Book Review: Permanent Astonishment by Tomson Highway

By Kim McCullough

Content warning: child abuse, sexual assault

Permanent Astonishment by Tomson Highway is a humorous and heartbreaking memoir that covers his life from birth to age fifteen. 

Highway’s earlier-than-expected birth during a frozen northern Manitoba winter kicks off the story of a young and free Cree boy filled with wonder at the beauty of the world around him. Highway has an incredible ability to remember the smallest of details, and what he doesn’t remember, his family has recounted for him. His storytelling has an almost musical rhythm to it, which makes sense for someone as musically gifted as Highway is. His facility with languages shines through in beautifully constructed sentences and thoughtful word play. 

When Highway is sent to the Guy Hill Residential School in The Pas, Manitoba, Permanent Astonishment settles into chapters that alternate between his vibrant summers at home and the much less colourful school year. Summers are for his land and his family, especially his younger brother René; the rest of the year is for Jesus, rote learning, and rules. 

Tomson Highway’s skill at setting up a compelling scene is second to none. His tales, from the story of his incredible birth to a rollicking yarn about a family wedding, to the story of his mother besting a loon, are humorous yet also show his deep, abiding love for his family and the place they live. Tomson Highway has a superb memory and a true gift for observing others. 

Highway writes with deliberation about his time at the residential school. He acknowledges the sexual abuse he and his peers suffered, and names his abuser. He writes of his English lessons in great detail. Though he misses home, it is at the school where he learns to play the piano. These music lessons launched his life of creativity. 

It is in reading of Highway’s time spent back home, in the summers, that really show the tragedy of what an Indigenous child pulled from the heart of his people has lost. The rhythm of the storytelling changes in the “home” chapters—stories become longer and the sentences more lyrical, describing trees, the lakes, the loons. The “away” chapters are focused more on the rooms and grounds of Guy Hill, the rules, the strangeness of the people and the English language young Tomson is forced to learn. The reader is immersed in the disorientation and melancholy ache felt by this small boy sent to school hundreds of miles from his family.  

Highway’s deep connection to his hometown of Brochet and the many islands and lakeshores his family inhabits during his summer serve to highlight the tragic loss of a way of life. How different the rote learning and catechism of the residential school was; how brutal some of the lessons learned. 

Permanent Astonishment is a must read. In these times of uncertainty, Highway’s infectious joy for the world he was born into and gratitude for the gifts he was born with, lift the spirits and leave a lasting impression of beauty and grace. 

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada for the complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: Beyond the Legal Limit by Pat Henman

By Kim McCullough

In June 2013, Pat Henman and her daughter Maia were travelling from Calgary to their home in Nelson, BC, when a drunk driver crossed the centre line of a single-lane highway and plowed into them. Henman and her daughter were both critically injured in the head-on crash, with Henman having to be resuscitated before making it to the hospital. Beyond the Legal Limit is an inspiring memoir that chronicles the trauma of Henman’s injuries and the healing that followed. It also delves into her experiences beyond the healthcare system into her struggles with the legal system and insurance industries. 

As Henman writes, “Everything can change in the blink of an eye.” Even though the two women lived, nothing would ever be the same for Henman, her daughter, or the rest of their family after that day in June. She keeps the story her own, rarely sharing her daughter’s struggle to return to a normal life after devastating injuries. Henman’s memory of the hours before the crash is clear, but she has to rely on her daughter’s memory, witnesses at the scene, and RCMP, and first responder reports to put together the details of what happened on the highway that day. 

Henman’s experiences with the healthcare system are described clinically—detailed and clear, and told with grace. She is aware that she was, understandably, not the easiest of patients, and she addresses her frustrations with a grateful nod to the doctors and nurses who did their best to care for her during her many procedures and the setbacks that followed. 

There is a sense of careful fury surrounding the parts of the memoir that discuss the young woman who got behind the wheel drunk. Henman is unflinching in both her opinions and her depiction of the terrible choices the woman made, but she is respectful, too. She doesn’t name the driver and tries to imagine what she was thinking, not only on the day of the accident but at the courthouse and later when she sends a letter to Henman. 

Henman’s anger reaches beyond the drunk driver to a legal system steeped in a process that sidelines victims of crimes and an insurance industry that is more concerned with avoiding responsibility than doing what is right. 

Throughout the legal process, Henman is supported by Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD). MADD provides information and context for what happens in the courtroom; they are invaluable in helping Henman’s family navigate an impersonal and blind justice system. 

