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Humane
Hazel LeSage didn’t want to help the Augusts try to find out who killed their daughter Nell.
Hazel’s worked hard all her life. She’s got no time for self-destructive, self-pitying victims like the Augusts. But Hazel saw Nell on the last night of her life and something in Nell’s eyes haunts her. She’s got to try.
One night, in a dream, her Anishinaabe grandmother tells Hazel to go steal Spider, the big black dog she’ll find at the Humane shelter. So she does.
Meanwhile, Hazel’s nephew Devin finds claw marks on an alley wall, one for each of three recent deaths. Devin’s discovery brings Hazel more questions.
Who’s the hunter? Who are the hunted? Who is the mysterious girl called Rabbit? Why is Maengan Nolan suddenly in Amiskwaciy, too, getting cosy with Hazel’s firebrand eldest daughter Missy? Who’s watching Little Frankie, Hazel’s beautiful and brilliant younger daughter? What do a tiger and a lawyer have to do with it all? And what is that song on the wind?
Part murder mystery, part ode to family, and entirely off the leash, Humane asks us all to consider, carefully, what it means to be human, and what it matters to be humane.
“Like its métis characters, Humane straddles two worlds, following the contours of Western-based novel but infusing it with Indigenous storytelling and allegory. It’s a wonderful read, a significant addition to the canon of authentic Indigenous crime novel.”
— Wayne Arthurson, author of the award-winning Leo Desroches novels
Anna Marie Sewell, a member of Listuguj Mi’gmaq First Nation, is also Polish and Anishinaabe. Edmonton’s 4th Poet Laureate, she writes and performs in various genres and languages, and works in cross-cultural arts education; find out more about her work via prairiepomes.com
Hazel’s worked hard all her life. She’s got no time for self-destructive, self-pitying victims like the Augusts. But Hazel saw Nell on the last night of her life and something in Nell’s eyes haunts her. She’s got to try.
One night, in a dream, her Anishinaabe grandmother tells Hazel to go steal Spider, the big black dog she’ll find at the Humane shelter. So she does.
Meanwhile, Hazel’s nephew Devin finds claw marks on an alley wall, one for each of three recent deaths. Devin’s discovery brings Hazel more questions.
Who’s the hunter? Who are the hunted? Who is the mysterious girl called Rabbit? Why is Maengan Nolan suddenly in Amiskwaciy, too, getting cosy with Hazel’s firebrand eldest daughter Missy? Who’s watching Little Frankie, Hazel’s beautiful and brilliant younger daughter? What do a tiger and a lawyer have to do with it all? And what is that song on the wind?
Part murder mystery, part ode to family, and entirely off the leash, Humane asks us all to consider, carefully, what it means to be human, and what it matters to be humane.
“Like its métis characters, Humane straddles two worlds, following the contours of Western-based novel but infusing it with Indigenous storytelling and allegory. It’s a wonderful read, a significant addition to the canon of authentic Indigenous crime novel.”
— Wayne Arthurson, author of the award-winning Leo Desroches novels
Anna Marie Sewell, a member of Listuguj Mi’gmaq First Nation, is also Polish and Anishinaabe. Edmonton’s 4th Poet Laureate, she writes and performs in various genres and languages, and works in cross-cultural arts education; find out more about her work via prairiepomes.com
295 pages, Paperback
First published November 2, 2020
3 people are currently reading
133 people want to read
About the author
Anna Marie Sewell
6 books14 followersAnna Marie Sewell is an Edmonton writer who performs theatre, prose and song.
She writes from the intersection of cultures, languages, ways of life, beliefs; from the silence between two rivers.
She writes from the intersection of cultures, languages, ways of life, beliefs; from the silence between two rivers.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
September 2, 2021
Sometimes you read a book where you don’t entirely know or understand what is going on. One character’s remark may prompt you to question whether something really happened the way you thought it did, or it may be unclear as to what the characters are aware of vs. what the reader is aware of. How do you, as a reader, react to these situations? Personally, I won’t go back and re-read a book, but I will remind myself to slow down and absorb the words better. Humane by Anna Marie Sewell forced me to do just that; slow down, read each sentence carefully, and pause more often to piece together what I’ve learned over the course of a chapter. Some readers are put off by this type of writing, while others seek a more in-depth narrative that requires a deeper focus. I typically like a bit of both, but this particular novel requires the full attention of its reader all the way through.
