374 pages
Published 2021
Read from April 25 to May 7
Rating: 3 out of 5
A charming middle-grade novel, one weighted with the tragedies of colonialism, ecological collapse, global warming, and the loss of stories, both animal and human.
In the near future, young Nina grows up in a warming world, hoping to preserve the stories of her Lipan ancestors even as languages wither and her homeland suffers under hurricanes and drought. In the spirit world, a young cottonmouth-person named Oli must leave home and navigate life on his own. Nina is not the only one who suspects that the human and spirit worlds, severed long ago, still maintain some secret connection; not everyone investigating the possible link has the same motives as her.
I can’t complain that a middle-grade novel reads like a middle-grade novel. It is pitched toward its intended readers, as it should be. Though I imagine even twelve year olds might feel patronized when “Let’s make a viral video!” becomes a major plot point. I get it: social media is the contemporary fashion for storytelling, which is one of the book’s central motifs (a point recently underlined in our own world, when the dried up capitalist ghouls in Congress leapt across party lines to help ban TikTok). Nonetheless, I felt that plotline had serious “How do you do, fellow kids?” energy.
Snake was worth a read all the same. Climate grief and colonialism are pressing topics, and Little Badger does excellent work presenting them to her audience in a way that respects their intelligence and emotional investment. The concept of earthly extinction reaching into the spirit world is particularly haunting. And the book closes on a big (though age appropriate) middle finger to the money-hoarding class, which is a fantastic message for readers of all ages.
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