It's a few months late, but I am finally getting around to writing about the last book we read in last semester's class - Bad Cree. This book should have won Canada Reads in its year because it was great. I wasn't sure what to expect when I was reading it and I was so thoroughly pleased and engrossed by it.
Jessica Johns' Bad Cree is bleak, upsetting, and doesn't have a fairy tale happy ending. And those are the best parts about it. It is not what you expect and it grips you.
The discussion in class about Bad Cree ranged from horror themes, to sexual assault parallels, to mental health, to unique Indigenous storytelling, to family and generational trauma. Many of these themes and parallels were not apparent to me at first, so I applaud my classmates for their in depth reading. For me, the aspect that stood out the most was how it was a story about women.
Almost the entire cast of characters in the book are women. There are a few men, but for a change they are relegated to the sidelines and the women take centre stage. The plot revolves around a young Cree woman, Mackenzie, and the matriarchal and sisterly structure of her family as she tries to deal with the haunting death of her sister. Her bio sister and sister-like cousin help Mackenzie come to terms with the passing of Sabrina, and help her figure out what really happened.
There is a deep feeling of coming home and what that does to help heal one's soul. Mackenzie left home for Vancouver and has never really felt whole since. It isn't until she begins having haunting cross-reality dreams that she returns home and starts to heal; not only herself, but within her family as well.
Family and extended family connections play a significant role in Bad Cree, and as someone from a big family with lots of extension, that part really drew me in. The talk of aunties and uncles all around the table, big dinners with too much food, and going to bed on every sleep-able surface as children while adults visiting drones on into the night—all of that felt so familiar to me.
I have a good relationship with my two sisters, but the connection is maybe not as strong as I would like it. (I'm hoping to work on it more once my program is done sucking up all of my extra time.) They are quite strongly bonded, as they both have children and they support each other with help, visits, and tips and tricks. I am the oldest of us three, and I choose to not have children, so I am little on the periphery, but I love being the cool aunt who supplies them with a few too many books. I mention this because throughout Bad Cree you see Mackenzie, Tracy, and Kassidy mend their sisterly and familial bonds as they try to figure out what happened to Sabrina and come to terms with their mourning. The girlhood and sisterly affection is a strong theme for me.
Would definitely recommend this book as something different to add to one's TBR. I actually recommended it to my mother-in-law and I hope she likes it.
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