Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline

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This is such an engrossing novel that I read it in one afternoon. Dimaline is a masterful storyteller, combining horror, supernatural elements, mystery, and legend into a dark tale of love, loyalty and family.

After a heated argument with his wife Joan, Victor walks into the woods to calm down. Nearly a year later, Victor still hasn’t come back. After countless hours of searching, Joan still isn’t ready to give up on him, even with her family pushing her to move on. After a hard night of drinking, Joan finds herself drawn to a revival tent set up at the local Walmart and is shocked to see her husband leading the service. But when Joan confronts him, he doesn’t recognize her and believes she is still drunk from the night before. As Victor, now Reverend Eugene Wolff, tries to convince her she’s mistaken, Joan loses consciousness and awakens to a disturbing man who tells her her husband is dead. After being taken away by paramedics and spending the night in a hospital, Joan wakes up to a flurry of messages from her family. A wolf has attacked and killed her grandmother. As the community searches for the wolf, Joan seeks comfort from a family friend, Ajean. Loud mouthed and swearing like a sailor, Ajean is an expert in the history of their community and is convinced that it wasn’t a wolf that attacked Mere, it was a rogarou. She also believes that Victor is still inside the Reverend and Joan is the only one who can remind him of who he is. Armed with the teachings of Ajean and with help from her twelve year-old nephew Zeus, Joan sets out to track down the church who has captured her husband. 

Reading more Indigenous authors has been a priority this year. Dimaline explores the history of the Métis people, their strength, and the stories they pass on from generation to generation. I was especially interested in the way she explores the effects of the Christian religion manipulating the local politics and economy. The traveling church is blatantly using its services to sow discord between the white settler population and the native people over land rights. 

The rogarou myth was new to me. A rogarou can enter the body of someone who betrays a person they love. The rogarou myth was used to frighten children into behaving and was a warning to rebellious teenagers to watch themselves after dark. When Joan went to Ajean for help with her husband, Ajean offered up some less than conventional-to white girl me-about how to save her husband. And Joan just goes along with it, placing her trust in Ajean without much question. I’ve read a few other books lately that take place outside of white America and it’s always so interesting to see young people follow the orders of their elders without question. There isn’t that hubris that the young people know better and there isn’t any question about the elder’s judgement.

There is a great scene where Joan has a less than pleasant interaction with a white guy at a bar and the way that she puts racism in its place-amazing. Empire of Wild gives us an unflinching view of the impacts of racism, colonialism, and the stereotypes inflicted upon Indigenous peoples. 

This book was a great read. The story moved quickly and the characters felt real and true. If you like horror that’s on the less bloody side-this is a good pick for you.

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