Plot Summary
Hazel wakes up one morning after having a dream about her grandmother who gave her very specific instructions to go to her local humane society and adopt a black dog named Spider. Hazel does just that, right after breaking up and kicking out her boyfriend, local cop Josh. To Hazel’s surprise, Spider can talk, his words show up in her thoughts but his mouth isn’t moving. A few chapters later, she discovers him naked on her couch, because it turns out he’s a shape-shifter: sometimes a man, sometimes a dog. Hazel is a reluctant private investigator looking for missing indigenous girls and women who work the streets, ‘throwaway’ people as they are sometimes crudely referred to. Together, her and Spider prowl the streets (sometimes in human form, sometimes in dog form), searching for her latest client’s daughter, Nell. A sort of vigilante, Spider becomes particularly vicious around the men that hire the youngest girls on the street, and Hazel witnesses an act that horrifies her, yet is understandable all the same. Meanwhile, Hazel’s two adult daughters, Missy and Little Frankie, meet a shaper-shifter of their own, as well as other individuals in their community who are seeking out revenge for unforgivable acts.
My Thoughts
Sewell is an Alberta poet and multi-disciplinary artist, so it comes as no surprise that this novel includes some descriptive, flowery language. She balances these beautiful turns of phrase with realistic dialogue, and depending on the speaker, a healthy dose of sarcasm, so everything continues at a healthy clip, never really getting bogged down in unnecessary information or drawn out scenes. One of my favourite lines is:
The light stretches long fingers between them, warmth and impersonal comfort. Somewhere near, a bee sings for the joy of nectar (p. 73).
This passage is placed inbetween a fairly serious talk between mother and son, and aside from this little note about the light it dives right back into their conversation and the unspoken emotions it’s raising in each character. As I mentioned above, it was sometimes difficult to understand what was happening, so I appreciated these little pauses that reminded me to soak in the beauty of the writing, even amongst the dark and sometimes violent subject matter.
Similar in tone to the new detective series by Candas Jane Dorsey, Hazel is a detective that searches for justice for those who rarely get it, or worse, for those who society deems unworthy of it in the first place. Hazel is a half-indigenous woman, so she understands the extra danger that Indigenous women face in the sex trade, but because Hazel is also half-white, she gets mistaken for a white woman often. She feels an urgency and duty to help the Indigenous community, but also pushes back against some of their traditions that she feels has been imposed upon her by other Indigenous people. I assumed that the idea of shape-shifting came from an Indigenous perspective and was only possible if you had Indigenous blood, but there is an East Indian character who also turns out to be a shape-shifter, so the Indigenous influence is woven throughout, but but does not blanket the entire narrative either. After doing a little research, it appears as though Sewell has the same genetic make-up of her protagonist; a mixture of Polish and Indigenous heritage, so I’m curious if Hazel’s experiences mirror her own, living in Edmonton.
Clearly this book isn’t an ‘easy’ read, it’s challenging for the reader to follow and deals with some painful topics, but I appreciated Sewell’s light touch, and the distinctions she raises between acting human, and acting humane.
To read the rest of my reviews, please visit my blog:
https://ivereadthis.com/
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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD6E...
Plot Summary
Hazel wakes up one morning after having a dream about her grandmother who gave her very specific instructions to go to her local humane society and adopt a black dog named Spider. Hazel does just that, right after breaking up and kicking out her boyfriend, local cop Josh. To Hazel’s surprise, Spider can talk, his words show up in her thoughts but his mouth isn’t moving. A few chapters later, she discovers him naked on her couch, because it turns out he’s a shape-shifter: sometimes a man, sometimes a dog. Hazel is a reluctant private investigator looking for missing indigenous girls and women who work the streets, ‘throwaway’ people as they are sometimes crudely referred to. Together, her and Spider prowl the streets (sometimes in human form, sometimes in dog form), searching for her latest client’s daughter, Nell. A sort of vigilante, Spider becomes particularly vicious around the men that hire the youngest girls on the street, and Hazel witnesses an act that horrifies her, yet is understandable all the same. Meanwhile, Hazel’s two adult daughters, Missy and Little Frankie, meet a shaper-shifter of their own, as well as other individuals in their community who are seeking out revenge for unforgivable acts.
My Thoughts
Sewell is an Alberta poet and multi-disciplinary artist, so it comes as no surprise that this novel includes some descriptive, flowery language. She balances these beautiful turns of phrase with realistic dialogue, and depending on the speaker, a healthy dose of sarcasm, so everything continues at a healthy clip, never really getting bogged down in unnecessary information or drawn out scenes. One of my favourite lines is:
The light stretches long fingers between them, warmth and impersonal comfort. Somewhere near, a bee sings for the joy of nectar (p. 73).
This passage is placed inbetween a fairly serious talk between mother and son, and aside from this little note about the light it dives right back into their conversation and the unspoken emotions it’s raising in each character. As I mentioned above, it was sometimes difficult to understand what was happening, so I appreciated these little pauses that reminded me to soak in the beauty of the writing, even amongst the dark and sometimes violent subject matter.
