Small Ceremonies

by Kyle Edwards

Part coming-of-age novel, part searing examination of a community finding itself, Small Ceremonies is a tantalizing and heartbreaking debut.

“I fear for our friendship, for the day it will end, wondering when that day will be . . .”

Tomahawk Shields (a.k.a. Tommy) and Clinton Whiteway are on the cusp of adulthood, imagining a future rife with possibility and greatness. The two friends play for their high school’s poor-performing hockey team, the Tigers, who learn at the start of the new season that the league wants them out. Their annual goal is now more important than to win their first game in years and break the curse.

As we follow these two Indigenous boys over the course of a year, we are given a panoptic view of Tommy and Clinton’s Winnipeg, where a university student with grand ambitions chooses to bottle her anger when confronted with numerous micro- (and not so micro-) aggressions; an ex-convict must choose between protecting or exploiting his younger brother as he’s dragged deeper into the city’s criminal underbelly; a lonely rink attendant is haunted by the memory of a past lover and contemplates rekindling this old flame; and an aspiring journalist does everything she can to uncover why the league is threatening to remove the Tigers. These are a sampling of the chorus of voices that depicts a community filled with individuals searching for purpose, leading them all to one fateful and tragic night.

Ferociously piercing the heart of an Indigenous city, Kyle Edwards's sparkling debut is a heartbreaking yet humour-flecked portrayal of navigating identity and place, trauma and recovery, and growing up in a land that doesn't love you.

Genres: Fiction, Indigenous, Canada, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Sports, Adult

368 pages, Hardcover

Published April 1, 2025

About the author

Kyle Edwards grew up on the Lake Manitoba First Nation and is a member of the Ebb and Flow First Nation. A graduate of Ryerson University, he has worked as a journalist for Native News Online, ProPublica, and Maclean’s, and has held fellowships at Harvard and Stanford Universities. He has won two National Magazine Awards for his reporting and was named Emerging Indigenous Journalist by the Canadian Association of Journalists in 2019. He is currently a Provost Fellow at the University of Southern California.

Reviews

[Summer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Small Ceremonies is a beautiful coming-of-age story centered around an Indigenous community featuring a high school hockey team. The author breathed life into all the characters, making them seem as if I knew them myself. The story is a poignant and sometimes humorous glimpse at what it’s like growing up indigenous. Even though the book is set in Winnipeg, it still reminded me of my own community.

Small Ceremonies is a character centered/literary work but it’s faster paced than most in this genre. The book deals with so many topics including community, friendships, identity, racism, and trauma. This was such a powerful and brilliant debut. I see a bright literary future for Kyle Edwards and I can’t wait to see what he writes next!

I alternated between reading the book myself and listening to the audiobook. The audiobook is narrated by a full cast including Chris Mejaki, Yolanda Bonnell, Dillan Meghan Chiblow, James Dallas Smith, Jay Northcott, John Wamsley, Marion Newman, Monique Mojica, Shane Ghostkeeper, T'Áncháy Redvers, Tara Sky, and Steve Dangle. If you decide to pick this one up, I highly recommend this format!

Small Ceremonies by Kyle Edwards will be available on April 1. Many thanks to Pantheon for the gifted copy and Penguin Random House Audio for the gifted audiobook!

[Jonas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beartown (Bachman) meets There, There (Tommy Orange). Need I say more? Absolutely loved this powerful and moving novel.

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

ARC & ALC gifted by the publisher/prhaudio

I love everything about this book, even the painful parts that made me sob 😭 what a rare talent to balance such a large cast of characters, yet give them unique voices and backstories to care about. I could read a book just following one character and still not get enough of Edwards’ writing

I switched between reading the physical copy and the audiobook. I love how I could savor Edwards’ writing—especially the funny parts—on print. On the other hand, the full-cast audiobook also provides a very immersive experience that made the characters come to life.

Some characters are written in different POVs, like one character’s voice is entirely 2nd person written as letters to his son, others are only 1st or 3rd person. This also adds to the uniqueness of each character, and I think cleverly creates a different distance between the readers and POVs, where for some characters, a reader might never truly know their minds.

