Trickster Drift / Return of the Trickster, by Eden Robinson

Books 2 and 3 of the trickster trilogy continue to be crude, hilarious, violent, and still quite sweet. Jared just wants to go to college and study medical imaging, but his heritage includes magic and his family situation is complicated way beyond the normal trauma inherited by Indigenous peoples in Canada. The interesting thing about this trilogy is that Jared doesn’t really grow as a character; he remains the same solid, thoughtful guy that he was at the beginning of the books, except he gradually gets less dependent on drugs and alcohol, more traumatized by external events, and more aware of his magical heritage. Instead, the growth and change can be seen in the people around him: his mom, who gets better at expressing her feelings; his various grandmother figures, who come to terms with his origin; his father figures, who figure out what they really want in life (or in afterlife), and his friends, who become stronger and better people around him.

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