Moon of the Crusted Snow

4.5

Dark. Very dark.

I love the perspective and own voices point of view for a post-apocalyptic story.

i really enjoyed learning about the indigenous community explored through this story and their traditions. it was extremely insightful and i loved the metaphor for these people infiltrating the community just like how the native population was invaded by white people when they first came to america. but this was a bit slow for me and i'm not a huge fan of apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic stories. i still highly recommend this book overall tho. 

i didn't think this was necessarily suspenseful, but it's haunting in the way that fear envelops a society that's on the decline. trying to figure out how you're going to survive something and knowing that most likely not everyone will. things got a lot darker as time went on & fear very much started to take a toll on the community.

i was interested in the atmosphere of the beginning but was kind of bored for the middle and got more interested towards the end but then the very end was so rushed and abrupt.

I liked Evan's relationship with his wife and friends and the way they evolved through the change in their world, so I was invested from beginning to end. The writing was beautiful and flowed very organically and I hardly saw time fly by while I was reading. I'm really looking forward to the next installment.

literally nothing happend in this book up until the last 2 chapters but the atmosphere and dread and the survival was so good. any book abt surviving the winter, specifically in a small community, will automatically be amazing to me

A small, rural Anishinaabe community in northern Canada is cut off from the grid and the rest of the world during the collapse of society. The novel follows the community as they try and survive the impending winter. Everything is going smoothly until a white man shows up...
Ooooooh this is a slow burn apocalypse novel and it checks all of the boxes for me!! I loved the way the author built tension and the feeling of impending doom. It was palpable throughout the entire novel, which I really enjoyed. I also felt really connected to the characters, which doesn't always happen for me with short novels, but I felt very invested in Evan and his family and community. Overall, a fantastic read! I think I'll definitely be purchasing a copy in the future. 

An atmospheric dystopian novel centering around a small anishinaabe community in northern canada. The mysterious global catastrophe serves as a backdrop to the small family's day to day life, and it was an interesting narrow perspective to read through. It felt very realistic, but I would've liked to get to know the characters a little more to balance out the lack of plot :)

This is the soft post-apocalyptic book I had been longing for since reading ‘The Singlight Pilgrims'. Rice has skillfully crafted the perfect atmospheric setting. The story takes place in a remote Anishinaabe community in northern Canada, where the sudden vanishing of communication and essential supplies from the outside world thrusts the community into an unsettling state of uncertainty. As they face the harsh realities of survival and navigate the challenges brought on by the rapidly changing circumstances, the characters come to life and I truly felt connected to them as a reader.

I want to give credit to Native Lady Book Warrior on Youtube. after reading this, I felt as a white person I could definitely use some perspective on this story and all of its details rather than just reviewing it in a very surface level way. her video recap and review was great and it really gave me more appreciation for the book as a whole. her video: https://youtu.be/OR_tYYGDrKQ

This is a quiet book about when crap hits the fan in an Anishinaabe community in Canada. It definitely had the winter vibes I was looking for, but it is very mild on the SFF. I enjoyed it and recommend, especially if you're looking for winter forest vibes.

it was pretty okay. didn't care about anybody, didn't like how vague the apocalypse was, plot was very predictable and dull. but the writing was good and there was nothing bad, it was just fine.

3.5

I listened to this one on audio and it was fantastic. And I know, I know. I said I was over end of the world stories, but this one was on my TBR for forever and that's what I seem to be doing this November:knocking titles off the TBR list.
Evan and Nicole are relationship goals. I don't think I've seen such a positive couple presented in years, I don't mean they are particularly positive (how could they be, given the current situation?) but they are clearly still in love with each other after many years and they are a united front on maintaining home, community, and family values. It was so freaking refreshing to read. It doesn't even matter that Evan and Nicole are not “officially” married. Who cares? They are perfect.
As I am a sucker for a survival novel, I was all in from the get go with Moon. I fell in love with the many characters in the community and was literally sitting there entranced when the boys told the story about their escape from the college.
I was sad when the novel ended.

3.5, rounded up. I really liked the story and the atmosphere— always want to read Indigenous themed novels written by Indigenous authors, and Moon Crusted Snow was really important for Indigenous representation. The way Rice wrote these themes was so entrenched in emotion and just. Powerful. So good.

However, the cast of characters was pretty large considering the length, so they didn't get a lot of development and ended up feeling flat. It was a little hard to keep track of them all. It felt like this was supposed to be a more of character driven novel because of how slow (not a bad thing!) the actual plot progression was. Like, I really wish we had a little more development between Evan and his brother! I thought they really could have had an interesting dynamic.

Rice also has a tendency to “tell” more than “show” his audience. The resulting exposition ended up pulling the reader out of the immersive experience and the collective atmosphere of tension and dread he'd build up beforehand.

I ended up pretty disappointed in this one. The book is a short look at the downfall of society from the perspective of a remote First Nation tribe in Canada where information and supplies are in short supply. Without supplies, the reservation has to make do with what it has on hand through the first winter, and conflict arises amongst the community quickly.

It bills itself as a post-apocalyptic thriller, and while it is post-apocalyptic, I found it really less than thrilling. The cast of characters is relatively small and two dimensional, with no real growth or change occurring throughout the book. Dialog does the heavy lifting of the book, but even that is flat and full of “he said”, “she said”, etc. Without spoiling the ending or the conflict, I found the ultimate confrontation at the end unexpected....but also out of place. For a bit more spoilers, an outsider joins the community fairly early on that nobody really gets along with. He brings guns, booze, and quickly usurps authority amongst leadership. Near the end of the book when food is in short supply, we find out why this outsider hasn't been looking thin -- he's been eating people. I found that a little out of place, especially in the first winter when food was still available, if not exactly pleasant. I don't like canned meat either, but I'd eat it over a person.

We also never really find out what exactly caused the collapse of the larger society, which I found unsatisfying. I realize they're remote and disconnected under normal circumstances, but even just a mention would have been far more satisfying, I think.

It's a short read, but I don't know if I'd recommend it highly.

A story about a first nations band in northern Canada, the narrator is PERFECT.

When the world ends but now winter is here! Oh shit, better be a good moose hunter :/ (watch out for those crazy white people tho)