Bad Cree
A Novel
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4.5 • 24 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
2024 CBC CANADA READS SELECTION
AMAZON CANADA FIRST NOVEL AWARD SHORTLIST
A CBC BOOKS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
AN AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION ALEX AWARD WINNER
AURORA AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL SHORTLIST
RAKUTEN KOBO EMERGING WRITER PRIZE FOR LITERARY FICTION SHORTLIST
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
A haunting debut novel where dreams, family and spirits collide
Mackenzie, a Cree millennial, wakes up in her one-bedroom Vancouver apartment clutching a pine bough she had been holding in her dream just moments earlier. When she blinks, it disappears. But she can still smell the sharp pine scent in the air, the nearest pine tree a thousand kilometres away in the far reaches of Treaty 8.
Mackenzie continues to accidentally bring back items from her dreams, dreams that are eerily similar to real memories of her older sister and Kokum before their untimely deaths. As Mackenzie’s life spirals into a living nightmare—crows are following her around and she’s getting texts from her dead sister on the other side—it becomes clear that these dreams have terrifying, real-life consequences. Desperate for help, Mackenzie returns to her mother, sister, cousin, and aunties in her small Alberta hometown. Together, they try to uncover what is haunting Mackenzie before something irrevocable happens to anyone else around her.
Haunting, fierce, an ode to female relations and the strength found in kinship, Bad Cree is a gripping, arresting debut by an unforgettable voice.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Reality and the world of dreams intertwine in this gripping supernatural mystery. When Mackenzie begins having gruesome nightmares about her dead sister Sabrina, the scariest part is that remnants of the dreams seem to linger in the real world even after she wakes up. Determined to figure out what’s going on, Mack returns to her First Nations Territory hometown, High Prairie, reconnecting with the family she left behind three years ago. In haunting, descriptive prose, author Jessica Johns takes us on a riveting journey as her heroine searches for answers in her unearthed memories and grief. We loved learning about the significance of dreams in Cree culture. Bad Cree is a deeply felt mystery that’s got horror and hope.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Johns combines domestic realism and horror in her haunting debut, the story of a young Cree woman who's distraught over the death of her sister. Mackenzie has fled from her home in northern Alberta to Vancouver, but the chilling dreams she'd hoped to escape follow her. Feeling increasingly threatened, she returns home, where her sister Sabrina died of a brain aneurysm shortly after their beloved grandmother died. There, she is reunited with Sabrina's twin, Tracey, and their cousin Kassidy, as well as her mother and her aunties, and gradually discovers that they all have dreams that affect their waking lives in some way. As well, her recurring dream of drowning prompts Mackenzie to recall a summer day when Sabrina emerged from the woods looking glassy-eyed and somehow damaged, but she never learned what happened. Now, with Mackenzie's dreams intensifying, the cousins conclude she must have encountered a "wheetigo," a dangerous spirit, and they set out to destroy it before it comes for them. The novel serves as a window into a world where dreams intersect with waking reality, and where that unseen dimension is as much a part of the life of a tight-knit family and community as bingo, jokes, and video games. It works equally well as spine-tingling thriller and a touching meditation on grief.
Customer Reviews
Good reading!
I love books that have locations that I am familiar with. It adds a certain air of authenticity.