False Face

by Welwyn Wilton Katz

Thirteen-year-old Laney is not happy caught between her divorced parents, but she’s learning to adjust. One day Laney bumps into her classmate Tom, who is of white and Iroquois descent. Walking in the nearby bog, they discover two terrifying false-face Indian masks. But even more horrible is what lies beneath them. As the mystery unfolds, Laney, troubled by the animosity between her parents, and Tom, desperate to return to his dead father’s Native American heritage, must come to grips with the power of the masks to both heal and harm. The friends find themselves in the midst of a harrowing ordeal that ultimately brings them face to face with love, hatred, and prejudice.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Young Adult, Canada, Horror, Childrens

155 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Everyone has interests. Some people like my father had very few but he knew everything about them and received an OBE for the work he did on one of them during the second world war. Obviously this anecdote shows that having only a few interests isn't a bad thing. However, sometimes I think that the more things people are interested in, the more chance they have of becoming a traditionally published author. For example, here is a vastly incomplete list of my own interests: making jewelry (which I never thought would enter into my writing but is starting to, in the book I'm mentally reconstructing now), Rumi (because his poems are so beautiful and help me step back onto my own spiritual path if I've gone astray for a time), standing stones and dowsing and other new age tidbits as you will see in my book Sun God Moon Witch, playing the transverse flute and recorder and learning the Indian flute and the Japanese (zen) shakuhachi, folklore, legends, mythology [as most readers will see were resources in my books [book:False Face], The Third Magic,Witchery Hill Come Like Shadows), a writerly interest in character growth over certain excellent television series such as NCIS and Bones, yoga (both physical and its philosophical monism - a spiritual path I find fascinating), social issues such as prejudice and the changing of country boundaries because of it as shown in my books False Faceand Come Like Shadows, interspecies communication particularly with whales as in my book Whalesinger, climate change as has already outpaced my imagination as shown in my book Time Ghost, sketching, gorgeously impossible golf courses even though I don't play golf, Stonehenge and other standing stones as well as the math and science of prehistoric peoples, online shopping, murder mystery novels, J.S.Bach's and Mozart's music though mostly I prefer medieval music and some modern songs such as "You" by Fisher (album The Lovely Years),"Japanese Music Box" by Itsuki No Komoriuta (album "Forest" played by George Winston), "The Lady of Shalott" by Loreena McKennitt (album The Vist), "Leonard Cohen Live in London" (double album, all of it), "Someone to Watch Over Me" by Willie Nelson (album Stardust), "Autumn" by George Winston (whole album), "Fragile" by Jorane (The You and the Now), and "Words Can't Go There" by John Kaizan Neptune (album of same name).

Like you I love movies, nature, some TV, and I play bridge and even some video games (Wii, PS2, Nintendo DS: favourites Kingdom Hearts, and P4). Books, of course. We'll find out more about each other in my blog, I'm sure.

Reviews

[George Ilsley · Rating 2 out of 5]

First published in 1987, this book does not indicate the reading level. Maybe MG? Who knows, but it is from a time when kids book were (for some reason) made as ugly and unappealing as possible.

Inspired by a trip to the Museum of Indian Archaeology in London, Ontario, the plot of this thriller revolves around First Nations masks and spiritual practices. I didn’t enjoy the thriller elements. In fact, the 3 page “author’s note” at the end was the best thing about this book.

[Nighteye · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found at a Swedish train station's "lend and read section" when my book was read out. Now it is a MG book so didn't expect a deeper plot.
It is interesting, on one hand I liked the dabble into Irocese mysticism and issues of mixed blood etc. However I would have liked more fleshed out characters and that the issues that appered was more dealted true and not the rushed ending but a continued journey of the two mains to se what would happen futher on.
An ok read after all not ment for me as an adult.

[Lisa Montgomery · Rating 3 out of 5]

Native American religion is at the core of this modern day horror story, but the religion has been greatly distorted.
Familiar stereotypes are used.
The information about the "magical" masks is loaded with misconstructions and presents a negative picture of the Iroquois.

[Lindsay]

I honestly don't know about this book. I have read it a few times and I still cannot decide if i like it or not. When I preteen reading it for class I thought it exciting and racy, but with a rushed ending. As an adult I feel that it touches on many tsensative topics but fails to resolve any of them. I think this book will always fall into that grey area, neither liked nor hated.

[Leanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

My cousin and I loved this book so much that we spent ages browsing the stalls selling native masks at all of the summer festivals! Pretty sure we thought we'd stumble upon some magical ones.

[Andrea · Rating 1 out of 5]

I liked the black and white painting of the face mask on the back of the book, and the Indian pattern border on the title and chapter pages.

Idk why this was included. Way too mature for kids and just not good.
"Time now to pry
the secrets from your hearts,
preserve them in glass,
on celluloid strips, or saturated frames
animated to puppetry,
until your mysteries bleed
blood to water,
until they fade to academic
puzzles and we can turn
to our own for pale answers."
--from Pale Answers
by Barbara Novak

Look at those words, I don’t even understand that!

I've read so many children's books in which the parents are divorced that I was sick of it by the time I read this. It's like the only thing that can happen in a kid's life. I had no patience for her mom and the favoritism she showed Laney's sister, and the horrible way she treated Laney because she looked and acted like her dad. Getting mad at Laney because she forgot the milk, and she got her jacket dirty.
It was hard to keep all of the characters together, esp because the author kept referring to them differently. She called him Dad, Dr. McIntyre and Ian. Then Mom, Mrs. McIntyre and Alicia. It's weird to keep switching like that, and coming from the daughter's POV, it makes no sense for her to call them anything but Mom and Dad.

And the periods were so small I could barely see them. They were like 10 times smaller than the dot from an ink pen.

She started the mystery way too soon. Pg. 16 she screamed as soon as she saw the little mask. Pg. 24 "There was an icy feeling in the pit of her stomach. What was she afraid of? She had taken an old mask from a bog, that was all. Why was she so sure that now nothing was going to be the same?"

And even Tom instantly felt it. Pg. 25 "Under the excitement there was another feeling, something darker, but he wouldn't let himself recognize it."
"He didn't know he was afraid. And when he finally found out, it was too late."

It was interesting to learn that the Iroquois wore false face masks during medicine rituals, and they had miniature ones as charms.

The book really showed its age when Tom went to a convenience store and bought a pack of cigarettes. The times have definitely changed. He was just doing a ritual to ward against the god Gaguwara, because the dead body he found in the bog had that mask on. Then the librarian was looking through microfiches.

The Society of Faces went around from longhouse to longhouse during diseases or causing them, with rattles and staves and wearing masks. It made them a false face god. They made the small masks to protect themselves from the big ones, and tied them to the big masks with leather thongs. The small ones had power too and could harm or protect.

It was cool the ritual that Tom was going to do. He got cigarettes and took the tobacco out, had corn and lard to burn to say prayers, then bury the mask.

There should have been a change in font when the author all of a sudden changed from the POV of Laney and Tom and went to the Indian that had carved the face mask they found, and whose body was in the bog.

It was cool that he mentioned the roles in the ceremonies, Runner, Dancer, Doorkeeper and Great Doctor.

I was so shocked when Laney said to hell with her sister and to tell with them both (her mom and sister). She's in 9th grade for Pete's sake. That was going too far. Cussing about your mom and sister was not okay. I was glad she was mad though and sticking up for herself, knowing her sister wouldn't do anything in the house and her mom would expect it done, and seeing that her mom did everything for her sister but expected Laney to be independent.

I was getting so frustrated with Tom and Laney not telling each other anything. They would meet up and he would think about telling her about the mask and the god and the dead body but wouldn't, or there would be an interruption. He finally asked if she knew if there was a dead body, and her reaction told him she didn't know, but then they were interrupted because his art teacher was waiting on him to join the class outside, and Landy had gotten kicked out of class for coming in late, so she just left school altogether and skipped the rest of the day.

The next day her sister was making fun of her being with Tom, that he was an Indian and dirty and no one would talk to her now, that it made her sick to see them together. So Lanet got mad and said so go stick your finger down your throat, and to vomit her guts out, and Rosemary ended up throwing up all night. The story definitely picked up as the danger of the mask was shown.

It was a bad moment when Laney came home to find her mom repeatedly hitting Hambone with a newspaper after he got I to the trash. And finding out that her mom intended to sell the mask, greedy over the amount of money it would bring. She forbade Laney from telling her dad because she knew her ex-husband would turn her in for selling an item found illegally.

