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Split Tooth
From the internationally acclaimed Inuit throat singer who has dazzled and enthralled the world with music it had never heard before, a fierce, tender, heartbreaking story unlike anything you've ever read.
Fact can be as strange as fiction. It can also be as dark, as violent, as rapturous. In the end, there may be no difference between them.
A girl grows up in Nunavut in the 1970s. She knows joy, and friendship, and parents' love. She knows boredom, and listlessness, and bullying. She knows the tedium of the everyday world, and the raw, amoral power of the ice and sky, the seductive energy of the animal world. She knows the ravages of alcohol, and violence at the hands of those she should be able to trust. She sees the spirits that surround her, and the immense power that dwarfs all of us.
When she becomes pregnant, she must navigate all this.
Veering back and forth between the grittiest features of a small arctic town, the electrifying proximity of the world of animals, and ravishing world of myth, Tanya Tagaq explores a world where the distinctions between good and evil, animal and human, victim and transgressor, real and imagined lose their meaning, but the guiding power of love remains.
Haunting, brooding, exhilarating, and tender all at once, Tagaq moves effortlessly between fiction and memoir, myth and reality, poetry and prose, and conjures a world and a heroine readers will never forget.
Fact can be as strange as fiction. It can also be as dark, as violent, as rapturous. In the end, there may be no difference between them.
A girl grows up in Nunavut in the 1970s. She knows joy, and friendship, and parents' love. She knows boredom, and listlessness, and bullying. She knows the tedium of the everyday world, and the raw, amoral power of the ice and sky, the seductive energy of the animal world. She knows the ravages of alcohol, and violence at the hands of those she should be able to trust. She sees the spirits that surround her, and the immense power that dwarfs all of us.
When she becomes pregnant, she must navigate all this.
Veering back and forth between the grittiest features of a small arctic town, the electrifying proximity of the world of animals, and ravishing world of myth, Tanya Tagaq explores a world where the distinctions between good and evil, animal and human, victim and transgressor, real and imagined lose their meaning, but the guiding power of love remains.
Haunting, brooding, exhilarating, and tender all at once, Tagaq moves effortlessly between fiction and memoir, myth and reality, poetry and prose, and conjures a world and a heroine readers will never forget.
6 pages, Audible Audio
First published September 25, 2018
617 people are currently reading
30510 people want to read
About the author
Tanya Tagaq
3 books389 followersTanya Tagaq CM is an improvisational performer, avant-garde composer, and experimental recording artist who won the 2014 Polaris Music Prize for her album Animism, a work that disrupted the music world in Canada and beyond with its powerfully original vision. Tagaq contorts elements of punk, metal, and electronica into a complex and contemporary sound that begins in breath, a communal and fundamental phenomenon. While the Polaris Prize signaled an awakening to Tanya Tagaq’s art and messages, she has been touring and collaborating with an elite international circle of artists for over a decade. Tagaq’s improvisational approach lends itself to collaboration across genres, and recent projects have pulled her in vastly different directions, from contributing guest vocals to a F**ked Up song (a hardcore punk band from Toronto) to premiering a composition made for Kronos Quartet’s Fifty for the Future collection, and composing a piece for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Tanya’s most recent album Retribution was released in fall 2016.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,335 reviews
May 1, 2019
Tanya Tagaq is just such a goddamn gem. And I don't know what to even say about this book of hers.
I feel like I didn't "understand" half of this book, because so much of it is written in lyrical poetry and I've never been one to digest poetry well. But I also feel like my mind just sucked everything right up and I somehow, naturally, just get it.
I feel like I didn't enjoy reading this in the usual sense, but at the same time I'm grateful for having done so.
This book is powerful. It's strange. It's difficult. It's magical. It's sad and beautiful and jarring. It's a book I think as many people as possible should read.
I feel like I didn't "understand" half of this book, because so much of it is written in lyrical poetry and I've never been one to digest poetry well. But I also feel like my mind just sucked everything right up and I somehow, naturally, just get it.
I feel like I didn't enjoy reading this in the usual sense, but at the same time I'm grateful for having done so.
This book is powerful. It's strange. It's difficult. It's magical. It's sad and beautiful and jarring. It's a book I think as many people as possible should read.
April 9, 2025
A Terrible Beauty
(Another reviewer mentioned this book should contain a trigger warning for sexual abuse. I concur.)
From November 2018: Should I put down my initial reactions to this book now I've just finished listening to it? Or should I take time to digest it a little so I can be sure not to say anything off colour? Most people seem to agree this book is brilliant. I suppose it is. It's raw. It's brutal. It speaks of the natural world in a beautiful way. It also speaks of the natural world as seen from the point of view of a carnivore and an active predator and who likes to eat flesh still living or raw or as close to pulsing life as possible to get maximum energy from it. It speaks of beauty and horror combined, harshly and dispassionately.
We living in the "southern" parts of Canada can't begin to imagine the kinds of harsh and frigid cold the Inuit must face as part of their daily existence, the punishing quality of it. Kids are only let off school in the Great North when the weather hits minus 50 degrees Celsius or less (that's -58 Fahrenheit). Sexual abuse is so common that Tagaq's character speaks of being jealous when she sees her teacher touching other girls's private parts in the same way, because, one is led to understand, this is part of a young girl's "normal" sexual development in those parts. Many passages made me want to... I don't know... vomit? cry? lay down on the sidewalk trembling and foaming at the mouth? All told with this oh so gentle voice, all part of everyday life.
