Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson

A coming of age tale that mixes magic with the tragic and is 100% believable.

Sixteen year old Jared is mourning the death of his beloved dog and trying to keep his family together as his divorced parents separately spiral into the abyss of drink and drugs. When weird things start happening he writes it off as a bad trip, but as the evidence mounts, he realizes his parentage is different than what he was raised to believe.

I loved the Syfy series based on the book, so I bought the source material to learn more about the world and I loved it even more.

Set in Canada and based on the myths of the indigenous people, I loved how naturally Robinson combined the magical world with the mundane.

Jared is a character you can’t help but love and you really want him to succeed in life. Adults have abandoned their responsibility to him, and he tries his best to be a good parent to his irresponsible mother and father.

I’ve never been to Canada, but I’ve met many women like Jared’s mother and I’ve seen many families torn apart by drugs and alcohol. I found Robinson’s depiction of the contradiction of both rock hard strength and child like indulgence spot on.

My only quandary with this book is whether I would have enjoyed it as much if I hadn’t watched the tv show first. The book moves much more slowly than the program, but I was eager to keep reading because I had an idea of what was to come. At the same time, the character building and story development are better in the book than the tv version, so I’m sure I would have taken to the book even if I’d read it first.

I award Son of a Trickster…

Son of a Trickster is available for $14.57 ebook and $30.55 print book on Amazon.