Katherena Vermette

Red River Resistance is the second graphic novel in the A Girl Called Echo series by Governor General's Award-winning writer Katherena Vermette.

Red River Resistance

Fraser Simons

Excellent follow up to the first issue, which was pretty much all setup. Echo signs up for a bake sale and meets another kid, things are looking up. But, at the same time, she is learning about a very traumatic history from her heritage as a Métis person. So much so that as she consumes the history whenever she sleeps, she dreams about being there herself as a kind of bystander witnessing everything; this causes her emotional pain, of course. 

It’s a really smart way of illustrating to people what learning this kind of history would be like and how affecting it is, generally. Some people classified this as like science fiction and time travel and stuff, but it’s very clearly a dream. You see her eyes closed and she says it’s a dream. I don’t know why people think a visual dream, imagining yourself in events you’re consuming would be fantasy. It occurs literally all of the time for some people.

This continuation of A Girl Called Echo picks up a few weeks and a few decades after the first volume. Echo has started to become more comfortable and outgoing at school and in her new home. The difference in her daily routine in this volume compared to the last one was stark; she's no longer an isolated island amidst a sea of people, but rather engaging with her peers and the people she lives with. Her slips into the past continue, with a skip of about 50 years. There's a lot more dialogue and narration in this volume than in the previous volume, especially in the past. This volume also spends more time in the past than the present. I once again find myself simply wanting more from this story. I eagerly anticipate the next volume.

Red River Resistance

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