This is a place where people can't spare empathy for each other, much less for their animals. When there's not enough food for their dogs, they must be put down. When the fox population become too numerous, they starve and attack the children, so they must be exterminated, and Tagaq describes taking satisfaction from the popping sounds as they hit their targets while shooting at them, as part of a father/daughter bonding experience. There is no mystery about sex and certainly no such thing as modesty about it. Not in a world where parents and uncles and family friends regularly get blind drunk and children get high with whatever substance they can get their hands on, and I suppose one is naturally drawn to warm places. But Tagaq recounts all this with a clear, gentle, girlish... I want to say pure voice, and in between snatches of story/poetry there is the throat singing she is famous for, which is sometimes sublime and more often disconcerting and frankly disturbing, much like this book as a whole. That being said, if there ever was a book one should experience as an audiobook for the full effect, then this would be it.
Inextricably, melding the sordid with the sublime, there is the world of spirit and mythology. Ancient stories of humans transforming into sea creatures, who then take their vengeance on men for wrongs done to them. Representing man's endless struggle with cold and starvation and the unforgiving sea. There are astral voyages... out of body experiences she recounts as simply as if she were describing going to the store to buy a pint of milk; she lets her spirit roam to escape the horror of the violently drunk adults in the room, who are a regular feature of every young person's life. The Northern Lights are ever-present, and eventually, they impregnate her in a kind of psychedelic journey which yields actual babies, though whether they are fully human is never made clear. She tells all these stories in the first person, as if this has all been part of her personal experience, but you eventually figure out that she has weaved together the story of her people, perhaps of her generation. It is part memoir, part myth, part history, part fantasy, part fiction and part non-fiction too.
I'm not a prude, I'm certainly not religious and I've never been a Christian, but this book made me feel like a Puritan at times. Tagaq managed to shock me with the raw sexuality and sheer brutality she described. This book took on a nightmarish quality for me. The kind of nightmares which both seduce and repel you. You desperately want to wake up for them to stop, but then again you want to follow those strange creatures around that structure to see where they might take you, though your heart is pounding and you're absolutely certain you're about to die because you know they're leading you to something truly horrific and from which you won't possibly be able to escape.
Tagaq's mind, the culture she describes seems like it comes from a completely different universe, and perhaps the throat singing made it seem more so, certainly it made the whole thing take on a different dimension. I thought I knew something about the Great North and its people before, had some kind of notion at least, but no. And now, here is an opportunity to hear a creative, smart, multi-talented, deep-thinking woman, one with a gentle and kind voice no less, and she terrified me with the raw brutality of her poetry. I suppose that's what she set out to do. Shake us Southerners out of our complacency and our comfort zone. She managed that extremely well. Never did I feel so much like the "other". Or so damn white. And have to wonder: is that really such a bad thing? And why must I be apologizing? And must I? All questions which are big taboos if one is presumably liberal and loves all humanity equally. But when confronted with so much otherness, can one really not ask oneself those questions?
I will not say I loved this book. I did not. Nor did I like it. The same way I do not love the nightmares that visit me every night. My nightmares are filled with symbolism and strange creatures and memories that are sometimes my own and sometimes not, too. But nightmares, much like Tanya Tagaq, are trying to convey important messages to us, and like it or not, we must listen. Some of us might be enchanted by what she has to say, some of us will not be. All the same, I'm glad I listened to this book. It felt like an important thing to do, and it certainly had a terrible beauty. I'm just thankful my nightmares can't possibly be worse than they are already, or this book would have proved traumatic in a truly lasting way.
Want to read more of my writing?
Visit my blog: TotallySurreal.com
Currently working on my memoir,
Crash, Burn, Write.
(Another reviewer mentioned this book should contain a trigger warning for sexual abuse. I concur.)
From November 2018: Should I put down my initial reactions to this book now I've just finished listening to it? Or should I take time to digest it a little so I can be sure not to say anything off colour? Most people seem to agree this book is brilliant. I suppose it is. It's raw. It's brutal. It speaks of the natural world in a beautiful way. It also speaks of the natural world as seen from the point of view of a carnivore and an active predator and who likes to eat flesh still living or raw or as close to pulsing life as possible to get maximum energy from it. It speaks of beauty and horror combined, harshly and dispassionately.
We living in the "southern" parts of Canada can't begin to imagine the kinds of harsh and frigid cold the Inuit must face as part of their daily existence, the punishing quality of it. Kids are only let off school in the Great North when the weather hits minus 50 degrees Celsius or less (that's -58 Fahrenheit). Sexual abuse is so common that Tagaq's character speaks of being jealous when she sees her teacher touching other girls's private parts in the same way, because, one is led to understand, this is part of a young girl's "normal" sexual development in those parts. Many passages made me want to... I don't know... vomit? cry? lay down on the sidewalk trembling and foaming at the mouth? All told with this oh so gentle voice, all part of everyday life.