SMALL CEREMONIES is a gorgeous book centering a native community that digs deep into friendships, brotherhoods, unlikely relationships. In a world that doesn’t want to see you survive, not to mention succeed, how do you be in community with those who are important to you?

Edwards excavates the complicated feelings of survivance and forgiveness with imperfect characters that come to life through these pages. At times funny, tender, and heart wrenching, SMALL CEREMONIES is a perfect read for fans of THERE THERE (Tommy Orange) that will give you the best book hangover

I particularly love how Edwards writes about the boys and men. While there are “masculine” aspects of high school boys talking about sports, we also get a glimpse of how they navigate the awkwardness of caring for each other through small acts of kindness. The friendship between Tommy and Clinton and how they care for each other is one of my favorite parts of the book 🥹

[jocelyn • coolgalreading · Rating 4 out of 5]

stunning

[jordan kauffman · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 but rounded down. i was SO excited when i read the blurb for this book but it just ended up being kind of a slog. there were too many characters that were disconnected and too many storylines that just went nowhere. if it was condensed into like 3/4 characters i think it could’ve been much more powerful

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

The topics in this book were so intriguing to me and parts of it were brilliant. The very large cast of characters sometimes made it hard to feel connected to them and their piece of the story. I adored the parts that were a gorgeous love letter to a life lived in/or around hockey.

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bleak and brutal debut, from Indigenous author Kyle Edwards—Small Ceremonies follows two teenage indigenous friends through their final year of school and winless season of hockey.

Clinton and Tommy are both doing their best in Winnipeg, a city that seems to chew up and spit boys like them out every day. Their team is getting kicked out of the league for “reasons” (ie racist af), their families are broken but limping along, the streets are beckoning and it’s hard to see a future in university or beyond. This year is just about the here and now.

Chapter by chapter we’re hustled along from POV to POV, touching on everyone from the arena’s owner and ice caretaker; Clinton’s gangbanger older brother who’s recently released from prison; Tommy’s absent mother, sister and grandmother; to Clinton’s deadbeat dad, and others. Unfortunately, and this is completely subjective, I found the POV-hopping really off-putting and hard to follow. Despite sinking into the story when I orientated myself, I kept having to try and figure out who each character was in the story and structurally switching it up from first, second and third person was just a bit much, for me. I know some people have liked this about the book—so it could be a me problem but, it ended up keeping the characters at arm’s length for me which was a shame because the two boys are great characters and deserved to be the only POVs in the book, imo.

Despite that, I’m still rating this highly because I managed to enjoy it a lot despite the structural issues I had with it and the challenging nature of the read. Clinton and Tommy were so real to me and the ending brutal but narratively satisfying. Edwards’s writing is stark and haunting—I think this will get a lot of well deserved acclaim, at least I hope it does! Well worth the read, and I’ll be keeping an eye out for future books by him.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My thanks to @mcclellandstewart and @penguinrandomca for the review copy and for putting this writer on my radar.

[Lorna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to acquire an ARC of this title from the publisher and boy am I glad I did.

The publisher's note compares Small Ceremonies to There, There by Tommy Orange, and I would say that it is an accurate description!

Small Ceremonies tells the story of the poor-performing St. Croix Tigers, an inner-city school hockey team that the league wants out. It focuses on Tomahawk Shields and Clinton Whiteway, two Indigenous students on the team as they navigate the "curse" and exist in a Winnipeg that seems not to want them.

Initially, I found the varied POVs confusing-yes, I'm used to many characters in a book, but I'm not used to them having a different written POV. That being said, I quickly got over that confusion and actually grew to enjoy it as it was always easy to distinguish each character's unique voice.

I found Edward's writing style both emotionally charged, compelling, funny and at times devastating. It is an important novel in an Indigenous voice and tells a story that I believe is worthy of being told. Overall, a wonderful book and I hope that it gets the chance to thrive!

