Mysterious murders, shadowy figures, and high school. Life can be hard; death can be harder.
Cole Harper is dead. Reynold McCabe is alive and free. Mihko Laboratories has reopened the research facility and works to manufacture and weaponize the illness that previously plagued Wounded Sky. People are missing, and the community has been quarantined. What deal did Eva strike with Choch? Who will defeat Reynold and Mihko? Time is running out.
July 1, 2019
This trilogy-ender has many of the same elements as Strangers and Monsters: a deeply rooted sense of family and community within a fictional Cree nation in Canada, pop culture references, metafictional asides to characters and readers, and lots of action. Tapping into fantasy, thriller, and sci-fi tropes, Robertson nevertheless succeeds in creating something of his own--through the Indigenous imagery but also through the qualities of solidarity and responsibility in both living and dead characters.
(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)
November 1, 2019
This final volume in the Reckoner trilogy (beginning with Strangers, rev. 5/18) has many of the same elements as the first two: a deeply rooted sense of family and community within Wounded Sky First Nation, a fictional Cree nation in Canada; an abundance of pop culture references (Star Wars features largely); self-conscious metafictionality through asides to characters and readers; and action-lots of action. Killed at the conclusion of Monsters (rev. 1/19), Cole surprises everyone, including himself, by coming back to life. Gathering a team of close friends, elders, and relatives of the dead, he accesses his superpower of self-healing to rescue people whom Mihko Laboratories has infected with a supervirus-a research project in quest of a biological weapon, for which this Indigenous nation is the guinea pig. And it's not just Mihko Labs that Cole must vanquish, but the insatiable Upayokwitigo, a monster possessing Wounded Sky's corrupt mayor. Tapping into tropes familiar from many a fantasy, thriller, and sci-fi story, Robertson nevertheless succeeds in creating something of his own-in part through the Indigenous imagery, but perhaps even more through the qualities of solidarity and responsibility that run strong in both the living and the dead. Deirdre F. Baker
(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)