This is a place where people can't spare empathy for each other, much less for their animals. When there's not enough food for their dogs, they must be put down. When the fox population become too numerous, they starve and attack the children, so they must be exterminated, and Tagaq describes taking satisfaction from the popping sounds as they hit their targets while shooting at them, as part of a father/daughter bonding experience. There is no mystery about sex and certainly no such thing as modesty about it. Not in a world where parents and uncles and family friends regularly get blind drunk and children get high with whatever substance they can get their hands on, and I suppose one is naturally drawn to warm places. But Tagaq recounts all this with a clear, gentle, girlish... I want to say pure voice, and in between snatches of story/poetry there is the throat singing she is famous for, which is sometimes sublime and more often disconcerting and frankly disturbing, much like this book as a whole. That being said, if there ever was a book one should experience as an audiobook for the full effect, then this would be it.
Inextricably, melding the sordid with the sublime, there is the world of spirit and mythology. Ancient stories of humans transforming into sea creatures, who then take their vengeance on men for wrongs done to them. Representing man's endless struggle with cold and starvation and the unforgiving sea. There are astral voyages... out of body experiences she recounts as simply as if she were describing going to the store to buy a pint of milk; she lets her spirit roam to escape the horror of the violently drunk adults in the room, who are a regular feature of every young person's life. The Northern Lights are ever-present, and eventually, they impregnate her in a kind of psychedelic journey which yields actual babies, though whether they are fully human is never made clear. She tells all these stories in the first person, as if this has all been part of her personal experience, but you eventually figure out that she has weaved together the story of her people, perhaps of her generation. It is part memoir, part myth, part history, part fantasy, part fiction and part non-fiction too.
I'm not a prude, I'm certainly not religious and I've never been a Christian, but this book made me feel like a Puritan at times. Tagaq managed to shock me with the raw sexuality and sheer brutality she described. This book took on a nightmarish quality for me. The kind of nightmares which both seduce and repel you. You desperately want to wake up for them to stop, but then again you want to follow those strange creatures around that structure to see where they might take you, though your heart is pounding and you're absolutely certain you're about to die because you know they're leading you to something truly horrific and from which you won't possibly be able to escape.
Tagaq's mind, the culture she describes seems like it comes from a completely different universe, and perhaps the throat singing made it seem more so, certainly it made the whole thing take on a different dimension. I thought I knew something about the Great North and its people before, had some kind of notion at least, but no. And now, here is an opportunity to hear a creative, smart, multi-talented, deep-thinking woman, one with a gentle and kind voice no less, and she terrified me with the raw brutality of her poetry. I suppose that's what she set out to do. Shake us Southerners out of our complacency and our comfort zone. She managed that extremely well. Never did I feel so much like the "other". Or so damn white. And have to wonder: is that really such a bad thing? And why must I be apologizing? And must I? All questions which are big taboos if one is presumably liberal and loves all humanity equally. But when confronted with so much otherness, can one really not ask oneself those questions?
I will not say I loved this book. I did not. Nor did I like it. The same way I do not love the nightmares that visit me every night. My nightmares are filled with symbolism and strange creatures and memories that are sometimes my own and sometimes not, too. But nightmares, much like Tanya Tagaq, are trying to convey important messages to us, and like it or not, we must listen. Some of us might be enchanted by what she has to say, some of us will not be. All the same, I'm glad I listened to this book. It felt like an important thing to do, and it certainly had a terrible beauty. I'm just thankful my nightmares can't possibly be worse than they are already, or this book would have proved traumatic in a truly lasting way.
Want to read more of my writing?
Visit my blog: TotallySurreal.com
Currently working on my memoir,
Crash, Burn, Write.
February 13, 2020
Now also available in German: Eisfuchs
While listening to the audiobook, I was reminded of Björk, and then I found out that Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq has actually worked with her on Medúlla and the Vespertine World Tour. That said, you can obviously expect something unconventional and genre-defying when picking up Tagaq's debut as a writer - and while "Split Tooth" was longlisted for the Giller Prize which is awarded to Canadian novels or short story collections, you could also perceive this book as a fictionalized memoir or as a collage of different poetic text forms. In mesmerizing, lyrical and sometimes disturbing vignettes, the author takes the perspective of a young indigenous girl who grows up in Nunavat in the 1970s (as Tagaq did). The book talks about violence, abuse, alcoholism, drugs, family, and everyday life in the icy North of Canda, but these more typical themes for a coming-of-age story are merged with a shamanic awakening the girl experiences with the onset of puberty: Nature, myths and the spirit world become part of her, and she becomes part of them.
Tagaq finds a myriad of poetic ways to express the physical and spiritual world that entails the girl and her surroundings. It's interesting to note that she compiled parts of the book out of her dream journals and notebooks of observations she made. Ultimately, Tagaq's goal is also political: This book is a representation of indigenous women, and it is written in the most honest, lyrical and beautiful way.
You can listen to me discussing the book (in German) here and here. In case you're curious about Tagaq's award-winning music, check this out.
While listening to the audiobook, I was reminded of Björk, and then I found out that Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq has actually worked with her on Medúlla and the Vespertine World Tour. That said, you can obviously expect something unconventional and genre-defying when picking up Tagaq's debut as a writer - and while "Split Tooth" was longlisted for the Giller Prize which is awarded to Canadian novels or short story collections, you could also perceive this book as a fictionalized memoir or as a collage of different poetic text forms. In mesmerizing, lyrical and sometimes disturbing vignettes, the author takes the perspective of a young indigenous girl who grows up in Nunavat in the 1970s (as Tagaq did). The book talks about violence, abuse, alcoholism, drugs, family, and everyday life in the icy North of Canda, but these more typical themes for a coming-of-age story are merged with a shamanic awakening the girl experiences with the onset of puberty: Nature, myths and the spirit world become part of her, and she becomes part of them.
