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| "I use she or they pronouns but I’m not nonbinary." |
This is a short novella of just over a hundred pages. Based on the evocative art featuring an upside-down stag reminiscent of the American edition of King's The Outsider* and the Alan Moore quote ("Scary and energetic...") on the cover, I assumed this was a horror story; but it really belongs more to the paranormal fantasy genre.
Review
Told in the first-person, the story opens with our protagonist Danielle arriving in the town of Freedom, Iowa. It was the last place her lover Clay had lived before he came west and killed himself, and she's come here to try to understand the reason for his suicide. These people were his "pack." Freedom was a ghost town that has now been repopulated by squatters. It is a collective of punks and anarchists who live off the grid and share food they get from "dumpster diving, farming, and food bank handouts;" municipal water turned back on illegally; gas from propane tanks; electricity from solar panels. No one enforces any rules -- a sign says "Everything for Everyone" -- and yet no one gets out of line. The community cooperates harmoniously.
What takes this community from unusual to supernatural is the presence of Uliski. On her way into town, Danielle has seen an unnerving red deer with three antlers, one growing from one side of its head, the other two from the other side. The deer's muzzle is dripping blood from the rabbit it has been eating, the rabbit's chest splayed open. Later she discovers that there are many other animals -- goats, geese, lambs -- with gaping wounds where their chests had been, yet apparently alive. The zombie animals are the lieutenants of the blood-red deer called Uliski. One day, not long after her arrival, Danielle watches, along with other members of the town, as the walking-dead barnyard animals corral a man until the red deer approaches, rears on its hind legs, and kicks him to death. Uliski then tears the man's heart out.
Uliski is a guardian spirit, or perhaps a demon, that has by witchcraft been summoned from the river to protect the town. If you do nothing wrong, Uliski ignores you. If you do evil, Uliski rips you open. The deer was summoned by four people, one of whom was Clay, and one of whom was the man Danielle just saw killed. The remaining summoners are sure that they need to banish Uliski if they can, but another faction in the town believes that Uliski needs to stay. And there you have the basic conflict that sets up the rest of the story. Eventually the cops will try to move the squatters out of Freedom, which leads to a glorious battle between, shall we say, pigs and deer.
Danielle will find the answers to her questions. While the book has a satisfying ending, it does lead to a second volume called The Barrow Will Send What It May that picks up where this leaves off.
Margaret Killjoy is a transfeminine anarchist and black-metal musician who brings lived experience to her depictions of squatting and living off the grid. Since reading the book, I have discovered that she has a podcast called Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff that, in her words, "explores the great rebels and weirdos of history." She's also published a book called Mythmakers & Lawbreakers that consists of her interviews with anarchist writers and features an intro by Kim Stanley Robinson. I don't know what her background with magic is, but I suspect she has some experience with wicca. All of these elements combined make for a unique and refreshing perspective. Her website is birdsbeforethestorm.net.
