Set in Winnepeg’s North End neighborhood punctuated by a swath of land with hydroelectric towers that becomes the scene of a horrific crime and a symbolic artifact of the characters’ fractured lives, this debut novel for Métis poet Katherena Vermette follows the lives of a family whose members live with the consequences of their proximity to the violent gangs that roam their streets and prey on people, including thirteen-year-old Emily, who is viciously attacked. The community itself is largely indigenous, with many half-breeds, including one of the policemen investigating Emily’s attack. Racial bigotry forms the backdrop to the story. Flora, known as Kookom to her grandchildren (apparently it is the Cree word for grandmother), is the head of this four-generation family at the center of the novel.. Her daughter Cheryl is a functional alcoholic and her other daughter, Rain, was murdered when her daughter, Stella, was a child, such that Stella was raised by Kooko. Cheryl has two daughters, Louisa (Lou) and Paulina (Paul) who have children of their own. Emily is Paulina’s daughter. Men are not portrayed very kindly in this story; most of them abandon their responsibilities, and the women realize that they often get involved with unsuitable men. The story is told from the varied perspectives of the characters, who each bring pieces of the full story to the family’s complex history. Haunting. ( )

If there's one book that should have won CBC Canada Reads, this is it. ( )

A 13 year old is assaulted, the attack witnessed through a window by a young mother up tending her baby boy and young daughter who can't do anything beyond calling the police who come hours later after the victim has fled. This is a story of the extended and close family of the victim, generations of women with breaks in their lives and of the young woman who initiated the violence, even more broken and bound to a shattered future. Most of the characters identify as Métis, living in a Canadian city. ( )

Gritty story about tough lives of indigenous Canadians. Depressing. ( )

A sad story of a multi generational Indigenous family who struggles with a rape in their family. This is mostly about the bonds between the women in this family who come together even when they all have their own individual struggles. ( )