Tagaq finds a myriad of poetic ways to express the physical and spiritual world that entails the girl and her surroundings. It's interesting to note that she compiled parts of the book out of her dream journals and notebooks of observations she made. Ultimately, Tagaq's goal is also political: This book is a representation of indigenous women, and it is written in the most honest, lyrical and beautiful way.
You can listen to me discussing the book (in German) here and here. In case you're curious about Tagaq's award-winning music, check this out.
January 7, 2019
This novel was filled to the brim with beautiful imagery and poetic prose, but in trying to present everything as beautifully as Tanya Tagaq did, all sense of a narrative was lost. When I finally closed this book, I realized I had been transfixed by these 180 pages and ended up not understanding a single thing that happened. This novel was magical in the way a magician plucking a rose out of thin air is. The rose is exciting and beautiful but once the trick is done and you’re left holding the flower, all that’s left is confusion. “Split Tooth” was the thorniest of roses.
October 13, 2018
Truth be told, I don't care for about half of the Indigenous fiction or poetry that gets taken up by CanLit. It's often overly cloying, or tragedy porn, or written with a white audience in mind, or sometimes it's just not my cup of tea. Split Tooth though, is none of these. Split Tooth is a brutal, unflinching, magical, beautiful, grounded beauty of a book. It belongs on the shelves of anyone who likes Chrystos or Eden Robinson or other authors who know how to (paraphrasing the book here) put their fingers in the membrane between the bone and fur.
It's not an easy read. It cracks open your clavicle and digs right at your heart. But in the process old wounds that never fully healed get a new chance at honest renewal.
I seriously doubt this will end up being hyped or embraced by the CanLit establishment, but it's better than that. It stands on its own. It's a masterpiece.
It's not an easy read. It cracks open your clavicle and digs right at your heart. But in the process old wounds that never fully healed get a new chance at honest renewal.
I seriously doubt this will end up being hyped or embraced by the CanLit establishment, but it's better than that. It stands on its own. It's a masterpiece.
May 14, 2021
One of the most unique and interesting audiobooks I’ve ever listened to
Reading vlog where I read it: https://youtu.be/VOeMnQfn7lA
Reading vlog where I read it: https://youtu.be/VOeMnQfn7lA
September 29, 2018
This book defies categorization, being unlike anything I have ever read. This is visceral storytelling. It has been long listed for the Giller Prize. The author, Tanya Tagaq, is an award winning Inuit throat singer. If you are unfamiliar with her strange, unworldly music, I urge you to visit YouTube. There are videos of her performing, and most interestingly a video where she describes and demonstrates how she makes the various sounds in her music.
Here she paints word pictures ranging from the beautiful and rapturous to the disturbing and grotesque. The book contains snippets about a child and young woman growing up in the Far North. We learn something of their games, abuse, bullying, smoking discarded cigarette butts, liquor, drugs, solvent sniffing and love of animals. Mainly it contains poetry, visions, dreams, nightmares. There is homages to Arctic wildlife, nature including the cold and ice, the Northern Lights as a rhapsody. Good and Evil Spirits and dead ancestors permeate the spell cast by the writing. This book may not be for everyone but reading it was an unforgettable experience.
Here she paints word pictures ranging from the beautiful and rapturous to the disturbing and grotesque. The book contains snippets about a child and young woman growing up in the Far North. We learn something of their games, abuse, bullying, smoking discarded cigarette butts, liquor, drugs, solvent sniffing and love of animals. Mainly it contains poetry, visions, dreams, nightmares. There is homages to Arctic wildlife, nature including the cold and ice, the Northern Lights as a rhapsody. Good and Evil Spirits and dead ancestors permeate the spell cast by the writing. This book may not be for everyone but reading it was an unforgettable experience.
Read
January 11, 2021I don't really know how to rate this. Split Tooth is a work of art, a combination of poetry, prose and throat singing (DO listen to it on audio, it is a must), and as a whole it creates a very immersive experience. However, I will be lying if I said I understood and enjoyed this piece in its entirety. I may have gotten more out of it if I had more cultural context to fall back on. When the narrative was grounded in reality, I was on board, when it veered into myth, I often wasn't. Tagaq's poetry is compelling, but her Inuit throat singing is mesmerizing. I spent hours today watching her perform.
January 21, 2025
I didn’t really know what to expect from this book. It’s definitely different from what I usually read but this is probably one of the most interesting books I’ve read in a while. I wasn’t super into the poetry aspect but other than that it was really good!
Read
April 12, 2021[UPDATE: I made a mistake in my initial review. The sounds that are in between chapters is throat singing from those who are of Inuit heritage, if I'm not mistaken, and I just wanted that to be known because I wasn't aware of it when I read this book.]
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ORIGINAL REVIEW:
This book has really strong themes that was tackled in a very upfront way but it was not for me. And that's fine, I acknowledge it, I will still recommend this.
tw//
This is another case of me not being aware of the trigger warnings as well as not really getting along with the writing style.
Going into this, I thought there would be a music aspect somewhere but reading the synopsis again I realized that they were talking about the author and not the actual book.
