The Marrow Thieves

By: Cherie Dimaline

Narrated by: Meegwun Fairbrother

Length: 7 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

Humanity has nearly destroyed its world through global warming, but now an even greater evil lurks. The indigenous people of North America are being hunted and harvested for their bone marrow, which carries the key to recovering something the rest of the population has lost: the ability to dream. In this dark world, Frenchie and his companions struggle to survive as they make their way up north to the old lands. For now, survival means staying hidden—but what they don't know is that one of them holds the secret to defeating the marrow thieves.

©2017 Cherie Dimaline (P)2023 Penguin Teen Canada

The story/characters

The development of the story and these amazing characters trying to survive in a world that was out to get them is a great way to show diversity and equality and an amazing story and book. The narrator was fantastic too.

Excellent storyline

Good pace with a solid historical backstory to give the reader who is unfamiliar with Indigenous history clear understanding while not taking over the story and narrative.

beautifully written

the audio was too quiet for me, regardless of what I did. otherwise perfectly tragic and amazingly written.

A New Kind of Dystopia

Listened to this in advance of my students reading it. As YA goes, this is well done, even putting aside important concerns like Own Voices and representation (including LGBTQ+). As a teacher, I probably could have done without the sexual violence, though the description thereof is not explicit; for a reader of post-colonial lit, it felt a little bit like the author ticking off a box. I only realized in the last few paragraphs how little reflection there was throughout. What we get is mostly action, and, accordingly, the narrative moves quickly, and this will appeal to young readers. Not a ton of humor, but the writing isn’t overly serious, even when the concerns of the plot are. I was a bit concerned that the more sci-fi aspects of the plot would feel corny, but they mostly linger in the background. In the end, I feel pretty good about my students reading this, for the art/writing, for the people we meet, for the perspective, and for the questions all of these things raise.

Excellent reading by the narrator.

The writing was a little too dark for my taste, although the ending was pretty good.

The different voices used and the music/sound effects.

The sound effects gave it a suspenseful effect and made me want to read me and more.

We will do anything to protect our family.

This book, the performance, the story, wow. I was so drawn in that everything around me was not around me. One of the best books I’ve listened to this year.

Read Greatfully

Such an amazing listen. To the authors ability to catch the voices and emotional tribulations and triumphs of all. Everything and Anything.

family connections

the author included intrigue, love, loss, humor and historical aspects for the native american characters.

Do you hear what I hear?!

The story was going well, but a half hour in it was making terrible back noises that were giving me headaches so I had to stop listening to it.