[Jifu · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Note: I read an advanced reader copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley)

Kyle Edwards was able to make the North End, Winnipeg community of Small Ceremonies come richly and vividly alive. With the introduction of each character, I felt like I was rapidly able to get a sense of who they were as a unique member of the book’s cast. And Edwards’ decision to construct the narrative through a combination of first, second and third person narration worked almost shockingly well in helping to craft everyone’s separate voices. All in all, a definite standout of a read for me.

This is a fantastic new addition to the growing array of contemporary indigenous-centered fiction - and likewise, will make a great new addition to the shelves of the library that I work in.

[LAErin · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars … loved the hockey heart of this expansive, smart, character-rich novel

[Briana Gagnon · Rating 5 out of 5]

if you’re looking to be absolutely devastated by a book, look no further

[Whatithinkaboutthisbook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Small Ceremonies by Kyle Edwards

Have you ever read a book that, halfway through, you love so much you start googling the author to see what else they’ve written? That was me with this book! As a debut novel, I’ll have to wait for his next book, but I’ll be buying it the moment it comes out.

This is a powerful and moving story that seamlessly weaves together the lives of a mix of characters into a compelling, thought provoking and emotional narrative. The characters are fully realized - complex, nuanced and grounded in richly developed backgrounds, experiences, hopes and dreams.

The novel centers on Tommy, Clinton and their families, intricately portraying urban Indigenous life. It doesn’t shy away from hard truths: the impact of colonization, racism, addiction, and intergenerational trauma. At the same time, it offers a deeply human portrait; one that balances hope and hopelessness, strength and vulnerability, challenges and resilience, successes and mistakes.

I was completely captivated by the characters and the storytelling. At times, I felt frustrated, inspired, and heart broken for them; but throughout it all, I was rooting for them. The fact that its set in my own city made it feel even more special and relevant. If you’re a fan of Tommy Orange, you must give this one a try.

[Erin York Baxfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kyle Edwards has written a masterpiece of a multi- narrator story. I was so invested in all the characters and had no problem keeping them straight thanks to his incredible character building. loved this - and will think about it often.

[Kenzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a story of different characters within an indigenous community centered around the local hockey team. With themes of persistent racism and familial struggles, this is a slow-paced narrative with a powerful and somber punch at the end.

[aNeedleinMyBookstack | Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

“𝘐 𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱, 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘦𝘯𝘥, 𝘸𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 . . .”

Kyle Edwards’s debut novel, 𝘚𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘊𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘦𝘴, is a powerful, coming-of-age story set on an Indigenous reservation in Winnipeg’s North End. It follows two high school seniors, Tomahawk “Tommy” Shields and his best friend Clinton Whiteway, as they navigate adolescence, identity, and the weight of systemic oppression.

Tommy is questioning his place in contemporary Canada, and relies on his loyal friend, Clinton, who provides support even though his home life is unstable. The two boys play for their struggling high school hockey team in a dilapidated arena—where the community still shows up to cheer, even though they have never won a game and under the looming threat of being dropped from the league.

Reminiscent of 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 by Tommy Orange, 𝘚𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘊𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘦𝘴 unfolds through multiple interwoven POVs. Among them: the rink’s determined owner saving for a Zamboni, a high school journalist investigating the team’s possible removal, a brilliant university student battling privilege and microaggressions for a life-changing scholarship, and a recently released ex-convict whose return complicates his younger brother’s future. At times, the shifting POVs was challenging to track, yet their lives meaningfully converge by the novel’s end.

𝘚𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘊𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘦𝘴 is an impressive and moving debut portraying modern North American Indigenous life. I highly recommend it to readers interested in Indigenous perspectives or coming-of-age narratives. I look forward to what Kyle Edwards writes next.

[Charlee Remitz · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

Excruciatingly felt, at times expertly paced and at others too urgent to pack it all in. I always say that fiction is educational—in some ways, I think it can be more educational than the purely informative works. What you get is the author’s experience of the world, and that felt experience will always leave a more impressive impact than chronology and analysis. For my part, the story was overripe, bursting at the seems, too full for its own good, each page offering a new character, perspective, or arbitrary happenstance. But there is a certain radicalization that happens here, if not—well, you might not be totally human.

