The Marrow Thieves
Characters
Francis
Parents
Mitch
Riri
Plot
The Marrow Thieves begins years after the dream crises and introduces us to Frenchie/Francis as he’s losing his brother to recruiters. This isn’t a story about the collapse of society, but more one of a society already collapsed. There are strong comparisons between fiction and reality. Appropriation, exploitation of Indigenous bodies and lands, and general ignorance of Indigenous Peoples and their cultures are all addressed in this novel. Lastly, the book really shows the resilience of the Indigenous characters, the latter being able to survive in the most hostiles conditions.
Themes
Friendship : This theme is one of the most used in the book. If we look beyond the culture and ethnicity of the group, we can see that they stay by themselves because of their friendship, mostly based on trust, as this quality is required for their survival.
Love : Next up after friendship is love. The importance of this theme is obvious, illustrated best by the underlying romance sub-plot between Frenchie and Rose.
Nature : Everything changed in their future, and the group has to adapt. It's like nature has become tired of human activity, and she sometimes does her best to try to get rid of them. In the novel's present, sea levels have risen and transformed the coastlines, oil pipelines have poisoned many freshwater sources, and warmer temperatures combined with earthquakes have changed the landscape and the weather of the world. Nonetheless, respect is given by the Natives everywhere in the book, such at when you learn that the Indian reserves are the only place with drinkable water, because they took care of their sea beds.
Settings
"Boarding schools"
Forest
Toronto
The city is not the same since the climate apocalypse, with the possibility of mutant animals attacking you
Recruiters extract the bone marrow in these horrible establishments
Campfires are often used in the book for telling stories and creating bounds.
Francis's brother. He scarifies himself at the beginning to save Frenchie from the Recruiters.
Also called Frenchie because of his Metis origins. At only 16, he is the main character of the book. He has lost both his parents and has joined a group trying to flee to the north.
They both died, but they were well known in their community, defending the rights of the Natives and just being involved in politics in general.
A young girl, always eager to learn more. She keeps asking Francis for the "Story".
Miig
He is the leader of the group, and one of the only adult. He is Cree and can hunt very well, something he tried to teach to the younger ones.
Wab
She is a young adult, and as a woman she makes most of the decisions on who gets what done for domestic tasks, particularly for cooking
Chi-Boy
He is a 17 year old teen, and is very tall and slim. He only speaks when it's required, and can handle himself around weapons.
Rose
She is a teenage girl, joining the group later in the story. A relation will quickly develop with Francis. She tells bits of her own story slowly throughout the book.
Minerva
Being by far the oldest person in the group, she is sometimes not entirely here. She teaches her own language, Cree, to Rose.
Culture : The group always seems to talk about their past, and Elders are respected because they have more experience. They only way to keep their culture alive in this post-apocalyptic world is to talk about it with other people, and exchange stories.
←This was harder to do than what it looks like