Eden Robinson’s 2017 novel “Son of a Trickster” has us following the trials and tribulations of high school student Jared Martin. Jared smokes and drinks too much and supplements his paper route income by selling pot cookies to his classmates but don’t get it twisted, Jared is a good kid. A good kid in a really bad situation.

Jared is an indigenous kid in Kitimat, once a boom town now in its bust phase since the mill shut down. His parents are divorced and neither can really provide the stability that Jared needs. Jared often needs to be the grown up for his parents. He lives with his Mom Maggie, her drug dealer boyfriend Ritchie and a rotating cast of boarders that almost keep the bills paid. Maggie has all the habits. Booze, drugs, smokes and worst of all a hair trigger temper. Her love for Jared is hard, fierce and protective but never in doubt.

High school is rough and nobody makes it through unscathed. Jared has one thing going for him though, his fame as the “Cookie Guy” makes him popular for as long as the cookies last. Between his “popularity” and the endless party that surrounds his Mom and Ritchie it’s actually harder to avoid the party than join it. Not that he needs his arm twisted.

From here on out things get pretty hairy and I don’t want to give too much detail and spoil the surprise. Let’s just say that the parallel worlds really start to overlap bringing all sorts of interesting beings into Jared’s life. Some terrifying, some just annoying and some with murderous intent. Jared gets help from those he doesn’t expect much from and is abandoned by some who he does. He also gets some truth about his family.

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Return of the Trickster by Eden Robinson.

As the final installment of the wildly popular Trickster trilogy, Return of the Trickster had a lot to live up to. A story with dozens of characters in various stages of being which spans literal universes is a tricky thing to wrap up tidily in just 300 pages. Luckily Robinson has done a superb job in the first 2 volumes building great characters and plot lines, I was fully back in the swing of the story within a chapter or so.
It’s just as well too because “Return” wastes no time chucking us right back into the fray. The book picks up moments after the end of Trickster Drift with Jared naked and beaten in the basement of his former home in Kitimat. The non magical people in his life get the “fell off the wagon blackout” story but those who know the whole Jared know there’s a lot more than relapse threatening him. He has just found out that aside from being one of 535 children fathered by Wee’ Git the Trickster, he is the only one who is a trickster himself. All he wanted was a normal life and that’s now impossible.
On the plus side Jared has always had a lot of people and other beings (including Chuck the snowboarding Wild Man of the Woods with a sweet place on the water in Emerald!) who love and are willing to fight for him even if it means going to war with his cannibalistic Ogress Aunt and her army of Coywolves. One of the strongest themes in the series is the inclusive idea of family or kinship. Blood isn’t necessary to be family but love and patience are. Jared will need plenty of both if he’s going to make it through this.
The only problem that I had with this book is that it had to end. It was a beautiful, strange trip that I look forward to taking again.

Return of the Trickster by Eden Robinson.

As the final installment of the wildly popular Trickster trilogy, Return of the Trickster had a lot to live up to. A story with dozens of characters in various stages of being which spans literal universes is a tricky thing to wrap up tidily in just 300 pages. Luckily Robinson has done a superb job in the first 2 volumes building great characters and plot lines, I was fully back in the swing of the story within a chapter or so.
It’s just as well too because “Return” wastes no time chucking us right back into the fray. The book picks up moments after the end of Trickster Drift with Jared naked and beaten in the basement of his former home in Kitimat. The non magical people in his life get the “fell off the wagon blackout” story but those who know the whole Jared know there’s a lot more than relapse threatening him. He has just found out that aside from being one of 535 children fathered by Wee’ Git the Trickster, he is the only one who is a trickster himself. All he wanted was a normal life and that’s now impossible.
On the plus side Jared has always had a lot of people and other beings (including Chuck the snowboarding Wild Man of the Woods with a sweet place on the water in Emerald!) who love and are willing to fight for him even if it means going to war with his cannibalistic Ogress Aunt and her army of Coywolves. One of the strongest themes in the series is the inclusive idea of family or kinship. Blood isn’t necessary to be family but love and patience are. Jared will need plenty of both if he’s going to make it through this.
The only problem that I had with this book is that it had to end. It was a beautiful, strange trip that I look forward to taking again.

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