Similar in tone to the new detective series by Candas Jane Dorsey, Hazel is a detective that searches for justice for those who rarely get it, or worse, for those who society deems unworthy of it in the first place. Hazel is a half-indigenous woman, so she understands the extra danger that Indigenous women face in the sex trade, but because Hazel is also half-white, she gets mistaken for a white woman often. She feels an urgency and duty to help the Indigenous community, but also pushes back against some of their traditions that she feels has been imposed upon her by other Indigenous people. I assumed that the idea of shape-shifting came from an Indigenous perspective and was only possible if you had Indigenous blood, but there is an East Indian character who also turns out to be a shape-shifter, so the Indigenous influence is woven throughout, but but does not blanket the entire narrative either. After doing a little research, it appears as though Sewell has the same genetic make-up of her protagonist; a mixture of Polish and Indigenous heritage, so I’m curious if Hazel’s experiences mirror her own, living in Edmonton.
Clearly this book isn’t an ‘easy’ read, it’s challenging for the reader to follow and deals with some painful topics, but I appreciated Sewell’s light touch, and the distinctions she raises between acting human, and acting humane.
To read the rest of my reviews, please visit my blog:
https://ivereadthis.com/
Sign up for my newsletter here: https://ivereadthis.com/subscribe/
Or follow me on social media!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Ivereadthis/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ivereadthisblog
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ivereadthis
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD6E...
October 29, 2021
This novel really grew on me as I continued through it, so many twists and turns, and its always incredible to read about a story and characters that are in the city that you grew up in and know
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September 15, 2021Picked up this book after hearing a really interesting CBC interview with Anna Marie Sewell, but was sadly let down. The whole book felt like The Beginning of a story for which we were waiting for a plot to start. Despite reminding the reader that Hazel is a private investigator from time to time, not once do we see Hazel actually investigate anything. Several weeks will pass in a paragraph with Hazel making no progress regarding the case she was hired to investigate which the plot supposedly hinges on, and it's easy to often forget that Hazel is supposed to be investigated Nell August's death at all. Even having a newfound werewolf roommate doesn't make her investigate anything more than she already was. Hazel doesn't even learn Nell had a teenage daughter until 240/295 pages in when Nell's parents tell her she did, which seems like something Hazel should have found out if she did any investigating into this woman at all beforehand, made more irritating by the fact that at this point the reader has been aware of Nell's daughter for a good while.
The character development dropped at the end feels unearned, because the characters never actually did anything to get to that point. Hazel disregarding Nell August's death because Nell was a prostitute and a drug addict only to realize that Nell had a complex interior and family that the outside world refused to recognize because of her circumstances and her life was valuable sounds like a great path for the book to go down, but when Hazel changes her mind about Nell at the end it is apropos of basically nothing when just a few pages before she was still shitting on Nell for being a prostitute. It was difficult to care about the plot when the characters directly involved seemed to care so little themselves.
The character development dropped at the end feels unearned, because the characters never actually did anything to get to that point. Hazel disregarding Nell August's death because Nell was a prostitute and a drug addict only to realize that Nell had a complex interior and family that the outside world refused to recognize because of her circumstances and her life was valuable sounds like a great path for the book to go down, but when Hazel changes her mind about Nell at the end it is apropos of basically nothing when just a few pages before she was still shitting on Nell for being a prostitute. It was difficult to care about the plot when the characters directly involved seemed to care so little themselves.
January 12, 2021
Really enjoyed because it was not only a good yarn there was a great deal of food for thought and insight into ways and ideas different from the "norm"
February 27, 2022
A private eye who plays solitaire and lives with a werewolf in a city that is and isn't Edmonton. There's so much to enjoy in Anna Marie Sewell's Humane from the voices of her many characters to the way she plays with format and genre in a way that reflects and echoes the complex lives of her characters.
April 8, 2021
I really liked this book! It wasn't what I expected, but it was a pleasant surprise. I really loved some of the prose and it definitely had me thinking about it for a long time after I finished it. I found the perspective a little uncommon so I really enjoyed it.
June 11, 2025
3.5⭐️ rounded up
An extremely confusing book, but one that has a strong sense of place that explores the challenges and nuances of identity and relationships.
I particularly enjoyed all the Edmonton references in this book. I could see my hometown all over the pages, so many scenes I could clearly picture in my mind, remembering galavanting around the city with friends.
I didn’t love the multiple POV changes without warning, often on the same page, as I had to keep re-reading section because I didn’t know what was happening.
I did do a tandem read of this one on both audio and also as a physical copy. I actually think I preferred the audio, maybe because I didn’t second guess myself and could enjoy the journey rather than continuously getting stalled in my reading trying to figure out what was going on.
I’d be intrigued to read the sequel to see if things become clearer, but even just to see more of Hazel and Shanaya together!
An extremely confusing book, but one that has a strong sense of place that explores the challenges and nuances of identity and relationships.
