Voodou Queens, Morally Gray Witches, and New Releases!

Bird is 12-years-old and has been living under an increasingly oppressive American government with his father, a former linguist. In addition to censoring, authorities have just started being allowed to take children away from people who disagree with them, many of whom are of Asian descent. When Bird gets a mysterious letter, he begins on a journey to find his absent mother, whose poetry he has spent years distancing himself from. The gag is that this premise doesn’t sound too far off from reality.

I love novels written by poets, and Belcourt has won awards for his poetry. In this latest book, a queer Indigenous doctoral student wavers on the border between his old life, his childhood on the reservation, and the new academic one he’s trying to establish. Throughout the book, he’s reminded of Jack, a cousin who was in a toxic lifestyle involving police and drugs, an outcome that is not rare for Indigenous people living under the legacy of colonialism. He soon finds out that the escape he was hoping academia would be also has its consequences for people of color.