ALU Summer Book Club: Team Discussion, Wheetago War: Roth

Award-winning author Richard Van Camp’s graphic novel Roth throws readers headfirst into the Wheetago War. The first installment in the series, the novel introduces readers to what was meant to stay undisturbed and scattered beneath the permafrost. Unearthed by the greed of industry, the Wheetago have returned, bringing back ancient horrors long thought banished. In their wake, a group of unlikely allies stumble across the Child Finder, a once-revered hero now fighting to cling to his humanity after surviving a Wheetago attack. Together, they must save him, survive the returning terrors, and come to terms with what’s been unleashed.

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Read on for our team discussion.

1. How would you describe Roth to someone who hasn’t read it? 

TAN: Roth is The Walking Dead rooted in an Indigenous worldview.

LAUREN: Roth is The Walking Dead with a twist; a zombie-survival story that’s as much about sympathy for the monster as it is for the survivors.

MANDY: An immersive, atmospheric book where the dread builds steadily, like a crescendo. If you’re a fan of The Walking Dead, Roth might be right up your alley.

COLLEEN: The perfect introduction to Indigenous horror.

2. What element of the story did you find most compelling, and why?

TAN: We don’t hear much from Ross, but I find his character so compelling. He’s preventing himself from becoming a full monster through will and traditional medicines.

LAUREN: I think the tensions between the group of survivors was most compelling for me. They’ve been forced into a situation of tacit trust, and as a reader, you can see the hairline cracks between them, even as they become more familiar with each other.

COLLEEN: I found the humour in this story to be very compelling. The setting is far from cheerful, the characters are fighting for their lives, and yet, Van Camp still manages to make me laugh out loud. It added another humanistic layer to the text I wasn’t initially expecting.

3. There are certain elements in graphic novels that couldn’t otherwise be communicated through prose. How do you think this story being portrayed through a graphic novel added to your experience?

TAN: The images are so dark and dreamy, it reallllly sets the tone visually for you. And I love that you need to pay attention to the little details that shift from frame to frame.

LAUREN: This book is short in terms of page count, and as a reader, it would be possible to race through it. But the artwork is dense, and a little bit wispy, and demands your careful attention. I found myself discovering things in the panels that would be hard to describe in words alone.

MANDY: Christopher Shy’s artwork is dark and painterly and is highly cinematic. I felt like I was actually stepping into the world he and Richard Van Camp created. There’s a lot of detail in the environments, but the images also leave room for shadows and ambiguity. The artwork lets you feel the mood of a scene before you’ve even taken in all the details. 

4. Ross has dedicated his life to protecting his community as the Child Finder — now he’s the one who needs protecting from himself. What did that reversal make you think about the cost of being a hero?

LAUREN: Ross’s story is particularly heartbreaking for me. There’s one panel where you can see his wide, terrified human eye within his terrifying Wheetago face, and that says so much: he’s lost so much of himself both before and after becoming a monster.

GEORGIA: The cost of being a hero is putting yourself in dangerous situations and making sacrifices for the sake of helping others. Ross is someone who has dedicated his life to finding missing children, and by doing so, he puts himself in harm’s way and becomes a Wheetago. In his search for missing children, not only is he putting his safety at risk, but he’s also sacrificing time with his own child. Even as a Wheetago, being protected by the four men, he still acts as a hero when saving them from the Na Acho. Ultimately, the reversal made me think about how circumstances can change in an instant, and sometimes you have to act as a protector while other times you have to accept that you’re the one who needs protecting.

5. Roth sees an unlikely group of heroes band together for survival and also shows a father clinging to his humanity to protect the ones he loves. What do you think the book is saying about survival, family ties, and parenthood?

TAN: That you have to put aside any differences in the face of danger/destruction, and work together as a community. That family and love can conquer almost anything.

GEORGIA: I think this book exemplifies the risks people are willing to take in order to protect their family. Every character is either trying to get back to their family, currently protecting their family, or working to stay alive for the sake of their family. Not only are the characters working to get back to their own families, but they are also trying to protect one another because they see each other as a chosen family. Ross’ daughter is also his motivating factor to stay alive and stay human. Alessa also struggles with trusting the men because she just wants to do what’s best for Robby and isn’t sure what the right answer is. It’s clear that family is a powerful force in the book and that all of the choices each character makes are based on protecting or getting back to their families.

6. In the novel, the wheetago are unearthed by industry and greed. Did this book change the way you think about horror as a genre for talking about real-world harm?

TAN: I LOVE the genre for exactly this ability to show us the horror hidden in our lives.

LAUREN: I don’t think it changed how I think about it, but it did exemplify it very well! Horror is very good at taking real-world issues and putting them into a heightened context. The “melting” that leads to the Wheetago waking up feels extremely prescient, given this summer of wildfires and destruction.

MANDY: It made me think about how often we ignore the consequences of exploiting the land until those consequences become impossible to ignore. Nothing like unleashing an ancient monster to really drive home the point that maybe we just…shouldn’t?

COLLEEN: I’ve always loved the ways horror media addresses very real, very pertinent issues, and Roth is no exception. If anything, it solidified my love for the genre and importance of continuing to tell scary stories.

7. Roth is the first book in a planned series. What are you hoping to see explored next, and what questions do you want answered in book two?

LAUREN: Oh, my gosh, this book ended on such a cliffhanger! I also love the “in book two” preview at the end of the book that shows some action in a cityscape, as opposed to the forest. I’m also dying to know more about what brought the survivor party to the present: what happened to the mother and son, and the prisoners.

TAN: What a cliff-hanger! I hope we learn more about the group, as well as Ross’s backstory as the Child Finder.

MANDY: Not to ruin the ending…okay, I won’t say it, but good gosh what a cliffhanger.

GEORGIA: For the next book, I am hoping to learn more about the dynamic between Glenn, Pablo, Sy, and Smoky. It’s clear that the younger men trust Glenn, and I would like to know how this dynamic came about. Was it in their early prison days? What made them gravitate towards each other? Why were Pablo, Sy, and Smoky in prison? More than anything, I would like to know what happens after the cliffhanger we were left on at the end of the book and how the entire group’s dynamic evolves from it.

COLLEEN: Similar to a wheetago, I also have an insatiable hunger for more (of this story). After that cliffhanger, I’ll take any answers I can get, but specifically, I’d like to know more about Ross’s origin story as the Child Finder.

8. Comic panels can slow down or speed up our reading experience. Was there a moment where the pacing of the art made a scene more impactful than you expected?

LAUREN: There are many atmospheric moments expressed exclusively through the art that bring you along as a reader and set a tone and feeling. There’s also one moment that I don’t want to spoil, expressed almost entirely through artwork (no dialogue), that made me laugh out loud. It had such comedic timing!

TAN: There were sequences where small details from a larger image were picked up and repeated in close-up. I liked how that forced you to pay attention to the details.

9. If you had to pick one image or panel from the book that you think will stay with you the longest, what would it be and why?

LAUREN: Impossible to pick one panel: Ross’s still-human eye in the Wheetago face, discovering his mother in the house overrun by Wheetago, and the entire Na acho battle sequence are incredible.

MANDY: I thought the panels that showed the fight scene with the bear incredibly visceral, but I really loved some of the quieter scenes with the family doing ordinary things like peeling potatoes. There’s something about seeing these very human, everyday moments in the midst of everything else happening in the story that really stayed with me. Small acts of care and normalcy make the things that threaten the characters feel all the more frightening.

TAN: Near the end, the image of the mother sitting with her son in the aftermath of the Na Acho attack, wondering if she can really trust Ross.

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