Drew Hayden Taylor's "Cold"

Cold / Drew Hayden Taylor
TO: McLelland & Stewart, c2024.
359 p.

This is a book I would not have normally picked up -- it's a horror/thriller with hockey, middle aged men, and gore. But, it's also by Drew Hayden Taylor. I've read quite a few of his books and usually enjoy them -- everything he does is leavened with humour, and I find his Indigenous themes are compelling and engaging. So I read it. 

It is a bit more horror-ish than I usually like, especially with the few explicitly gory scenes. But it is also horror-lite enough for this squeamish reader. The story has three character arcs, which begin to converge the further into the book you go. We start with a plane crash in Northern Ontario during a blizzard, where we meet journalist Fabiola Halan, who is originally from the Caribbean, and hates the cold. She and the pilot survive the crash, and a year or so later, Fabiola is on a Canada wide book tour with the story of her experience.

Now in Toronto, we meet Professor Elmore Trent, an Indigenous studies prof who is having an affair with a student while his marriage is falling apart. We also encounter Paul North, an aging hockey player in the IHL (Indigenous Hockey League) who is facing the end of his career. And Detective Ruby Birch, who is investigating a string of unusual murders, brings them all together. 

We uncover Indigenous folklore and monstrous creatures during this story, alongside social commentary and the individual story arcs of each character. There are ruminations and reflections on a variety of themes, whether Indigenous topics or questions of aging, relationship ethics, or the way that office politics shows up in academia and the sports world alike. I liked a lot in this story, including the way that Prof. Trent throws in references to other Indigenous writers throughout. Lots to follow up on! There were some interesting developments in the plot and some outrageously over the top scenes too. 

I did find that the writing was a bit dry in parts, for a thriller, and some editing issues that caught my attention (a copyedit eye is a curse sometimes!) I wasn't fully sold on the conclusion either; it made sense within the storyline but I didn't love it. But, it was fun and campy in parts, while also being dark and intriguing in others. It was creative and original, and could be one that a lot of different kinds of readers would enjoy. Worth a look!

 

The Bone Mother

The Bone Mother / David Demchuk 
Peterborough, ON: ChiZine, c2017.
234 p.

As my longer-term readers may know, horror is not my first choice for a good read. But this one, longlisted for the Giller Prize (a preeminent Canadian literary prize), and set on the borders of Ukraine & Romania, interested me for those very reasons.

It's a set of short stories, all connected in ways, featuring the ancient monsters of peasant folklore, salted with some scary 'night police' tracking them down, in a nod to Soviet style tyranny.

The stories are set in Ukraine, especially three villages near the Thimble Factory, as well as a couple of stories within the Ukrainian community in Canada (the one set in Manitoba was especially good, I thought - probably the most memorable for me). 

They are full of horror; from bloody killings to cannibalism to monsters living among us -- but somehow the overall tone is more dark folklore than gratuitous gore. The stories in which I could identify real folkloric creatures like the rusalka or Baba Yaga were the most fascinating to me. There were a couple of these short tales that I didn't like much (mostly the last one) but as a whole this book was a great read. Creepy, spooky, dark, the stories were so brief (some only a page or two) that it really felt like reading folk tales, like these were stories that had been -- or should have been -- passed down in whispers through the generations. 

As one of the reviews of this book has mentioned, the actual history that this book arises from is terrifying enough on its own: Demchuk mentions the Holodomyr (Stalin's forced famine, which created plenty of real-life horror) and the way the implacable Night Police are threaded through the stories reads as Soviet reality.

Another element that adds to the book is Demchuk's use of old photographs (in the public domain) by Roman photographer Costică Acsinte, taken between 1935 and 1945. They are portraits, with individuals staring out at you from stark backgrounds; the chapters titles are simply names. It's very effective. 

A very unusual Canadian read, but one that I read in one sitting and by the way, didn't even have nightmares after reading it!