I particularly enjoyed all the Edmonton references in this book. I could see my hometown all over the pages, so many scenes I could clearly picture in my mind, remembering galavanting around the city with friends.
I didn’t love the multiple POV changes without warning, often on the same page, as I had to keep re-reading section because I didn’t know what was happening.
I did do a tandem read of this one on both audio and also as a physical copy. I actually think I preferred the audio, maybe because I didn’t second guess myself and could enjoy the journey rather than continuously getting stalled in my reading trying to figure out what was going on.
I’d be intrigued to read the sequel to see if things become clearer, but even just to see more of Hazel and Shanaya together!
August 2, 2021
Hazel wants justice, so she decides to use her skills and knowledge she's gathered as a medical/court transcriptionist, and become a private detective. In a city full of missing and murdered Indigenous women, one particular case has pulled Hazel in - a girl that she knows she recognizes. When her grandmother appears to her in a dream telling her to adopt a dog that will help her solve the case (and dump her boyfriend), Hazel does as she is told - only to find that things are not always as they seem.
This is a great read that adds myths and legends to a murder mystery that keeps you guessing to the end. I found the book hard to rate just based on how hard it was to get into (the multiple viewpoints can be a bit hard to figure out initially), but then how much I ended up enjoying it later on. Overall, it's a unique and well-written story and I would definitely recommend picking it up.
This is a great read that adds myths and legends to a murder mystery that keeps you guessing to the end. I found the book hard to rate just based on how hard it was to get into (the multiple viewpoints can be a bit hard to figure out initially), but then how much I ended up enjoying it later on. Overall, it's a unique and well-written story and I would definitely recommend picking it up.
March 15, 2021
This was a lovely book full of some really beautiful writing. It’s easy to tell that the author is a poet.
I did find sometimes that the story lacked the tension needed to pull one through a mystery and at times I forgot what was at stake.
The main characters are compelling, for sure, and I loved the internal struggles each of them experienced and their growth throughout. There are a lot of characters in this book and while the first person narrative of Hazel was my favourite, the omniscient POV for the other characters I found sometimes jarring and hard to follow.
All in all, I really enjoyed this book and the writing and everyone should read it.
I did find sometimes that the story lacked the tension needed to pull one through a mystery and at times I forgot what was at stake.
The main characters are compelling, for sure, and I loved the internal struggles each of them experienced and their growth throughout. There are a lot of characters in this book and while the first person narrative of Hazel was my favourite, the omniscient POV for the other characters I found sometimes jarring and hard to follow.
All in all, I really enjoyed this book and the writing and everyone should read it.
November 2, 2021
One of the worst books I’ve ever read. So simplistically written yet impossible to follow. There was a lot of spelling and grammar errors and multiple points where clearly the author had rewritten a portion and yet left the older version of the text in the book. This resulted in the same event happening twice in the book ??? Do not waste your time. The characters are passive and there is no character development. I have honestly never hated something so much. Find some better local literature for the love of god.
June 29, 2023
This is a brilliant novel! Seawell is a great word smith, the Mark Twain of our time. Stories and characters are woven throughout the novel;educating the reader through storytelling. A masterpiece of storytelling. I can't wait to start the next one, Urbane. You will want to savour this reading, tidbits of poetry mixed with story. Even Bees "sing." I rarely review books, but for this novel I had too. It is that good!
June 7, 2021
Very interesting! Sewell mixes voices and fonts to help us follow along as a murder mystery is solved and various philosophies are shared. The book was an interesting and challenging mix of characters, references to First Nation culture, myth, spirituality and pop culture. As a Canadian author I was glad to read her very creative novel.
March 10, 2021
A slow read for me, but an entertaining cast of characters and an awesome local Indigenous author. Learned a lot about Mi’gmaq and Anishinaabe storytelling devices and histories! Very cool :)
July 18, 2022
I got confused a lot and the mystery was not the main focus of this book that was marketed to me as a mystery.
August 20, 2022
Shapeshifter detective agency
December 9, 2025
a lyrically written story about belonging, family, legend, anti-Indigenous policies that create broken people, love.
April 26, 2021
An ambitious mystery novel that evokes Amiskwaciy in all of its beauty and ugliness, through drug addicts and sex workers and shapeshifters. I so enjoyed seeing my city reflected in this weird and wild book.
June 16, 2025
I spent a good part of the book trying to sort out what was going on. I really liked Hazel’s voice and I would have like a bit more told just through her eyes. It was overall an interesting read. For sure not an expected detective mystery. I enjoyed the local setting and the secondary characters (particularly Spider). The book really came alive for me in the second half, but unfortunately lost me at the end.
February 8, 2021
Such a page turner! I loved this piece so, so much, I could honestly barely put it down the entire time I was reading it. I want to re-read it to pick out all the amazing references and historical wisdom of my area, but the first read through was a plot-driven joyride from start to finish.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews