Glossolalia

Or Don't Scream It on the Mountain

By: E. Rathke

Narrated by: Kelby Losack

My name is Ineluki. I come from past the mountains and ice. It took me many days to reach here. All I know are dead. Will you take me in?

And so begins a calamitous year at the edge of the world.

Chief for the year, Aukul's life has never been better. His people respect him, he spends his nights with the love of his life, and his skills as a butcher and chef improve every day. Then Ineluki, a young stranger, wanders into town with nothing but an empty book. He begins telling stories of the world beyond the one they know. His stories challenge their reality and lead to a summer of unprecedented disasters.

One by one, the villagers begin dancing. Dancing tirelessly as if in a trance until they die. Believing Ineluki is to blame, Aukul confronts him on the worst night of his life.

©2022 E. Rathke (P)2022 E. Rathke

Headline

This was a simple story reminiscent of a native legend or folk tale. The story takes place with a hunter-gatherer type of people living near the oceans. The story seemed similar in tone to the Terror. The story was somber and dark. Occasionally I was pulled out of the story by out-of-place phrases, and there was a lot of sex involved in the story (nothing pornographic but pervasive throughout the story).

Ultimately, the book wasn't really for me, but I received a complimentary copy in exchange for a review. The book kept my attention and it really is a short read. I would recommend it to people who like dark, modern, native legends-type stories.

Reads like an ancient legend

GODSIOTM is a queer little fantasy book, at once poetic, mythic, open-ended, and affecting. A small village of arctic dwellers lets a stranger walk into their village on the edge of the known world and their lives are upended. This is the kind of story that sneaks up on you, a little at a time, much like the stranger in the text.

Disturbing things happen. Many questions are left unanswered. There is love and explicit sex and power-plays and nonviolence and violence. People question the old ways and consider new ways at their peril.

No one is the same at the end, but some have survived.

I expect this book will be divisive (like many books I love). It portrays life in an oral, traditional culture without making its protagonists magical or barbaric. The humanity comes through, and the desire for a better way to exist in a world of violence beats at the heart of this story, yet there is so much loss and heartache as well.

We're all doing the best we can. Sometimes that isn't enough.

"It's always easier to point a finger than it is to ask for forgiveness."