The most popular antique shop in town was going out of business, which would make her mom's shop #1, and Laney thought it was odd that the owner wasn't selling. So she went to the shop and found out from the owner's friend that he was in the hospital and got a bad feeling. She went to her mom's shop and lo and behold, the large false face mask was there. The day she saw her mom go out in rubber boots, she had gone to the bog and took the mask off the dead body. So finding out that her mom wielded that power made more things intense. I wish Tom had gone it and done something, but he only followed Laney around on the bus and through town to see what she was doing. It was funny when he said this was getting expensive, bcuz he had to pay the bus fair as he followed her. He just watched through the window and saw Laney finding the mask, which was way too convenient that he could see that just from looking in the window.

He saw how the mask made her hate herself, how it looked at her with hatred. I got so sick of Tom thinking what to do. At least Laney had finally taken some action. For pages and pages he's like why me? Why did he have to figure it out alone and do everything. It was very annoying. But I did like when he debated about whether to leave Laney to whatever fate because she'd gotten herself into it, but then he thought of her always alone at school, how that day they'd been talking near her house and her sister had yelled that Hambone was peeing on the neighbor's flowers and threatening to call Animal Control and she had run to save the dog from that, and that day at school where she had asked him to walk home with her, after he told her he had something important to tell her. She saw him as a boy and not an Indian, and she didn't notice or care that everyone always stared at them when they were together.
I was so annoyed with the way they spoke. Just come out with it and quit stuttering and being so hesitant.

"I didn't, when I--when Rosemary got sick. It's just that, well, Mom's so different, these days." It came out in a rush. "She got so mad at Hambone, I thought she was going to--well, anyway, he got really sick."
"I--I asked the little mask to--"

It was cool that Laney came to think that the bog had been protected because of the mask. Because there were around a quarter of a million people living around it, and nothing had happened to it. Farmers hadn't drained it, the board of health hadn't said it was a source of disease.

It's nice she gave the little mask up to her dad when he needed it and her mom was trying to kill him, knowing she wouldn't be protected. Tom saw her as a person, not white or anything. Knew he'd looked at his own mom and only saw her skin color, because his mom is white and his dad was Indian. He knew Laney's mom didn't really hate Laney, it's just she thought she was so much like her dad. That didn’t make it okay. The way she treated Laney and spoke to her was deplorable. She should have been investigated by Child’s Services and Laney given to her dad to get her out of that house. I didn’t expect her treatment of Laney to be any better. Treating a kid horribly and talking to them like they’re lost causes isn’t okay, just because they remind you of your ex-husband.

The ending wasn't good. Of course, it went with the theme of the rest of the book so I shouldn’t have been surprised. It was a depressing, dreary, dismal tale. Her dad said her mom would have to live with knowing she was willing to kill someone—him—and Laney knew she had been willing to kill her sister—I don’t think she was really willing to kill her sister, I think it was the masks’ effect—and that they had that in common. Well there you go. They’re alike in that they both wanted to kill someone! That’s awesome. Wth kind of book is this?! Laney didn’t know if she would ever love her mom, because she didn’t know, which was understandable, but she should’ve been taken out of the house. Her mom should have gone to jail for being willing to sell a stolen item and for the attempted murder of her husband. He had been throwing up blood, and just like magic, once she gives him the mask and everything’s over, the vomit disappeared and it’s all A-okay. Her sister Rosemary never came around to being different. She remained self-centered. The only change was that when she told Laney at lunch at school to cover for her with their mom, to lie and say she was at a friend’s house when she was really going to a party, Laney refused and Rosemary looked at her with respect. That wasn’t good enough. Her family was terrible to her.

The author's note was interesting. Almost always the person that is going to wear the false face mask is the one that carves it. He goes out into the woods and finds a tree, usually basswood. He burns tobacco and prays, evoking the spirits. Then he carves the mask into the tree, and cuts it out of the tree when he's finished carving the mask. Then he drills the eyeholes. The masks are almost always grimacing in pain because the Doctor was hit in the face by the Creator with a mountain. His face is red in the morning and black in the afternoon. The masks are usually painted half red and half black to show the changing face of the god.

There were so many words in here that were way too big. I’ll never understand why authors use these huge words when writing for children. It reads like an adult’s intellectual book instead of a novel for kids. Calliope. Propitiating. Inarticulate. Eradicated. I’ve never even heard of the first two, and I’m not sure how to pronounce them so I know kids would be totally lost at those.

