusted Snow in exchange for an honest review.

love reading about an apocalyptic event in a unique setting. These are self-reliant people that are used to getting by and using the land. That being said, many had become complacent with the influx of modern society. When the modern world isn’t available anymore, how do people react? This is the story that is laid out here, the characters are relatable and interesting and the story moves at steady pace. The conclusion was satisfying for the type of situation they are forced to live with. All in all a good apocalyptic read.
Thank you Netgalley for this early release copy.

Thank You Net Galley for the free ARC.

Post-apocalyptic tale from a different perspective. In the Anishanaabe community, losing electricity and satellite service is not all that unusual in winter and at first it is blamed on a coming storm. Not until two of their own return from the southern parts of the land, do the leaders realize that it is a much bigger problem and they try to organize food and heat to survive the winter.

I am always fascinated and interested in reading about Canada’s First Nations communities. I read so many books when in the country and visited as many places as i could to find about their way of life,culture and to learn from them. This book does that and more by blending a really tense story, with great characters and a text peppered with Ashinaabe words. It all makes for one interesting tapestry of a story and I was enthralled throughout.

This book turns a lot of things on their heads. What happens when the white people, the outsiders come into this story? What do the First nations do and how do they cope with their new struggles? Now they are the ones who can help others..

An interesting tale and one I really enjoyed becoming immersed in. A unique perspective. I would love to read more from this author!

A story about a small, northern First nation community and what happens when they suddenly find themselves cut off. Some event knocks out cell service, power, and deliveries and they must find a way to survive and assist each other through the coming winter. They find many challenges within as well as those brought by several white people who come in from the south. A good read with an I interesting perspective and look into the lives of these First Nation communities.