Moon of the Crusted Snow: A Novel

The characters lack depth and the story line fails to grab one’s attention.

I couldn’t put it down. Seeing a apocalyptic novel set in First Nation country gave a old dog a new trick and I look forward to seeing more from this author.

An immersive apocalyptic world. The crusted snow is the perfect metaphor for many different topics throughout the novel.

Great read! Vivid and creative storytelling, rooted in tradition.
Some of the explanations were a little jarring, but I realize these help readers who might not be familiar with rez life.

Respect for this horrible and yet realistic story. I always wondered what would happen when electricity simply blacked out ? Would we be prepared?
Now we had the chance through Covid to experience first hand how prepared we are for anything out of the ordinary - we are not ! And even this for most minor disturbance was blown out of proportion. I refer not to the people who really were affected in one way or the other, but to the media outcry which got out of hand quickly ( in my Country at least, which is Germany).
What is described here is the real catastrophe and it might very easily happen at any time in the future. So I thank Mr. Rice for picking up such an interesting theme and meanwhile I gladly learned a lot about Canada's First Nation. What happens when we are put back on to ourselves for bare survival ? I am very thankful for this enlightening read.

This book really made me think what is what great stories do to me. It made me wonder how our very urbanized native family would fare in the same situation. Really hoping for a sequel to this one.

An interesting story of a northern Ontario reservation that struggles to survive post apocalypse. The book slowly uncovers the discovery of the situation and then how outsiders to their community have different plans for survival. I found the book good but also really creepy.

I liked this well enough—a quick read that kept my attention all the way through. The Indigenous community setting was probably my favorite part, and the disaster at the. heart of the story was plenty scary to consider. But that's the thing—the apocalyptic event was scarier in my mind than on the pages. There was a lot more telling than showing all the way through, which in the end left the book a bit flat for me. It wasn't bad, though, and I still may read the sequel just to find out what happened to everyone.

When the apocalypse hits, a small Anishinaabe community doesn’t notice at first, because losing power and cellphone service isn’t that uncommon. But as the days stretch out, it becomes increasingly clear that something has gone very wrong outside. And then the white refugees start to turn up. A low-key apocalypse, where the whole point is that the world has ended a number of times, and yet some people survive.

No one worries when the cell service and then the electricity goes out in the small Anishinaabe reservation in the North, but when no communication reaches them for days it becomes clear something apocalyptic has happened. How the community responds is at the heart of Waubgeshig Rice’s Moon of the Crusted Snow — part dystopian novel and part allegory for the treatment of the First Nations. What makes this book chilling is the believability of the situation, but plot holes and uneven writing leave it lacking slightly.

Pretty good story. About indigenous people living in northern Ontario when some event occured and there was no longer electricity or water or any modern conveniences. So, they had no choice but to live off the land as their ancestors had.

Alas, given variances in subjective perspectives there are more than a few that may find this eloquently simple story slow and dull. In my view though, it's not intended to be distracting entertainment, but rather an interesting story encapsulating contrasting cultural proclivities. Something that more need see the value in if we truly care about our children's futures.

I don't see modern civilization crashing overnight as it does in the beginning of this story, but such was necessary in getting on with the intended story. To the story's credit it does, succinctly within context, relate how a majority of humans have been on a destructive path far too long.

Foregoing details that could give a false impression, I will say it's a hopeful story if enough see the value inherent in its telling.

“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” ~ Albert Einstein

This book was quite good, but not great. For me, the characters could have been more nuanced and developed. People were good or bad; right or wrong.

The plot is not unique....an apocalypse. But it was very nicely handled. Setting the story on a remote reserve in winter gave it a twist. As did reading about people with strong communitarian values working together. And realizing that the characters had experienced several world-ending events resulting from colonization. These aspects added to the story immensely and made it worth reading.

The plot had two other particularly strong elements. While the ending felt a bit rushed, the issue of what happened to Evan (no spoilers here) was very deftly handled...just the right amount of suspense. And I really liked that this wasn't about why there was an apocalypse. It was about how ordinary people would react and adapt.

Worth a look.

I read a lot of apocalypse novels, and I thought this one was a bust.(Spoilers) The power goes out in a remote Native American village and they lose touch with the outside world. Nothing much happens until a sketchy white guy comes to town and tries to take over. He's a loose canon, but the villagers response to him is curiously passive, even when he kills someone, until he finally crosses a line the main character can't stomach. The apocalypse element is defined solely by a brief passage where two boys return from college and tell of mayhem on their campus--there's no exploration of it beyond that. The Native American element is pervasive and even interesting, but it adds little to the narrative other than a rural setting and some native language. The writing is satisfactory but nothing special, and there's no real attempt to connect the simple story line to any larger themes--like for instance The World Ending. The story comes to an abrupt finish and offers nothing in the way of a resolution or even a summation. I found it very unsatisfying.

3.5 ⭐
not bad I just had high expectations and I wanted more.

Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice is a powerful post-apocalyptic story set in a small northern Anishinaabe community. When an unnamed something causes the world to go dark, this small Indian community is cut-off from the rest of the world. The people must learn to live without electricity, phones and delivery of goods and food from the south.

