Son of a Trickster Themes

Jared Martin is a 16-year-old Native boy living in Kitimat, British Columbia, with his emotionally volatile mother Maggie and her drug-dealing boyfriend Richie. Jared’s father Phil, meanwhile, lives nearby with his new wife and daughter, but he is disabled from a back injury and addicted to pain medication. As a result of these circumstances, Jared has to take care of his parents and other adults around him both physically and financially, because they…

Violence permeates 16-year-old Jared’s life in Kitimat, British Columbia: he gets mugged and robbed while he’s baking the marijuana cookies that he sells, and several of his mom’s boyfriends abuse him. Violence and love are also inextricably linked for Jared in a confusing way, as his mother and his girlfriend, Sarah, both try to express their love for him through violence (his mother uses violence to protect him and teach him how…

Son of a Trickster takes place in a First Nations community in British Columbia. Interspersed with the main story that centers on Jared and his experiences, there are several chapters that switch to the perspective of an unnamed narrator whose tone is omniscient and ethereal—almost god-like. This narrator relays how First Nations people’s spiritual beliefs center on a reverence for the natural world and an understanding of the interconnectedness of all living things. And alongside…