The Marrow Thieves is is dark. It is unrelenting in its darkness, with only brief moments of hopeful glimmers of light. I've wanted to read this for a long time, but for some reason kept putting it off. Perhaps it's because I sensed what this book would take out of me to read, how difficult it is to get through. Based entirely around the idea of stories and what they carry, The Marrow Thieves shows a future where residential schools are alive again and this time even more violent. Dimaline spares nothing in her descriptions of violence done to indigenous people, and while it's extremely heavy for a supposed YA novel, I'm glad she wrote it the way she did. The dreams and the marrow and the speculative aspects of the novel are not the point; rather, it's what they represent. It's a smart pull, and I hope everyone who reads this understands Dimaline's mission. It's a brutal read. But despite the rare, small moments of hope, they are huge in their smallness - and that makes this book worth it.