The winter is long and harsh and many people are not prepared to survive but the community tries to keep everyone supplied with food and heat as best as they can. Main character, Evan Whitesky and his mate Nicole have two children, they are living on the reservation and are relearning their traditional ways of living. When a white man arrives seeking refuge, Evan and the community allow him to stay even though they have doubts as to his willingness to fit in. As the winter progresses power struggles arise and hostility and slow burning tensions built to a stunning climax.

I was spell-bound by Moon of the Crusted Snow. The author’s writing drew me into the story and his descriptions of nature and weather set the stage for this interesting dystopian tale. A story of survival that was unsettling yet hopeful, Rice is a born storyteller and I look forward to reading more from this author.

A slow-burner where suspense builds up to a shocking climax. Haunting, telling the tale of a modern First Nation tribe in northern Ontario, struggling to survive without the trapping of modern life: infrastructure and all that goes with it; food shortage; a hard, unforgiving winter with blizzard conditions and cold. I appreciated what these people went through, especially with outsiders--white people--coming onto the reservation to escape the same situation down south, and with their leader's brutality, forcing themselves upon this community. Writing was spare and characterizations full-blooded. I got a sense of some of the Ojibwa customs. A small thing, but I wish when native words were used [most meanings of which you could figure out by context] if the words in the spoken language are accented, accent marks had been used to show syllable stress. The title to me meant the time of year when the story took place.

Highly recommended.

Evan Whitesky is out hunting moose when the cell phones stop working. Soon after, the reservation loses electricity, sat phones, and all other contact with the outside world. Then the blizzards begin.

I enjoyed becoming immersed in this dystopian novel and quickly sped through it in a day. The author is from Wasauksing First Nation, and the novel is set on an Anishinaabe reservation. Without being heavy-handed, some history of the tribe is included as well as native words and customs. It made for a very interesting read.

I'm not going to give anything away about what happens in this novel. It's a fantastic book, doing much of what Leave the World Behind does, only in a different way and more effectively.

Evan lives with his wife and two children in an Anishinaabe community in northern Ontario. One morning in late autumn, they wake to find themselves without electricity and service for their cell phones or internet. This isn't unusual in a neglected and underpopulated part of the country, but it soon appears as though the interruption might last longer than a few days.

This is a short novel, without a wasted word or unnecessary scene. Rice creates a sense of rising tension that was highly effective and by centering the story not on the community leaders, but on the guy who drives the snowplow, there's also a sense of being in the middle of things. Highly recommended.

Early in July there was one of those twitter threads that blows up where the OP asked people to pick a country and list three books available in English, by authors from that country, living or recently dead, to recommend that more people should read. The outpouring of recommendations was tremendous, and I was frantically adding books to my to-read list. I looked up this book from Canada mostly because it was on the same list as Jonny Appleseed, which I am always yelling about, so I had faith in that poster's taste. When I looked it up on goodreads, I found rave reviews from two friends whose taste I trust, so off to the library I went.

I could not put this book down, except to engage my husband in conversations about the slow-build sense of impending doom this book creates, as well as psychology and survival strategies during a collapse of civilization in a winter-climate. I devoured this. As I read, it was actually unbearably hot in my house, which you might think would undermine the everyone-might-freeze-to-death mood, but actually for two days my brain was stuck on EVERYTHING IS UNBEARABLE -- HOW DO WE BEST MANAGE OUR RESOURCES SO WE DON'T DIE?

In many ways, this is an unusual apocalypse/post-apocalypse novel that evades a lot of tropes. The focus is actually more on Anishinaabe culture and history -- at one point making explicit the way they have survived multiple apocalypses -- the waves of death following the arrival of white settlers, the removal of their land, the removal of their children and the attempts to erase their cultural history. The legacy of all that is woven seamlessly into the book, infusing every page with a sense of reclaiming what has been lost, even before the power goes out.

A recent review by nickelini of this book made me want to pick it up. I've committed to reading some books by Native Americans this year and this is written by a First Nations member. It has great detail about this Anishinaabe community trying to save some of their traditions and get back to their roots. It actually tied in surprisingly well to a nonfiction book I'm reading called [Braiding Sweetgrass]. A lot of Native American traditions especially regarding respect for the land are described in both.

This novel is a little hard to describe, but it's basically an apocalyptic suspense/thriller. The community is in northern Ontario and suddenly, as winter is beginning, they lose power and cell service. At first they believe it is just a fluke and will be repaired. But then they learn that it is not just their community that has lost power. They need to decide how, together or apart, they will survive the winter.

I really liked this. The setting is great, both in terms of the location and the cultural setting. I will say that it wasn't quite as "thrilling" to me as it was set up to be. I wasn't really surprised by any of it and I thought something even more dramatic would happen than what actually did happen. But, overall I'd still recommend it.

Moon of the Crusted Snow, authored by Waubgeshig Rice, popped on my radar by way of the Bookriot article titled: Welcome To Indigenous Horror: 4 Indigenous Books To Try, written by Amanda Diehl. This was the only title on this list I have been able to get my hands on so far (borrowed from my library) but I remain hopeful, and diligent in my searching. I also would like to read the other works by this author. My honest review is below, freely given.