[Mizuki Giffin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slice-of-life narrative following an Indigenous high school’s hockey team in Winnipeg trying to win their first game in years. This was a charming book with lots of strong points. I think there were maybe too many POVs included, and it could’ve been more concentrated with fewer voices that we got to know better. Even the tangents kept me engaged though! Maybe closer to a 3.5, but rounding up

[Adam Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book--it's filled with heart, charm, humor and hockey! It's also an achingly beautiful portrait of an indigenous community banding together to brace against hardship. This is a must-read debut.

[Teresa Jurewicz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written with characters that I really felt invested in. I learned some indigenous history while reading the book. Ultimately, the book left me sad, knowing how badly
this community has been treated throughout history.

[Kelly Beattie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an impressive debut novel. All of the characters were so thoughtfully written and the author managed to cover so many important issues while still telling stories. However, the end did surprise me and felt a bit abrupt.

[Elena Matas · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Good stuff. Beautiful writing. I got Kyle Edwards to sign my copy despite it being a library book.

[Shanereads · Rating 3 out of 5]

A coming of age story in the vein of There There.

This review copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review. Huge thanks to Pantheon for my review copy!

[Michelle Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great variety of characters and sense of place. Nuanced portrayal of current issues. More please!!

[Demetri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Small Ceremonies is a novel that hums with the rhythms of a community, its cadence both tender and relentless, a pulse of ice against skate, the echo of laughter in a school hallway, the quiet tension of a mother’s wandering mind. Kyle Edwards crafts a story that is as much about movement—physical, emotional, social—as it is about pause, observation, and reflection. The novel’s heartbeat is found in Winnipeg’s North End, a place at once peripheral and central, a map of streets, stories, and memories, where adolescence is a ceremony, a sequence of small acts that mark the passage from expectation to self-discovery.

The narrative centers on Tomahawk “Tommy” Shields, a seventeen-year-old navigating the tumult of his final high school hockey season while wrestling with questions of identity, belonging, and moral responsibility. From the first chapter, Edwards situates the reader firmly in Tommy’s point of view, not only through his eyes but through the rhythm of his thoughts, the weight of his observations, and the keen awareness of how his body intersects with the world around him. Tommy is a figure of kinetic energy and contemplative pause, an enforcer on the ice yet quietly reflective off it, sensing the contours of his environment, noting the gestures of those who inhabit it, and measuring the landscape of his own limitations and aspirations.

The Tigers, his team, serve as both literal and symbolic ground. Hockey is never mere sport here—it is ritual, performance, test, and mirror. Edwards captures the ice with sensory precision: the sting of cold air, the scrape of blades, the metallic echo of the puck against boards. Each game unfolds as a small drama, a sequence of victories, setbacks, and negotiations, but it is the players’ interior lives that grant these matches weight. Tommy, Floyd, Clinton, and Jonah are not simply athletes; they are layered, flawed, ambitious, tentative, and searching. Their triumphs are as often personal as they are communal, measured in self-awareness, loyalty, and courage as much as in goals scored.

Equally compelling is the novel’s attention to family and community. Tommy’s mother, Tannyce, is a wandering, troubled presence whose schizophrenia casts a shadow of instability across the narrative. Her moments of absence and unpredictability compel Tommy toward self-reliance, and Edwards treats her with both empathy and realism, depicting the intricate balance between love and responsibility, care and self-preservation. Sam, Tommy’s sister, embodies a different rhythm—discipline, structure, and the deliberate construction of personal excellence—which contrasts and illuminates Tommy’s own journey. Through these domestic lenses, the novel explores the weight of expectation, the pull of heritage, and the shaping force of community networks that extend beyond family to encompass friends, mentors, and elders.

Perhaps most striking is Edwards’ handling of observation and ritual—the “small ceremonies” of the title. In quieter chapters, Tommy watches, reflects, and interacts with spaces like the library, where the minutiae of human behavior, the gestures of strangers, and the subtle rhythms of community life offer profound insight. He composes encrypted emails, observes a wandering woman, tracks the interactions of elders, and in these moments, Edwards positions the everyday as sacred, as formative, as charged with meaning. Adolescence, then, is not only performance on the ice or interaction with peers; it is a constant negotiation between visibility and privacy, between action and reflection, between the inner and outer world.

