- Sarah C.
- Tuesday, June 27, 2023
Check out these coming-of-age tales from Indigenous authors and fulfill prompt #3 on the 2023 #BroaderBookshelf Reading Challenge. Pro tip: the first two titles on the list also fulfill prompt #2 and double-dipping is absolutely allowed!
Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty
Morgan Talty’s debut work delivers twelve searing stories that allow the reader to see through the eyes of David, a young man coming of age on a Penobscot reservation. The visceral immediacy of Talty’s storytelling affords his audience the opportunity to inhabit David’s mind and body as snapshots of his childhood and early adulthood are revealed in each story. Deep trauma and sorrow flow together with constant humor and powerful familial and community bonds to create a tale that truly reflects the complexities and nuances of living a human life.
Is it possible to outrun the past? And what do we owe our families? Nehiyaw aunty Jessica Johns explores these questions in her coming-of-age horror about a young Cree woman trying and failing to escape the violence and grief of her family and community history. Mackenzie is making a go of it in Vancouver, but her increasingly terrifying dreams are now bleeding into her waking life and drawing her inexorably back to the people and places she’s fleeing. Will she be able to repair the bonds she damaged in time to save the rest of her precious family?
Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead
Oji-Cree, Two-Spirit storyteller Joshua Whitehead gifts readers a deeply intimate portrait of a self-described NDN glitter princess in this unique coming-of-age tale. Jonny, trying to build a life and a community in the big city, has two weeks to scrape together enough cash to travel back to the reservation for his stepfather’s funeral. As he hustles to make it back home in time, stories of love, self-discovery, grief, trauma, and joy float through his consciousness – memories of his beloved kokum (grandmother) and the gradual process of working out his sexuality are especially striking. Whitehead delivers a gritty, candid, and sensual glimpse of queer indigenous life full of ecstatically beautiful prose.
Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones
Growing up is challenging enough without the worrying prospect of turning into a werewolf, but that’s exactly what the unnamed protagonist in Mongrels is up against. Living a transient life on the fringes of society with his Aunt Libby and Uncle Darren, the boy shares the grisly, fascinating, and darkly hilarious story of his family and his life thus far. Stephen Graham Jones has a particular genius for writing genuine, complex, and compulsively loveable characters, and Mongrels is a stellar example of his big-hearted style of horror. Richland Library was lucky enough to host the author for an evening of stories last November; be sure to catch our exclusive interview with Jones and the Meet the Author event, where he read never-shared-before stories for our spellbound audience.