The Marrow Thieves by Métis author Cherie Dimaline is a young adult dystopian novel that has a lot to say about our own world. The book has won multiple awards since it was published, including the Governor General’s award for English-language children’s literature, the Kirkus Prize for Young Readers’ Literature, among others. It was also nominated as a competitor in the 2018 Canada Reads competition, defended by R&B singer Jully Black. 

The novel is a survival story set in a near future when the environment is mostly destroyed: the Great Lakes are polluted, the weather patterns are disrupted, cities are lost under the ocean, and many people have become migrants looking for a place to survive. Something in these changes has also changed most humans on a physical and mental level. People can sleep, but most can’t dream anymore. However, Indigenous people can still dream, so "schools" are formed where they are locked up. Brutal experiments are done to them, and the scientists work on extracting their dreaming ability—which is stored in their bone marrow—to bottle it and give it to the people in power.

Frenchie is a teenager who has to escape being caught, along with a group of other Indigenous people led by an older man named Miigwans and his “family.” Wandering in the woods of what used to be called Canada, Frenchie grows as a teenager as he learns to survive and to avoid “the recruiters,” people who actively hunt down Indigenous people to bring them into the schools for their bone marrow. 

One strength of the book for me was how you come to care about the characters. They feel real, and I found myself emotionally invested in them. We don’t really get to know the villains, but they are more ideas than characters anyway. I also enjoyed how this book tackled very important issues that we currently face in our world: growing environmental problems and the inability of humans to think in ways that will solve them. When the people in power in the book are faced with challenges, they turn to exploiting others to get what they want. The people in power don’t see Indigenous people as fully human. There are obvious parallels between the marrow-harvesting schools and Canada’s residential school system, connecting the past, present, and the future. 

The book does, however, seem to move too fast sometimes without enough explanation, and introduces characters as if you have known them throughout the whole story, which can be difficult to follow. Regardless, the positives far outweigh the faults. The book has a great storyline, wonderful character development, and insight into issues that need to be discussed more often in our world today. 

Readers who are into dystopian novels and interested in Indigenous culture and issues would like The Marrow Thieves. Those who are interested in environmental issues would also appreciate it. Although, like most dystopian fiction, the vision it presents isn’t necessarily reassuring, there is hope. If you think you would like a book that portrays a dystopian society that is in some ways frighteningly familiar, as well as a quest for love, belonging, and survival, then look no further. This book is available as a print book, audiobook, or ebook, and in my option, it is definitely worth picking up or checking out. 

Some parts of this review were adapted from a book review by Nain, a member of the Toronto Public Library’s Cedarbrae Youth Advisory Group and teen blogger on TPL Teens.