The Marrow Thieves

Good book to read- indigenous science fiction that deals metaphorically with the extermination of native peoples. A bit simplistic, but I stayed with it.

Loved the book so interesting and intriguing

Excellent book. We had the best discussion we've ever had in book club with this book.

Great characters that you will root for and cry for in this frightening story that echoes the past in disturbing ways. The it drive to survive and the struggle to escape was nail biting to read.

The Marrow Thieves is a captivating look at how Indigenous people survive and try to thrive despite being hunted by white people again, this time for their ability to still dream, after the climate apocalypse.**POTENTIAL SPOILERS BELOW**Ms Dimaline is a true storyteller. Her world-building is horrifyingly realistic, given the subject matter. Her characters are fully realized and your focus is instantly drawn to them. She is uniquely capable of making you care deeply for all of them. I love her descriptions of the bonds batween virtual strangers who are still family because of their shared history. I cried in several places and the ending was perfect for the story. It leaves you with hope, despite it not really being a resolution.

Good book to put in a middle school classroom

Not exactly what I expected, I guess I wasn't sure what I expected. The world is in a state of physical upheaval, from misuse, and it's own state of flux. As the blurb stated white people have lost the ability to dream and having discovered the ability to do so can be found in the bone marrow of indigenous people. They set about harvesting it.FrenchIe is the last of his core birth family. He is rescued by a group that takes him in and helps him learn how to survive physically. All have their secrets, their fears, and their perceived failings. They must deal with those who would turn them over for profit, or to delay their own downfall, and a hope they will meet with others like them trying to find a way to move on.This is my first by the author. I have just finished and am still digesting. Keep in mind Frenchie is a sixteen year old male, and the book is told from his point of viewThis is not a story with a mythological "monster" but the very real one of the way treat other people, and how easy it can be to cross and blur lines.

At the start, it gave me nightmares (which it should). By mid-novel, I was hooked and invested in the characters. By the end, I literally gasped and sobbed. Absolutely a must read!!

It was a great book giving the struggles of the native people. How they have gone back to Mother Earth to survive

Cherie Dimaline writes a compelling story in a bizarre future in which North America's indigenous people are hunted for their marrow - the only known solution that restores the population's ability to dream. The story follows a 15-year old and his friends as they travel north to escape the hunters, incongruously termed "recruiters." Part coming of age, part action drama, part social commentary, in the end the book is hopeful. I will be re-reading it. I bought it for someone in their late teens, but have recommended it to adults.

This book was a good book of struggle, overcoming obstacles, learning how far you would go for the people you love, and how not all family is blood.

3.5 stars. This book won the Kirkuk prize for young peoples’ literature and also the Governor General’s YP award. It is also one of the 5 finalists for Canada Reads 2018. It is a dystopian novel set approximately 50 years in the future. The story echoes the sad history of our residential schools. Native children were taken from their homes with the aim of assimilation into white culture. There they were separated from their families, language, religious beliefs, self respect and native skills and culture. There was physical, mental and sexual abuse. They lacked resistance to diseases common in our society, and sickness was often neglected in these schools. Many died. Also some died after running away and trying to walk home to their families. At the time of the story there has been horrendous environmental disasters. There were earthquakes, tornados, flooding. Edges of continents broke off and fell into the sea. Rivers changed courses, and the North was melting. Upheaval of pipelines spewed contamination into the air, lakes and rivers. Countless people died from disease brought on from these disasters. The white population who survived lost the ability to dream. Sleeplessness caused madness. The ability to dream remained with the Indigenous people with fibres within their bone marrow. White recruiters began seizing natives, taking them to former residential schools to harvest their bone marrow. Once captured they were never seen again. Eleven year old Frenchy, a Metis boy, is on the run with older brother after losing their parents to the Recruiters. As they run through the forest, his older brother is captured. Frenchy is cold, hungry and wet and alone in the forest. He is found by Miig and joins a group of natives who are trying to get to safety, always on the move and in danger. I found , apart from Frenchy and Miig, that the character development lacked depth. We did get sketchy backstories of members of the group. Some of the writing was quite beautiful in describing the forests through which they travelled. This was similar to today’s forests and didn’t show much difference caused by all the environmental disasters. I found some of the writing to be choppy. They mentioned mutant animals but aside from regular deer and rabbit nothing unusual was seen on the hunts. There were passages that very little happened and at the end of some chapters we would get forewarnings that something good or bad was coming up next. As an older reader I felt the teenaged love story didn’t belong in a story of flight and survival, but imagine it was included to appeal to the YP readers. As they are still on the run there is room for a sequel. Not sure where they are heading as sometimes they were going north and other times east. The ending wast touching and emotional.

Le livre est arrivé dans un état parfait.