I rated this novel 4.5 stars.

The way the world ends could be endlessly written about, ranging from the fantastical to the horrific, mired in scientific explanation or religious signs; presented with hopeful to despondent emotion. I had not yet read a story of the modern world ending from the viewpoint of of a people already so isolated due to marginalization and separation onto reservations, but I was looking forward to it.

If your communication with everyone off the rez (reservation) is spotty at best during the colder weather, then when it happens with finality, you wouldn’t know right away; that gets under my skin, creeps me out. I know they were already preparing, stocking up for winter, but they still thought everything was a-okay with the people that stock their diesel, restock their grocer’s store. There was a whole safety net they thought was under them that had been ripped away.

How they dealt with everything that followed, as a small community, fascinated me. These were not random survivors thrown together hashing out their differences, fighting bitterness over perceived slights; these were family, lifetime friends, whose dedication to pulling their weight for the community (or not) was bare for all to see, more complicated to deal with, I’m sure. And having to decide what to do with outsiders asking for shelter, and all the good and bad that can come from that, I thought was another strong pull on the tension that had been building steadily from the first chapter.

If I ever get to the point where listening to audio books are possible for me (not while the kids have school from home!), I would love to hear the Anishinaabe written within the book spoken. There are English words I’ve only read that I know I butcher trying to say; I can only imagine at this point how lovely the words shared with us in this novel really sound.

Rather elementary, in that the writing style is like a chapter book from a grade five reading assignment. Not my preference. The story was relatively pat and obvious. There are clear "bad guys" and "good guys" which means the characters are rather flat and static. Especially the bad guy, who is painted as such from the moment his all-in-black archetype arrives in the village. Yes, there's some sharing of indigenous culture, but nothing I haven't read in other, better written, more interesting works. Sure, as an "all community read" it works, but that overarching demographic matches its mediocrity.

Phones, televisions, internet, and power go out on the reservation. To spread information, the people rely on “...all moccasin telegraph all the time these days.”
I can’t imagine all those things failing right now, during the current pandemic! For the people on the 'rez', it's unimaginable too! Evan, the main character, must protect his family and friends, help his community, and be on guard against outsiders. It's a Herculean task, made worse as the winter deepens. It's a well told tale, with lots of insight into Native American ways, traditions, and languages. The 'run' on the food market reminded me so much of how things were at the start of our current pandemic right now. Scary and uncertain. This whole book is scary and uncertain. Probably why I enjoyed it!

Post-apocalyptic novels are pretty common but I don't know of any others that are set in a remote aboriginal reservation. Mr. Rice has brought that idea to life and done it quite brilliantly. And since the success of an audiobook relies so much upon the narrator kudos must also be given to Billy Merasty who gave voice to the characters.

Winter comes early to Northwest Ontario where the Anishinaabe community that is the setting for this novel is located. And then the power and communication systems go out leaving the band to rely upon diesel generators and their own resources. This would work for a short period of time but as the days turn into weeks and then into months the people realize that the leadership is failing them. A man who works for the band, Evan, takes on more and more responsibility; he checks on elders; he delivers food; he picks up the bodies of people who die and stores them in the band's garage; he worries about his mother and father; he worries about his partner and their two children; most of all he worries about the white stranger who showed up in town on a snowmobile with supplies of liquor and guns. If anyone in this small community survives it will be thanks to Evan's efforts.

Excellent thriller. The tension and suspense is wonderful. It keeps you reading to find out what happens to the tribe. Great characters in a scary situation.

I wish this book had been longer- I'd have loved to learn more about how the Anishinaabe culture works in the context of this new apocalypse. The story is focuses primarily on how Anishinaabe ways help people to physically survive independent of modern technological infrastructures and supply lines. Spirituality is touched on briefly, but not much more than that. I'd have liked to see more about how peoples' identities and roles in the community changed over the course of the two years covered by the story. I assume more people in the community would become interested in rediscovering their heritage and culture, but what would that look like?

This is a novel of an apocalypse that takes place in a remote Northern Ontario indigenous reserve.
The main character is Evan who works for the reserve as a maintenance man with multiple other functions. The power goes out on the eve of another winter. The reserve has prepared for such an emergency with backup diesel generators and many families have stocked freezers with game and other foods. However, the outage continues, people becomes anxious, hungry and cold and a visitor from the South, arriving on a snowmobile causes a rift between families.
It’s an interesting story but the dialogue is lame, the emotional toll is not well described and the ending leaves many questions regarding the future.

I like canadian fiction and our canadian first nation people included. Story of the end of modern civilisation as the power goes out. Tender family moments and instincts of survival are the theme of this book. It’s a short book, perhaps a sequel is coming?

This was a great short novel by Canadian novelist Waubgeshig Rice from the Wasauksing First Nation near Sudbury. I randomly picked up this novel when my library had it displayed on the front counter. I'm a big fan of apocalyptic novels and this was told from an interesting First Nations point of view. Recommended.