I was waiting for some romance in here between Tom and Laney, some sign that they were more than friends. The book could’ve done with some of that. This was such a dark book that I didn’t enjoy reading and had to make myself pick it up. There were mature themes about race, definitely racial issues throughout from both sides, being white and racist towards Indians and being Indian and resentful of whites. The mask making Laney loathe herself was way too mature. No child should be exposed to such hatred of themselves, even if it is an evil relic making them do so. To have a kid think they’re worthless and that everyone hates them is not ok. They spent almost 90% of the book withholding information from each other for no other reason than the author wanted to drag it out until the last possible second, making the fight happen at the very end. I was so beyond aggravated that they kept meeting up, broaching a subject, and then separating for whatever reason, just to prolong the plot. I wouldn’t read this again. So much for an enjoyable Indian mystery. It was such a dark book.

[Hannah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this book in middle school (I loved it), and finally found it again a while back. I did not finish it this time. The writing felt choppy. Randomly when someone pauses while talking, the author actually writes Pause in the middle.

"Oh. That." Pause. "What did they say?"

I have seen this a couple of times 31 pages in. Also the random details that are inserted haphazardly.

Tom raised his head proudly. His cheekbones were sharp as axe heads.

I am also not a fan of how Laney's mother treats her. It genuinely made me uncomfortable. The ending was a bit of a let down too. I skipped to the end when I debated on DNFing it. Tom basically tells Laney's mother that she doesn't know Laney and has never tried to get to know her, etc, and suddenly her mother snaps out of it and becomes a loving mother. Her mother has been nothing but nasty and hateful to Laney, but miraculously does a 180 and becomes a loving mother because some boy "lectures her" while crying.

I just couldn't get over the mediocre writing. I may try again later down the road, but it's unlikely.

[Beatrice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vi fick den här boken i skolan i sexan, och jag har länge funderat på att läsa om den. Och den var rätt bra! Jag kom inte ihåg något alls, tydligen.

Den tar upp allt från magi, gott och ont, utanförskap och vänskap. Och en pytteliten del av förtrycket mot indianer i Kanada, om än inte direkt på djupet och snarare i förhållande till den ena karaktärens föräldrar - en vit och en "indian". (Översättningen gjordes 2004, så man får väl vara lite överseende)

Den mest komiska översättningen gällde "Trick or Treat", som tvunget skulle beskrivas i fotnot och översattes till "Spe eller ge"? Var ändå rätt övertygad om att Bus eller Godis var en självklar sak redan 2004?

Jaja! Allt som allt är det en rätt fin bok. Lite fantasy, lite skräck, lite ungdomsroman. Kanske kan man sträcka sig till Urban Fantasy?
Skulle ge den 3,5 i betyg i alla fall.

[C. (Comment, never msg). · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved “Come Like Shadows” and when I encountered “False Face”, I didn’t hesitate to read it. Very thorough research shines through again, moulded with fascination into an adventure. Story segments are very well done. It’s meant for a young audience, isn’t layered with the same complexity as the other, nor does it feel as surreal. It has moments of menace but Aboriginal mythology seems less exotic in Canada. However I would enjoy the mysticism more if we stuck to that thread.

In the style of Judy Blume, cultural issues were bandied about in the context of family angst, which I just don’t find absorbing at forty. The age of a heroine doesn’t matter in ethereal or fantasy literature. But contriving a rude sister, favouritism from a parent, being yelled at in a school.... downgrade the demographics into minutia I’m not keen to read. In real life, our former neighbours gave their teenaged princess a dog; who let her sit bored for two years. I couldn’t stand Laney’s sister. I was after a metaphysical tale anyway. I had real trouble believing a parent could loathe their child for resembling a spouse.

Tom’s attitude was nonsense. In 1987, I might buy prejudice from a boy raised on a reservation. But they shop in mixed towns. Whites aren’t an enigma. Tom was raised by a good Dad and white Mom. There’s no root for bitterness, except leaving his community. It’s a pleasure to see it dawn on him that Laney is unique. In defence of her from her Mom; he’s aware he himself has been a sourpuss. It’s a bit much that the masks are cast as parent versus parent but I respect that the author’s message is for kids. I was pleased to learn about these masks and about archaeological preservation.

[Stephanie A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A spooky, chilling clash between the modern day and Native American mysticism.