by Jessica Johns
I am fascinated by movies and books that use elements of horror as symbols of grief. The film Babadook is a perfect example of this; the Babadook monster is grief itself (and I’m NOT usually a horror fan). Bad Cree does something similar. Our protagonist is a young Cree woman named Mackenzie who is LITERALLY haunted by the unexpected deaths of her Kokum and sister. She has terrifying dreams of drowning and being stalked by crows, dreams that are beginning to cross into her real world. She wakes up drenched after dreaming of drowning, and another morning she wakes up clutching a bloody head of a crow after dreaming of aggressive crows.
The only people who understand what Mackenzie is experiencing are the only people who can save her; her family. Mackenzie heads home to High Prairie, Alberta, where she literally has to battle her grief “monsters” with the help of her powerful women relatives.
This book is an amazing story of resilience, grief, identity, and the importance of family. It is also beautifully written. Johns is a master of description and detail; I felt I was standing beside Mackenzie through everything she was going through…a place where, at times, was an extremely uncomfortable place to be.
I would definitely have a couple of copies of this novel in my classroom for an independent novel study, or as a book club option.
Ink And Spine 