It’s impossible not to face the issues that this book is presenting while reading. Which I think is it's strong point. It has so many positive messages to tell but it was not my vibe. The writing style is very descriptive and metaphorical but I think at one point it was too much for me. It also wrapped up on a note that left me unsatisfied.
I really wished I could have been more attached. It was engaging, at times, to follow how they lived their lives in a place that I wasn't familiar with but was interested in.
But I kept falling asleep while reading this and the story read longer than it actually was. Since I didn't feel much towards the characters, I felt detached from the conflict and the intense parts. I knew they were very intense and serious but I couldn't relate to them emotionally. I really wish I could though because a lot of things happen that just made me think.
The book tackles very heavy and serious issues. Metaphors were used but there were were specific times when I was not quite sure if that specific thing was still a metaphor. Plus there are sound effects at the end of every chapter that sounds very weird when you’re listening at 1.85x speed. It sounded like someone (or a wolf?) breathing really hard.
At the end of the day, I just did not vibe with the style but I see how a lot of people would like this if you are looking for a very hard hitting adult contemporary, especially one that deals with topics like abuse. If you liked Bunny by Mona Awad, this has somewhat similar vibes and plot/writing tools used.
---------------
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
This book has really strong themes that was tackled in a very upfront way but it was not for me. And that's fine, I acknowledge it, I will still recommend this.
tw//
This is another case of me not being aware of the trigger warnings as well as not really getting along with the writing style.
“We have no power over a universe we can barely comprehend.”
Going into this, I thought there would be a music aspect somewhere but reading the synopsis again I realized that they were talking about the author and not the actual book.
It’s impossible not to face the issues that this book is presenting while reading. Which I think is it's strong point. It has so many positive messages to tell but it was not my vibe. The writing style is very descriptive and metaphorical but I think at one point it was too much for me. It also wrapped up on a note that left me unsatisfied.
I really wished I could have been more attached. It was engaging, at times, to follow how they lived their lives in a place that I wasn't familiar with but was interested in.
But I kept falling asleep while reading this and the story read longer than it actually was. Since I didn't feel much towards the characters, I felt detached from the conflict and the intense parts. I knew they were very intense and serious but I couldn't relate to them emotionally. I really wish I could though because a lot of things happen that just made me think.
The book tackles very heavy and serious issues. Metaphors were used but there were were specific times when I was not quite sure if that specific thing was still a metaphor. Plus there are sound effects at the end of every chapter that sounds very weird when you’re listening at 1.85x speed. It sounded like someone (or a wolf?) breathing really hard.
At the end of the day, I just did not vibe with the style but I see how a lot of people would like this if you are looking for a very hard hitting adult contemporary, especially one that deals with topics like abuse. If you liked Bunny by Mona Awad, this has somewhat similar vibes and plot/writing tools used.
“If only healing was the way of the world.””
September 5, 2022
A truly unique book that exists effortlessly in its own Inuit world distinct from western colonial storytelling. (I say this partially in response to reviews I've read that lament the blend of realism and myth in this book, as if some readers are frustrated by the book's lack of adherence to genre conventions. Like, that's the point??)
Split Tooth is very strange, haunting, and beautiful, moving seamlessly between realism and myth modes, if you can even separate them, which I'm not sure you can or should. It charts the story of a young Inuit woman growing up in Nunavut in the 70s and 80s, dusty summers playing with other kids on the cusp of puberty, lying on the ice watching the northern lights in winter, a magical transformation and birth, and more. Content warning for fairly regular mentions of sexual assault.
The audiobook is stunning, read in Taqag's hypnotic and melodious voice, interspersed with her doing Inuit throat singing. It's a really remarkable performance.
Split Tooth is very strange, haunting, and beautiful, moving seamlessly between realism and myth modes, if you can even separate them, which I'm not sure you can or should. It charts the story of a young Inuit woman growing up in Nunavut in the 70s and 80s, dusty summers playing with other kids on the cusp of puberty, lying on the ice watching the northern lights in winter, a magical transformation and birth, and more. Content warning for fairly regular mentions of sexual assault.
The audiobook is stunning, read in Taqag's hypnotic and melodious voice, interspersed with her doing Inuit throat singing. It's a really remarkable performance.
March 29, 2021
This audiobook was fantastic! Honestly, when I read the physical book I wasn't exactly too crazy about it, but listening to this audiobook, and Tanya herself reading her work and throat singing was just such a moving experience! I definitely recommend this to anyone and everyone!
November 26, 2018
Did 90% of this on audio and there was no possible way I could bring myself to endure the remainder. Tagaq’s breathy, incantatory audio narration works so powerfully for the incantational pieces here and there, and the throat singing was to die for, but she never ever varies that tone and it drove me up the effing wall listening to the most prosaic details of these stories told to me as if they were shamanic prayers. I am done.
September 2, 2024
reading vlog: https://youtu.be/b0mSH9_iMKE
such a unique book with an incredible perspective that i can't possibly do justice in a small review! some of it was slightly beyond my understanding but i really admire what this was trying to do
such a unique book with an incredible perspective that i can't possibly do justice in a small review! some of it was slightly beyond my understanding but i really admire what this was trying to do
January 2, 2022
The rating is a little misleading because I truly don't know what to do with this. It's a case of a book that is skillfully executed in a voice unlike any other, but that was ultimately in a style that wasn't quite for me. And that's okay because this story is not for me! Also, though, because of the format of what Tagaq created, I found this was much like a poetry collection or a short story collection where there were 5 star portions and portions I felt were a little less effective, kind of averaging it out to a 3-4 star overall experience.
