By 
Michelle Porter has written a powerful and complicated novel. The Genres for this story are Fiction, Magical Realism, FolkLore, Historical Fiction, and Literary Fiction. The author vividly describes the Metis people, the artistic and musical traditions, the culture and some family traditions. The fantasy world, and the spiritual world of the Metis people is described as well. In this novel, the author describes five generations of Metis women, and struggles. Symbolically this can be seen as a herd of Bison, gradually losing the land to human development, and chemicals in the land. One of the Metis women can identify with the herd of bison, as she tries to cross over to the after life.
This is certainly a unique novel, and animals have the ability to talk and express their emotions. The author describes her dramatic and colorful characters as complicated, complex, dysfunctional, flawed, confused and looking for answers. Please be advised that there are some disturbing elements in this story for sensitive individuals. The discussion of suicide, assisted suicide are mentioned. I found the author’s descriptions of what happened to the Bison, upsetting.
The author does bring up stories about the connection with characters from the afterlife and this life. She also discusses drug abuse, addiction, alcoholism, and negative and toxic behaviors of the characters. This is an intriguing and well-written novel.
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