Clinton Whiteway’s perspective adds another layer of resonance. His life, shaped by caution, vigilance, and ethical awareness, juxtaposes the physical bravado of Tommy, yet intersects with it in friendship, trust, and shared experience. Clinton navigates his surroundings with an awareness born of survival, reflecting on the pull of gang influence, the dangers of urban life, and the careful balance required to remain morally centered. Through Clinton, Edwards portrays the intersection of adolescence with structural and social realities—the systemic pressures and the choices, often fraught, that define young lives in this urban Indigenous context.

The narrative’s structure is deliberate, alternating kinetic hockey sequences with contemplative chapters that center on introspection and social observation. Edwards’ prose mirrors this rhythm: sentences that accelerate across the ice, and others that stretch languidly across library tables, community rooms, and neighborhood streets. The writing is spare yet empathetic, lyrical yet grounded in the textures of place, conveying both immediacy and resonance. Through this interplay, the novel balances action and reflection, humor and tragedy, individual and community.

Themes of identity, resilience, and belonging pulse throughout the story. Edwards does not shy away from the complexities of multiracial identity, mental health, socioeconomic precarity, or cultural expectation. Instead, he embeds these realities seamlessly within the characters’ lived experiences, allowing narrative and environment to coalesce into a portrait of adolescence that is both particular and universal. Friendship, mentorship, and familial bonds function as both support and mirror, revealing the interdependence of individuals within a community and the weight of personal choice within collective frameworks.

The novel’s pacing, deliberate attention to interiority, and layering of perspectives require the reader’s patience, yet they reward with immersion. The North End emerges as a character itself—a landscape of challenges and support, danger and sanctuary, historical memory and contemporary pulse. Edwards’ portrayal captures the tension of adolescence within this setting, where every movement, glance, and decision carries consequence. The Tigers’ hockey season, with its “curse” of repeated losses, becomes metaphorical as well as literal, framing the stakes of personal growth, moral development, and resilience.

Small Ceremonies excels in the interplay of action and reflection, of physicality and interiority. Its narrative voice—grounded, observant, empathetic—invites the reader into a world at once vivid and intimate, where community and self are intertwined, where small gestures carry weight, and where coming-of-age is both ceremonial and unpredictable. Edwards’ debut demonstrates a remarkable ability to render complex characters with authenticity, nuance, and grace, conveying the joys, sorrows, and contradictions of adolescence within a culturally specific yet universally resonant setting.

In sum, the novel is a meditation on growth, identity, and community, framed through the lens of a hockey team, family struggles, and personal rituals that confer meaning and connection. It is a work that lingers in the reader’s awareness, that balances the harshness of reality with the resilience of spirit, and that honors both the individuality of its characters and the collective heartbeat of the community they inhabit. Edwards invites readers to witness, to reflect, and to feel alongside his characters, offering a deeply human narrative that is at once intimate and expansive, kinetic and contemplative.

Rating: 85/100

[Kayla Dalhouse · Rating 2 out of 5]

I decided to read this book because it seemed to have a similar flow to There, There by Tommy Orange which I really enjoyed reading a few years ago. While it did have a similar format I felt like it was not done as well since I found myself getting a little confused on the characters and their connections to each other. I also feel that some characters’ and their stories were introduced but then were left undeveloped. However the general plot was engaging and touched on important issues faced by indigenous communities.

[Renay Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this. The two main characters are Indigenous teens who play on their high school hockey team in the North End of Winnipeg. The book focused on them and their friends / families and each chapters follows a different character. Initially, it took me a little bit to keep the characters straight, but this is a really great story and worth reading.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wouldn’t know how to begin reviewing this book. Amazing.

The book boasts a rather large cast of characters, all of whom are equally important to the story, in my opinion. It could have been confusing, but the author has defined them so well there was no confusion at all.

A gripping debut novel.

[Blue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heartbreaking, but incredibly well done. As a Canadian, especially, there's lots to digest/unpack in this very thought-provoking book.

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very, very good book - my favourite this year.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this. An important look at Indigenous history and attitude toward Canada.