The best way I can make a comparison here is to say that if you are a person who struggles with modern poetry and specifically with the sort of economy that marks modern poetry, you may also struggle with the style here.
I will say that I've been thinking about this often after reading and I'd like to go back and revisit portions of this and really let it sit with me to see if I can make better sense of my own experience with Tagaqs incredibly personal account.
Content warnings for rape, sexual assault, child abuse, substance abuse, and infanticide.
May 25, 2020
So. Weird. What. Just. Happened. The poetry was beautiful, the myths interwoven into the story were haunting, and when I finished it I had to sit in silence and think about it for a long time. This one will stay with me for a while.
October 15, 2018
Ice in lung
Ice in Wind
Life unsung
Milk Death
Split tooth
Sorrow marrow
Whispered truth
On her website, one can see the awesome artistic range that Tanya Tagaq displays – from “Punk Inuit Throat Singer” to painter – and in a further expression of her art, she has now released her fiction debut, Split Tooth. Self-taught at writing as she was at singing, this book is apparently based on journals that Tagaq kept over the years; journals in which she would write poems, ideas, memories, and short fictions. Put together in a loose narrative that I had to keep reminding myself wasn't a straight memoir, Tagaq paints a vivid picture of growing up in Nunavut in the 70's:
We break into abandoned buildings just to keep warm. We climb the oil tanks and run around the tops of them, daring ourselves to jump off (we never do). We challenge the power plant to a yelling match. We collect our friends in gangs and each one of us tells our parents we are sleeping over at someone else's house. We hold 100 metre races and play spin the bottle. We steal hash and beer and potato chips. We talk on the phone. We taunt drunks on the street, knowing they will never remember who bruised their egos when they have killed their own dignity already.
In between snippets of the continuing narrative, there are frequent semi-mystical/philosophical musings that may have been better off left in the journals:
Spirit is already divine. We must feed Divinity with devout intent and Spirit grows stronger, cleansing and returning to reality upon Death. What happens before birth and resumes after death – this is more real than the brief spark of life. Our lives just carry the physical burden of carrying energy forward. We put on suits of meat as training, as a challenge. We all know this is temporary.
And often, a short poem would appear that would perfectly and impactfully capture some details from the narrative:
The Human Sternum is capable of so many things
Protector of Diaphragm
Killer and milk feeder of hope
Marriage of marrow and cartilage
Heaving
Imprisoning the heart
Keeps it alive
Cage for Blood and breath
The Human Sternum is used for so many things
Clavicles like handlebars
Ribs like stairs
The sternum is the shield
Even when impaired
Even when it smothers a little girl's face
As the bedsprings squeak
The book also includes several line drawings by Jaime Hernandez, and as the girl in the story enters puberty, she has an encounter with the natural world that begins a storyline that sounds like it could have been an age-old myth. I liked this scrapbooky feel: it may not give the reading experience of a traditional Western novel, but who says that an Inuit artist needs to follow anyone else's rules for how to tell a story? There is both joy and pain in this story, and throughout, Tagaq writes of her community with warmth and love; my personal tastes may have appreciated some different editorial choices, but I am impressed by the art that Tagaq has created here.
July 29, 2019
DNF half way through.
This book was just not for me. The writing was very lyrical and poetic however, poetry is one of the few genres that I can never seem to get into. Some of the writing was beautiful to me at times but I often didn't really know what was going on; I found the overall book very disordered and random. It was also very disturbing to me a lot of the time. Disturbing in itself doesn't usually bother me as I do like to read books with very difficult subject matter but for some reason this one just got to me. I think it was because I was listening to it on audio and the voice was very calm, monotone and breathy. I don't know, I just didn't enjoy it. I also wasn't a huge fan of the throat singing. I know she is famous for hers but when it comes to art everyone has different preferences.
Overall I think that if you are a poetry lover, you may enjoy this book but unfortunately it just wasn't for me.
This book was just not for me. The writing was very lyrical and poetic however, poetry is one of the few genres that I can never seem to get into. Some of the writing was beautiful to me at times but I often didn't really know what was going on; I found the overall book very disordered and random. It was also very disturbing to me a lot of the time. Disturbing in itself doesn't usually bother me as I do like to read books with very difficult subject matter but for some reason this one just got to me. I think it was because I was listening to it on audio and the voice was very calm, monotone and breathy. I don't know, I just didn't enjoy it. I also wasn't a huge fan of the throat singing. I know she is famous for hers but when it comes to art everyone has different preferences.
Overall I think that if you are a poetry lover, you may enjoy this book but unfortunately it just wasn't for me.
October 28, 2024
I've had this book on my tbr for years, and I've been looking forward to reading it just as long, but I don't think the audiobook was the way to go.
Tanya Tagaq narrates her own book, there's even throat singing in between chapters, but something about her delivery didn't work for me.
It wasn't just that though, I literally started this book and was disturbed in the first few chapters. It would be fine if it was just that one time, but then it continued throughout, and it felt like that was done on purpose. Like, I'm sure the same story could've been told without being so graphic and including certain scenes we shall not be mentioning.
