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** I received an ARC for an honest review **
Description
Flush with the victory of winning the election as Alaska’s first Athabaskan Senator, Noni Begay wakes to find herself buried alive. When her coffin lid opens, though, it’s not to rescue but to six years of captivity, betrayed by the one person she trusted most. Escape will require not only all her strength but all the strength and stories of the ancestors she had until now imagined were only a useful device, an accessory she wore to win votes and social media followers.
Mary Nelson’s only daughter, Ryska, went missing ten years ago, with no one but her mother to search for her. Having used up every favor and chit she has, Mary is willing to risk everything on one last ploy to save her daughter from the monsters…even if she has to become one herself.
A chilling psychological horror novel excoriating the epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in North America, Ghost Girls and Rabbits is an unforgettable read perfect for fans of Scandinavian noir and literary horror, told by two fractured minds in the trappings of myths truer than mirrors.
Summary
I recently read an indigenous horror novella. Ghost Girls & Rabbits by Alaskan author Cassondra Windwalker.
Review
Ghost Girls and Rabbits has a dual storyline with one protagonist, Alaska’s first Athabaskan senator, Noni. The second character is Mary, a mother with a damaged and grief-twisted psyche haunted by the disappearance of her daughter a decade earlier who kidnaps Noni calculating that her disappearance will bring attention to the countless missing indigenous women including her own daughter.
Windwalker delivers a dark, psychological horror where generational trauma and violence against indigenous women is a front and centre sociopolitical theme. The core of both characters, the victims and perpetrators often blurring until the systemic failures of society are reflected in the deep psychological damage revealed in both characters. Noni’s captivity takes a savage toll on sanity and identity relying on ancestral stories to endure the violence perpetrated against her by Mary’s own mental and moral collapse self-justification and grief-driven actions twisting her conception of reality and relying on metaphors and legends that are haunting throughout. The dual perspectives makes mental and physical violence at the forefront of the novel and strikes a chord of increasing dread and terror. Here, Windwalker is unflinching in her portrayal of systematic violence against women.
Windwalker incorporates Indigenous legends and symbolism that contrasts well with brutal realism. The prose is lyrical in how symbolism weaves throughout the novel and ties events, characters and generations together set against the stark issue of indigenous cultural sorrow and societal neglect. The narrative is deliberately fragmented, interludes of indigenous mythic tales, symbolism and history create an instability of both storytelling and prose. However, the highly disturbing content and this fragmented narrative style work well to unsettle and reflect the fragmented stories of the many indigenous missing women. This is two characters providing a discourse for a much larger issue. This concise but powerful work has psychological horror at the core which infiltrates every aspect of the novel. This is an unsettling read that is graphic and provides no simple justice as expected from a multifaceted and multilayered novel.
Ghost Girls and Rabbits is a visceral, unflinching depth of grief, horror, identity, and the systemic violence against Indigenous women. Confronting and raw, this demands a witnessing and awareness for voices and stories untold and the hard truths society attempts to bury. This is a powerful, and honest psychological horror.
Conclusion
Recommend for readers of dark fiction and psychological horror but awareness of gendered violence is a necessary consideration. There is much to enjoy in this indigenous horror that has a haunting and uncanny atmosphere while mythological and symbolic elements are juxtaposed to brutality and dread. This is an important commentary on the sociopolitical issue of violence against indigenous women and the unaccounted missing.
** This is my personal opinion and does not reflect any judging decisions **
Leanbh Pearson 