Beyond the Legal Limit is a detailed, engaging look at a survivor’s arduous emotional and physical recovery from the aftermath of a stranger’s poor decision to drink and drive. Henman’s memoir carries a brutal reminder of the way chance and choice collide, but in the end, it is a compelling story of perseverance, passion for a cause, and the deep love of family. 

Thank you, Pat Henman, for the complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad

By Kim McCullough

Content warning: images of dead migrants (including children)

It’s clear from the opening pages of Omar El Akkad’s What Strange Paradise that nine-year-old Amir is the only survivor of a shipwrecked boat of migrants. In the pivotal moment where Amir opens his eyes on the beach of a posh resort, his story begins with the “before” of Amir’s arrival and the “after” laid out in alternating chapters. The living boy is spotted by officers, and he flees into the forest. The search, led with a dogged single-mindedness by Colonel Kethros, has begun. 

Amir is discovered, filthy and exhausted, by Vänna, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed teenager who is trying hard to retreat from the disappointments in her own family life. Vänna decides to help Amir, finding him shelter, food, and clothing. She takes him to the refugee camp run by a kind woman who directs them on another journey. All the while, their nemesis Colonel Kethros is catching up. 

As El Akkad flips between timelines, he pins the reader between an aching sadness over the desperate voyage Amir left behind and a frantic hope that he and Vänna will prevail in their flight and escape the reach of the colonel and his soldiers. 

El Akkad’s antagonists are nearly archetypal in their cruelty and dismissiveness, but he adds imaginative and delicate elements that encompass the frailty of the broken, weak, and angry characters. In a few deft scenes, El Akkad humanizes even Colonel Kelcher.

The “before” sections take place mostly on the boat with refugees from many different nations, and inevitable clashes arise. El Akkad chooses his conflicts carefully and writes them with such compassion that it’s hard to villainize any of the migrants. They are everyday people in an untenable situation. In the “after” sections, Amir and Vänna’s fleeting encounters with the tourists at the resort hold a mirror to the migrants. Rich vacationers living a sun-soaked life of ease where waves of dead bodies landing on the beach are an inconvenient interruption to their languid eating, swimming, and sunbathing. El-Akkad’s sharp-eyed details highlight western privilege and self-centredness in a way that is both recognizable and uncomfortable. 

A melancholic thread pulled through the book is one of mothers and motherhood. Amir wears a picture of his mother in a locket around his neck, and he longs for her. On the boat, a pregnant woman who champions Amir has pinned her hopes on a bright future for her own unborn child. Vänna mothers Amir from the moment they meet, while her own mother, who appears early in the book, exemplifies all a mother shouldn’t be. Other maternal figures come and go, a beat that pulses under this story of a boy far from home.

In a time when it often seems the world lacks compassion, What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad refines a global discussion into an urgent, contemporary tale of a young, reluctant refugee. The book’s strong characters, clear timeline, propulsive scenes lead to a stunning conclusion that won’t, and shouldn’t be, soon forgotten. 

Thank you, Penguin Random House, for the complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review!

Book Review: Kill the Mall by Pasha Malla

By Kim McCullough

Kill the Mall by Pasha Malla opens with an eloquent letter penned by a never-named narrator seeking a placement as the local shopping mall’s artist-in-residence. After winning, he finds himself on display, mandated to “make art” and “engage the public.” 

The mall security guard, K. Sohail, shows the narrator around and gets him settled. The narrator is disconcerted to find that the guard’s last task before leaving each night is to lock him into his room. One of the few named characters in the book, K. Sohail anchors both narrator and reader to the outside world as events inside the mall descend into fantastical strangeness. She moves in and out of the story at critical junctures; the reader can never be sure if she is friend or foe. 

The menace that lurks beneath the familiar throbs with hints of malice right from the start. Soon, horrific interactions and supernatural threats arise from the usually commonplace customers and stores the reader expects in a mall.

Malla amps up the creepiness through his use of adversaries like hostile clumps of hair and a gang of cars in the parkade. Teenagers who prepare whole roasted chickens at the food court’s only restaurant are blank and robotic. The narrator’s friendship with a salesman from a jeans store is detached yet obsessive. By the time his true nemesis arrives, stealing his artist-in-residence limelight, the reader has left behind all expectations and is invested in seeing if the narrator makes it out alive.

Malla balances the story between horror and hilarity—the tension between these two poles never lets up. There is a low-grade hum of disorientation throughout the story that calls to mind psychological horror stories by Iain Reid, Stephen King, and at times, whiffs of Edgar Allan Poe. The ridiculousness of some scenes cannot be overstated. Not to give anything away, but the scenes with the ponytails will make the reader laugh—nervous laughter underscored with unease. These things couldn’t really happen. Or could they?

Malla’s control over the narrative is impressive. The progress report sections are brilliant in their syntax and construction. Every week the reports heighten the deepening unreality of the narrator’s situation. Malla never clears up whether the events of the story are in the narrator’s head or if they’re actually happening, but in the end, the reader’s desire for answers is sated by the beautiful sentences, deftly set mood, and incredible craftsmanship of the book. 

Book Review: Big Reader; Essays by Susan Olding

By Kim McCullough

Big Reader, Susan Olding’s second collection of essays, winds its way through a writer’s lifetime of books and reading. Olding’s essays examine the way books and stories can bring clarity and depth to our lived experiences and how they allow the smallest details of life to resonate. 

Although this book threads through Olding’s own life as a reader, she invites and draws us along on her journey with engaging, poetic, and imaginative prose. Each essay comes with its own set of stakes addressing challenges that range from failed relationships to step-parenting to the advancing age of her parents. The topics are varied, but the importance of the written word is foundational to the pieces in the book. 

Before each individual essay are memory-rich vignettes that create a compelling sub-narrative. The second-person point of view of these sections echoes with the familiar sense of distance that often envelops remembrances of significant past events.

Olding’s skill as an essayist is not limited to her excellent storytelling. She is a master at creating structure; some essays are braided or presented as a collage, while others are more traditional but no less beautiful. No matter the form, strong imagery, and precise language elevate each piece. 

An example of Olding’s ability to match structure with story shines in her braided essay about her father’s death. She entwines various encounters with blood—blood type, the blood she shares with her father, literal blood—in a way that brings the same strength a braid can bring to individual strands of hair. Writing about this fraught relationship with her father is elevated by the relief of a separate thematic thread. It allows the reader space to step back, focus on another element, and let the deeper, more difficult parts of the story sink in.

Throughout the book, Olding guides the reader’s experience of the story—she speeds up or slows down the telling in her collaged essays—long reflections on scenes from Anna Karenina, or descriptive segments on satirist William Hogarth’s images in A Rake’s Progress, are interspersed with punchy, personal sections that keep the reader engaged.

Each piece in this book of essays has its own beauty and melancholy, its own discoveries and epiphanies. What ultimately ties this collection together is not only Olding’s experience as a “Big Reader,” but the way every essay addresses her clear and constant love for her family and the world around her.

Book Review: Canada: Above & Beyond by George Fischer and Atlantic Seafood by Chef Michael Howell

By Kim McCullough

At-home travel is all the (mandatory) rage these pandemic days. One way I’ve found to visit other cities and countries is through books. The places I’ve discovered in novels and creative nonfiction have not quite eased the restlessness that health restrictions have brought, so I was excited to see these two very different books in my review queue.

Each book took me on a different journey-one visual, one culinary-but both provided a welcome escape from inside the increasingly claustrophobic walls of my western Canadian home. 

The first is Canada Above & Beyond, a beautiful and expansive book of aerial photography by George Fischer. Fischer captures the majestic beauty of Canada’s varied regions with a sharp-eyed, rare vision. The photos in this stunning book both ignite the desire to travel and sate it. Unique perspectives in these photographs capture the enormous beauty of Canada’s landscape and a haunting sense of inconsequentiality in the face of massive mountains, towering buildings, and endless waterways. Photos of fields and tundra and forests are a beautiful reminder of how nature triumphant and breathtaking nature can be; it is a clarion call to visit these places as soon as we are able to once again travel at will.

The second book that took me away from crushing boredom was Atlantic Seafood: Recipes from Chef Michael Howell. Before the pandemic, reading recipe books was purely imaginary escapism for me, but over the past year, I found myself actually attempting recipes as a diversion. This book of fish and seafood recipes, written by a Nova Scotian chef who focuses on local sourcing and sustainable fishing, transported me back to a past vacation in Nova Scotia, where fresh fish and seafood are plentiful. 

Once through the opening section on Chef Howell’s history and credentials, he shares what he’s learned about ethical eating. Only then does he move onto the necessities for a rookie cook like me: the basics of cooking seafood and basic terminology. As a result, before I even cook a thing, I’m more knowledgeable and confident in my ability to cook fish. 

Though the recipes seem daunting at first, most ingredients are easily sourced, and the directions are clear and concise. The biggest challenge is finding quality seafood in landlocked provinces. Howell often adds notes on techniques or tips to help guide even the most novice of chefs through the process.

By the time you finish the sections on sustainability and sauces, you’ll have enough fish-preparation prowess to impress your future guests. The recipes themselves will elevate your meal to a whole new level. When guests are once again allowed in for dinner, any recipe in this book would make a delicious, celebratory choice.

These books will resonate with readers and cooks long after pandemic restrictions ease, but in the meantime, they provide an enjoyable, wishful foray into the world beyond our own front doors. 

Thank you, Nimbus Publishing, for the complimentary copies in exchange for honest reviews!

Book Review: Speak, Silence by Kim Echlin

By Kim McCullough

Content Warning: Sexual violence, suicide, war

Speak, Silence by Kim Echlin follows Gota Dobson, a Toronto-based single mother and travel writer for an airline magazine. Gota has watched the Yugoslav wars on TV for years when an opportunity arises to attend a film festival in Sarajevo. Gota knows she has to go, at the very least, to see Kosmos, a man she’d met in Paris eleven years earlier. After that brief but life-changing affair, he left her. Now, he runs a theatre company in Sarajevo, and Gota is willing to risk the visit, even though the fighting is still going on outside the city. 

Once in Sarajevo, Kosmos introduces Gota to Edina, a lawyer who has shouldered the burden of compiling stories of the women who were sent to rape camps and brutalized during the war. A court has been set up at the Hague to try war criminals and bring justice to the women who suffered at their hands. Edina, who was also held captive, will join the survivors in testifying against the main perpetrator. Though the women, who include Edina’s daughter and mother, can never recover all they’ve lost, they hope a trial will be a step toward healing.

As the trial approaches, Gota’s friendship with Edina deepens. Gota is determined to support Edina and the women by attending court each day. Kosmos and the other male characters—Gota’s editor, a taxi driver, a guard at the courthouse—slip into supporting roles. They show kindness and decency—normalcy that provides a stark contrast to the men who raped and murdered their way through the war. 

Echlin keeps the narrative focused firmly on the women, drawing parallels between Edina and Gota and their respective mothers and daughters. Edina and her family can’t ever go home again, while Gota’s lives in peace and safety in Canada. Gota’s daughter is concerned with her future, while Edina’s just wants to forget her past. 

During breaks in the trial, Gota returns home to Toronto. These brief respites from the difficult testimony in the Netherlands are rich with detail and freighted with a dreamlike sense of unreality. Echlin carefully draws out a sense of disconnection in Gota; she misses her daughter, but her attention is always on Edina and the women. 

Speak, Silence is well-researched and beautifully crafted. The narrative slips through time, sometimes moving quickly through events and sometimes in slow and deliberate detail. Echlin’s prose is both succinct and eloquent, and her dialogue shines, sometimes more in what isn’t said than what is on the page. 

Speak, Silence is a crushing call to bear witness to the brutal crimes committed against women in the Yugoslav wars. And yet, beauty is found in the incredible strength and friendship that defines Gota and Edina’s bond, as well as the bravery and allyship of the women who stood before the court to tell their terrible truths. 

*Thank you, Penguin Random House Canada, for the complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review

In Conversation with M.K. Krys author of This Town is Not All Right

With Kim McCullough

Photo by Shannon Mancuso

This Town is Not All Right is set in a fictional American East Coast town; how did you choose the setting and what were some of the challenges when writing the setting of this book? 

I chose a fictional setting for a few different reasons. The idea for the book came from a real life “UFO” sighting that took place in the 1960s in Shag Harbor, Nova Scotia. Local residents claimed to have seen an aircraft crash in the harbor, but when the coast guard arrived no trace of the craft was ever found. I thought it would be fun to write a story about kids who discovered the truth behind this crash. THIS TOWN was initially set in Shag Harbor, but as the plot unfolded the setting looked less and less like the real life town I’d based the story on. Somewhere along the way, I decided to stop trying to make the plot fit into the setting that inspired the story and let the plot flourish in a fictional one. Of course creating a fictional town has it’s own challenges. Namely, creating a fictional town!

The characters in this book all have different personalities, interests and strengths. I was struck by how clearly each character was presented. How do you balance the need for fast-paced action with the need for characters the reader can care about and engage with?

Thank you! I really believe that the best stories start with good characters. No matter how propulsive and fun the plot twists, a story will fall flat if the reader doesn’t care about the people they’re happening to. I’ve found that when I’ve focused my attention on creating engaging, three-dimensional characters first, the results are always better. Don’t get me wrong, plot is also important, but getting a handle on the characters is always my first priority. From there, the character’s individual personalities help inform the plot to a certain degree by how they react to the twists I throw at them. 

Are there any characters or events you wish you'd been able to explore more? If so, which ones, and what would you add or change?

I might have said yes at one point, but I now believe everything that made it into the final draft is all that needs to be there. I was fairly aggressive with edits. If it didn’t propel the story forward or provide meaningful characterization, I ditched it, and I hope that what’s left behind is a tight, fun plot that keeps young readers engaged. 

The twins, Beacon and Everleigh, are mourning the death of their older brother Jasper. What kind of research into grief did you do while writing this book?

I did a fair amount of research on grief, but the vast majority was informed by my experience with losing my dad at 18. Something that always stuck with me is how quickly everyone wants you to move on and heal. But grief doesn’t fade away quickly, or, in Beacon’s case, go away because the world needs saving. I wanted to show young readers that’s it’s normal for healing to take time, to highlight characters grieving in different ways, and ultimately, to provide hope that it will get better. The book is a sci-fi adventure, but at its heart it’s about a family dealing with loss. 

You’ve previously written books for Young Adult readers including Hexed, Charmed, and Dead Girls Society. What made you write for the Middle Grade audience with This Town is Not Alright? Was there something about this story that you felt appealed to a younger age group or was it a new challenge for you?

THIS TOWN actually started out as a young adult novel. But after I’d written a few chapters I realized the plot was better suited for a middle grade audience. I really liked the idea of younger kids who were still trying to figure out how they fit into their own world stumbling onto a world-sized problem. Once I made the change it really allowed me to run wild with fun, voicey characters and adventurous plot twists that might not have worked for an older audience. It was a lot of fun! And there’s the added benefit that my eleven-year-old can read this one.

Cloud Lake Literary serves as both a space for readers as well as writers. What advice would you give to aspiring authors? This could be about the writing process, the writers journey, or even about navigating the publishing world.

Get involved in the online author community. This business is so fun and exhilarating, but it can also be frustrating at times. It’s been tremendously helpful and comforting having friends who get it that I can turn to for advice and a good old-fashioned vent every now and then. Some of my closest friends are authors I met online. 

This Town is Not All Right ends on a significant and pretty shocking cliffhanger. Are there plans for a sequel? A series? 

The sequel to This Town, called THIS TOWN IS A NIGHTMARE, comes out August 21st, 2021! I can’t wait for readers to see what this spooky town and its not quite right residents have in store for you this time.

What are your “must-read” book recommendations and what books have had the most impact and influence on your writing?

Save the Cat by Blake Snyder has been my secret, not-so-secret, weapon. It’s a screenwriter’s guide on story structure that divides a story into 15 plot beats, each of which serves a particular function in a story. I highly recommend it for aspiring authors looking for a starting point. 

I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention Twilight. For all of its faults, Twilight did what a lot a lot of authors only wish they could, which is to keep readers obsessively engaged and turning the pages. It’s something I’m always striving for. 

On a personal level, my critique partner, Ruth Lauren, constantly inspires me. She’s incredibly driven and determined and the most incredible writer I know. Her debut middle grade novel, Prisoner of Ice and Snow, is out now from Bloomsbury. Think Prison Break meets Game of Thrones. Check it out! 

Book Review: This Town is Not Alright by M.K. Krys

By Kim McCullough

This Town is Not All Right by Thunder Bay author M.K. Krys is a middle-grade sci-fi novel that blends fast-moving action and sympathetic, captivating characters with a dark, moody setting and surprising plot twists. 

Beacon and his twin sister Everleigh are not thrilled when their father uproots them from their home in Los Angeles to make a new start in the small coastal town of Driftwood Harbor. After the death of the twins’ older brother Jasper, a fresh start may be just what the family needs. Despite his sadness at leaving his friends behind, Beacon hopes the move will shake his sister from the grief and guilt she feels over the tragedy. 

The family has barely arrived when strange events start to occur. The twins meet the too-perfect, mannequin-like Jane, leader of the Gold Stars, a “youth group that aims to promote social responsibility in kids.” 

Beacon, Everleigh and their father settle into a local inn until they find a house of their own. The owner, Donna, is fierce and angry for no reason that Beacon can see. Unable to sleep his first night under her roof, Beacon is staring out his window at the ocean when he sees Jane disappear into the waves. When the local sheriff arrives, he is unconcerned about the drowning girl. Beacon is later shocked to find out that Jane was home, safe in her bed all along.

The next day, Everleigh heads off to the local auto shop. She is a genius at fixing cars—her brother Jasper taught her everything she knows. Beacon, left on his own, heads out on his skateboard to explore. Before long, he finds himself in a dark forest, where he meets Arthur, a science nerd who studies aliens. He tells Beacon about the rumoured UFO that crash-landed in Driftwood Harbor years before. Strange things have been happening ever since.

Once the twins start at their new school, Beacon’s suspicion of the innkeeper and sheriff grows to include the school nurse, and the exceptionally well-behaved students. When Everleigh undergoes an inexplicable personality change and shows up to dinner in a skirt, Beacon knows something is really wrong.

Beacon and Arthur team up to solve the mystery. Their investigation takes them from the nurse’s office to church basements and beyond as they try to outrun danger at every turn.

Krys keeps the plot rollicking along with enough character detail and plot development to keep a middle-schooler engaged, but not so much that the story gets bogged down in wordy descriptions. She’s crafted a mystery where everyone in the town seems to be hiding a dark secret—Jane, the owner of the inn, the sheriff, and even the twins’ father.

What is going on with Jane? What is the twins’ father really doing in Driftwood Harbor? Will Beacon’s sister ever go back to normal? And will they survive the coming battle? Just when it seems these questions will be answered, the twist ending leaves the reader hanging, wanting more. 

Book Review: Rabbit Foot Bill by Helen Humphreys

by Kim McCullough

The murder in the opening section of Rabbit Foot Bill by Helen Humphreys is based on a true-life event in Canwell, Saskatchewan in 1947. Twelve-year-old Leonard Flint is a lonely boy who befriends the town hobo, known to the disapproving townsfolk as Rabbit Foot Bill. Bill is an odd man, a loner who doesn’t seem to like people. He catches rabbits and cuts off their feet to sell to locals looking for luck. Leonard shadows Rabbit Foot Bill throughout town, and asks Bill to teach him to snare rabbits, to garden—all the things Leonard’s own father is not doing. Their odd friendship comes to a swift and violent end when Bill sinks a pair of pruning shears into the chest of Leonard’s number one bully. Bill is tried and found guilty, and sent away.

Years later, Leonard, now known as Dr. Flint, finishes university in Montreal and becomes a psychiatrist. Hired for a plum position at the Weyburn Mental Hospital back in Saskatchewan, Leonard begins his career ready to take on what seems to be a wonderful opportunity. However, it’s quickly evident that things are not going to be easy for Leonard. 

The Weyburn Mental Hospital is known at this time for research into the treatment of patients with LSD. The hospital is helmed by Dr. Christianson, who expects his doctors, including an unsure Leonard, to use LSD in order to better understand their patients’ experiences with psychedelic drugs. Being the newest and youngest of the doctors, Leonard feels like an imposter, as though his patients and the other doctors can see through him.  

Then Leonard discovers that Rabbit Foot Bill is one of the patients at the hospital, and his interest in Bill is stronger than ever. Humphreys expertly controls the tension in this section, as Leonard becomes increasingly more unstable and isolated from his peers. Leonard makes decisions that bring him ever closer to sabotaging his chance at a successful medical career. One day, under the influence of LSD, Leonard witnesses an act of brutal violence that will bring his time at the hospital to an end, but will not ease his obsession with Rabbit Foot Bill. 

Years later, Leonard’s story comes full-circle when he returns back home to Canwell seeking the truth of not only Rabbit Foot Bill’s story, but also the truth of his own traumatic past. 

The novel is beautifully written in prose both lyrical and clear. Descriptions of the Saskatchewan landscape capture both the beauty and severity of the prairies and the hard lives of those who live there. Humphreys addresses the unconscionable use of mentally ill human beings as LSD test subjects with subtlety and strength, and she ties this, and Leonard’s own mental health issues to a more universal theme of how mental health is viewed today. 

Rabbit Foot Bill is a novel that shows how the traumas and secrets of the past—unspoken words, unaddressed violence—never go away, but are always there, hiding. 

Waiting.