It was not an easy listen for sure, and I can't really recommend this to anyone, but I also think it's a book that deserves to be read, but also maybe don't read it if you don't have a strong stomach, but maybe do, but also be careful & heed the trigger warnings...
Tanya Tagaq narrates her own book, there's even throat singing in between chapters, but something about her delivery didn't work for me.
It wasn't just that though, I literally started this book and was disturbed in the first few chapters. It would be fine if it was just that one time, but then it continued throughout, and it felt like that was done on purpose. Like, I'm sure the same story could've been told without being so graphic and including certain scenes we shall not be mentioning.
It was not an easy listen for sure, and I can't really recommend this to anyone, but I also think it's a book that deserves to be read, but also maybe don't read it if you don't have a strong stomach, but maybe do, but also be careful & heed the trigger warnings...
June 1, 2020
What an intriguing, interesting and heartbreaking book. This book stand on its own.
The writing is brilliant.
I have never read anything like it. It defies genre.
Is this a journal? A memoir? Poetry? Fantasy? Fiction, non-fiction. It is for sure a drama.
Sexual abuse, drugs, alcohol.
But there is also something magical, a transportation to a new dimension.
I’m sure that this book will not please everyone but I loved it and I would like to try the audiobook (never my choice) narrated by the author, as I heard it is very impressive.
The writing is brilliant.
I have never read anything like it. It defies genre.
Is this a journal? A memoir? Poetry? Fantasy? Fiction, non-fiction. It is for sure a drama.
Sexual abuse, drugs, alcohol.
But there is also something magical, a transportation to a new dimension.
I’m sure that this book will not please everyone but I loved it and I would like to try the audiobook (never my choice) narrated by the author, as I heard it is very impressive.
February 2, 2019
In Split Tooth, Tanya Tagaq blasts through boundaries between the natural and the supernatural, reality and fantasy, the present and the past, and humans and other animals. Split Tooth alternates between prose and poetry, and Tagaq’s language is spare and lovely. Tagaq tells a liminal yet linear story of a teen Inuk girl in a small village in far north Nunavut, where both adults and teens seek escape in alcohol and substance abuse: ”It’s a Bring Your Own Solvents party and I want to let the colours shine. We take turns sharing the bags, not caring if we drool into them. My favourite is the rubber cement and it makes me sad when I have to give it away. Then I stop caring which one I have and there is only the High>” But the life’s rigors and brutality are sometimes made more bearable by family and closeness: ”A black eye on Saturday Maybe six. Maybe she deserved it. Turn your head the other way if the shoplifter is too thin. Heartfelt greetings. Whispered secrets. We are the walls. We shuffle down the aisles and take stock of the community. / We congregate. I make out with the butcher in the freezer. I’m growing breasts and I’m proud of them. The town is small but it is warm. Someone is found frozen by Cape Cockburn. Someone committed suicide. Someone is pregnant.”
Tanya Tagaq’s Split Tooth lies far outside my literary experience. It’s arresting, fascinating, and deeply disturbing: ”Beat me. I deserve it. Blacken my eyes so they reflect what I see from the inside. Break my ribs. Kick me. / Kill me. End this. I am not brave enough to do it myself. All I have is numb. . . / Cleanse me. Wash the blood off. I am still working. I survive still. I am stronger now. / Worship me. I am boundless. I stood up. I am worthy. / Start again.”
4 stars
Tanya Tagaq’s Split Tooth lies far outside my literary experience. It’s arresting, fascinating, and deeply disturbing: ”Beat me. I deserve it. Blacken my eyes so they reflect what I see from the inside. Break my ribs. Kick me. / Kill me. End this. I am not brave enough to do it myself. All I have is numb. . . / Cleanse me. Wash the blood off. I am still working. I survive still. I am stronger now. / Worship me. I am boundless. I stood up. I am worthy. / Start again.”
4 stars
October 21, 2018
In 2001, I first saw Inuit art – I mean real and in person. And, I fell in love with it. It was telling a story, even though I might not know what that story was, but it was still telling a story. So, I started to read up on the culture. I developed a taste for Inuit throat singing. Eventually, I heard about Tanya Tagaq, when she won the Polaris award. I got the album. “Uja” is one my all-time favorite pieces of music. When I found out that Tagaq had a book coming out, I had to pre order it.
Spilt Tooth is one of those fictional books that may, most likely, somewhat contains some non-fiction details. It chronicles the life of a young Inuit girl as she grows to adulthood. She lives in Nunavat. Eventually she becomes pregnant.
The novel is a thing of beauty. A combination of belief, myth, storytelling, heartbreak, nature, and poetry.
There are so many beautiful images in this book – the stealing of a boy’s pants, the taking of an animal home, the foxes, the Northern Lights.
But there is harshness too because it is the North and life can be harsh. There is fear.
And the ending, oh the ending.
Spilt Tooth is one of those fictional books that may, most likely, somewhat contains some non-fiction details. It chronicles the life of a young Inuit girl as she grows to adulthood. She lives in Nunavat. Eventually she becomes pregnant.
The novel is a thing of beauty. A combination of belief, myth, storytelling, heartbreak, nature, and poetry.
There are so many beautiful images in this book – the stealing of a boy’s pants, the taking of an animal home, the foxes, the Northern Lights.
But there is harshness too because it is the North and life can be harsh. There is fear.
And the ending, oh the ending.
December 20, 2019
J'hésitais entre 3 et 4 étoiles. La grande force du livre à mon avis est le regard porté par l'auteure sur sa communauté et son monde. C'est écrit froidement et certains passages glacent le sang en effet. Les poèmes intercalés sont très beaux aussi. Les parties plus fantastiques m'ont moins rejoint même si je comprend l'allégorie... Ça reste un livre à lire pour cette voix qui vient du Grand Nord et qui se fait encore si rare...
June 25, 2024
Interesting but challenging read for me as I struggled to interpret parts of this poetic and dreamlike book set in a small community within the unforgiving natural environment of the Arctic.
The social issues are brutal and it was a bit of a rollercoaster of emotions as we jumped between the realism of vile locally accepted child sex abuse and rape, and then into the dreamy Northern Lights, folklore and spirit world.
The social issues are brutal and it was a bit of a rollercoaster of emotions as we jumped between the realism of vile locally accepted child sex abuse and rape, and then into the dreamy Northern Lights, folklore and spirit world.
November 12, 2023
Beautiful. Like insanely so. I don't even know what to say..it reads like part coming-of-age tale, part-poetic masterpiece, part fantastical-stream of consciousness-sort-of purge. Her writing is super sharp; much like her music. Razor sharp and awe-inducing.
Tagaq is coming for your neck with this book. There was some light playful elements and memories highlighting a life of childhood squabbles and things experienced much too young.. and there are horrorific elements highlighting the unspeakable in words that are cutting but meant to be loudly heard and they are. The culmination stayed with me after the last page was swiped. This book lacerated me.
Tagaq is coming for your neck with this book. There was some light playful elements and memories highlighting a life of childhood squabbles and things experienced much too young.. and there are horrorific elements highlighting the unspeakable in words that are cutting but meant to be loudly heard and they are. The culmination stayed with me after the last page was swiped. This book lacerated me.
dnf
November 9, 2025dnf @ 31%
i have to dnf this for lack of being prepared for the content.
pls check tw's but yeah looking at some more critical reviews, i just don't think this is for me.
it was cool to hear the throat singing sections tho.
i have to dnf this for lack of being prepared for the content.
pls check tw's but yeah looking at some more critical reviews, i just don't think this is for me.
it was cool to hear the throat singing sections tho.
March 24, 2025
Oof. How does one even.
This is a book that's very painful and beautiful, literally poetic, I would say it's probably too much (but in a good way? I don't know) and it has most of the CWs (including CSA, but all of the other hardcore ones as well). It's a very uncomfortable experience that I don't know who I'd recommend too, but I also think it's absolutely brilliant.
The imagery runs the gamut from sublime to what I'd probably call body horror, let's just say it starts off in a sort of True Detective Night Country vibe (sans the investigation) and goes more and more surreal. It makes its own sort of sense, but I think it's mostly meant to be deeply felt. It's a little book that's experimental, angry, rendered in the Indigenous storytelling tradition - there are parts that are overtly in verse, but the parts that seem like prose have their own poetry. And it's incredibly intense!
Going to do a re-read, next time with the audiobook!
This is a book that's very painful and beautiful, literally poetic, I would say it's probably too much (but in a good way? I don't know) and it has most of the CWs (including CSA, but all of the other hardcore ones as well). It's a very uncomfortable experience that I don't know who I'd recommend too, but I also think it's absolutely brilliant.
The imagery runs the gamut from sublime to what I'd probably call body horror, let's just say it starts off in a sort of True Detective Night Country vibe (sans the investigation) and goes more and more surreal. It makes its own sort of sense, but I think it's mostly meant to be deeply felt. It's a little book that's experimental, angry, rendered in the Indigenous storytelling tradition - there are parts that are overtly in verse, but the parts that seem like prose have their own poetry. And it's incredibly intense!
Going to do a re-read, next time with the audiobook!
February 22, 2019
I don’t feel equipped to review this book.
It is visceral, stunning, haunting, so much I can’t explain but you should read it for yourself. I’m not fully convinced I did read it, it feels as though the Northern Lights may have come down from the sky to fill my being and leave me with the memories of the book instead, floating loosely beside me like a confused yet meaningful reminder of a dream I once had that I couldn’t quite hold on to.
Tanya Tagaq is a visionary. I loved the book but it sickened me as well. Split Tooth pulls no punches.
It is visceral, stunning, haunting, so much I can’t explain but you should read it for yourself. I’m not fully convinced I did read it, it feels as though the Northern Lights may have come down from the sky to fill my being and leave me with the memories of the book instead, floating loosely beside me like a confused yet meaningful reminder of a dream I once had that I couldn’t quite hold on to.
Tanya Tagaq is a visionary. I loved the book but it sickened me as well. Split Tooth pulls no punches.
October 2, 2018
3.5 rounded up
Tagac writes beautifully and her background as a song writer comes through in the lyricism of the prose. She lays out an emotionally intense and personal story of an inuk experience, filled with mythical stories, raw and real violence and tragic life events, interspersed with her throat singing. Although at times the loose structure leaves the reader lost, the threads connect beautifully at the end.
Tagac writes beautifully and her background as a song writer comes through in the lyricism of the prose. She lays out an emotionally intense and personal story of an inuk experience, filled with mythical stories, raw and real violence and tragic life events, interspersed with her throat singing. Although at times the loose structure leaves the reader lost, the threads connect beautifully at the end.
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