Return of the Trickster (Trickster, #3) by Eden Robinson

Return of the Trickster (Trickster, #3) Reviews

• 
  Robyn

  I just love this trilogy. Is it technically perfect? Not at all. But it is so incredibly original and engaging. It is everything. It is funny and scary and suspenseful and violent and disturbing and emotional and fun and sad and weird and happy and magical and every other adjective one could use to describe a story all at the same time.
  
  On the one hand it's a story about Jared but on the other hand it's a story about all the badass magical grannies in Jared's life and I'm here for it.
  
  I don't read many trilogies so I'm not sure if this trilogy really follows the typical trajectory but I suspect it doesn't. Book 1 was mainly world building, Book 2 was really Jared's trickster origin story, and Book 3 was his reckoning with what that meant. Eden Robinson is a very experimental and artistic writer and it totally works for me.
  
  Other reviewers have said the ending was rushed. Maybe it was but I think that is pretty standard for all of the books in the trilogy and honestly I think it's just Eden Robinson's style to end her stories somewhat abruptly without much denouement. See above: experimental/artistic. I still loved it.
  
  I have said in another review that her books and this series especially just have so much heart, and I think that's what really sets it apart from everything else out there and why people connect with it so much. The characters are so complicated and messy but you feel attached to them somehow as if they're you're own family and you can't help but care deeply about every single one of them.
  
  This is my grownup Harry Potter - what I mean by that is this series, this world Robinson has created, is my happy reading place, that I'll look forward to revisiting over and over for years to come.
  
  Read it! I want to shout my recommendation for this trilogy from the rooftops.
• 
  Krista

  The transforming raven was speaking to him as magical beings speak to one another, sharing thoughts. The insanity of the magic Jared had unleashed left him with no way to deny he was a Trickster himself, that he was a part of the crazy, that his amateur dabbling had created the shitstorm that had eventually landed him in Emerg. Again.

  
  
  Return of the Trickster is a completely satisfying conclusion to Eden Robinson’s Trickster series. Once again, teenaged Jared Martin faces unspeakable dangers with love, courage, and above all, decency. He is also snarky and irreverent and this is probably the funniest volume in the trilogy. As in any good Fantasy finale, Robinson brings back old characters, reveals the history behind long standing feuds, and marches her characters towards an epic showdown between shades of good and evil. Maybe I can agree with others who think the ending and epilogue are a little rushed, and maybe I would have liked for Jared to be less drained and helpless than he was through most of this, but I leave this book, and this trilogy, feeling entertained and satiated; I can ask for no more.
  
  

  Not a single person he knew was going to be happy about his new shape-shifting ability. No one liked his biological father. Not his mom, not his grandmother, and not his new friend, Neeka, whose otter people had a bad history with him. Certainly not the thing that had been claiming to be his aunt. Was she really? He hadn't thought to ask, being in the middle of a kidnapping and then a torture session that had apparently only lasted a weekend but had felt like forever.

  
  After being sucked into another dimension in
  Trickster Drift — where he was repeatedly killed, eaten, and brought back to life to be killed and eaten once again — Jared finds himself in a hospital room at the beginning of Return of the Trickster, his organs trying to escape his body. Getting back to our dimension apparently drained Jared of his Trickster magic, and as enemies and their henchmen escalate their threats against him and his loved ones, Jared is forced to accept alliances that feel out of his control, recommit to his sobriety, and attempt to protect his family while swooning around without power, energy, or a clear mind. Being a newly confirmed Trickster alienates Jared from his mom and both of his grannies (who all have history with his father, Wee’git), but when the danger escalates, Jared will find himself surrounded by strong allies (mostly women, mostly family). The heart-thumping, gruesome conclusion sees a showdown between: Tricksters and witches and a Wild Man of the Woods; fireflies and otters (even though they’re not really fireflies or otters); coy wolves (disguised in stolen human skins); ghosts and poltergeists and other ultradimensional beings; a toe-sucking Sorcerer (“raw need in a skin-suit crawling around in the dark”); an insatiably power-hungry Ogress; and perhaps most frightening of all, Jared’s own grandmother, the Halayt Sophia.
  
  

  The root of supernatural ability is simply the realization that all time exists simultaneously. Encoded memories so frayed you think they’re extinct, but they wait, coiled and unblinking, in your blood and your bones. When you shift out of our dimension, you run the risk of dispersion so profound even the memory of you is obliterated. Universes are stubbornly separate. You are the wet and pulsing distillation of stars, a house of light made bipedal and carbon-based, temporary and infinite. You are also the void.

  
  I love this world that Robinson has built out of her Haisla and Heiltsuk First Nations’ traditions, and while I am fascinated by the supernatural entities at the center of this story, I appreciate that Robinson also brings in details from real Natives’ lives — from the rez to environmental activism to dissatisfaction with attempts at reconciliation for residential school survivors. Jared’s snark keeps all of this light, though — he and his cousin, Kota, think that you could make a decent soap opera out of their family drama, As the Bannock Burns — and I think the most entertaining thing about this book was flipping back to read Robinson’s ironic chapter titles at the end of every one because they only make sense in hindsight (my favourite was “Cthulhu Do Do Do Do Do Do”). I’m completely satisfied with the whole trilogy and if Robinson decided to write some spinoffs, I’d read those, too.
• 
  Chloe Halpenny

  brb mourning the end of my favourite series ever - i read this so slowly to try to prolong it hahaha
  
  i think the second book in the trilogy stands as my favourite, but i love these characters and this world so much there was no way i wasn’t going to adore this book as well. this definitely felt like the most fever dream-y of all three. a lot going on, much confusion in my small brain, and a rushed ending and very tied-up epilogue mean this wasn’t quite a full five stars from me. still, i don’t care. i love jared and i love eden robinson.
• 
  Justine

  A solid ending to an amazing series, with a seriously badass magical showdown. Even though I didn't love this final installment quite as much as much as the first two books, it was still excellent, and it brought the Trickster story to satisfying close.
  
  Eden Robinson is a fantastic writer. The whole series was a joy to read.
  
  Time doesn't march. Time is an endless ocean. We swim through it, caught in its inescapable tide. All time that has ever existed still exists. She is there, in that distant present, weaving between the kelp trees, breaking the surface to laugh at you. Air slides like silk. The ocean is not the sky, the friction heavy, ponderous; water is a womb.
  
  
  
  
• 
  CaseyTheCanadianLesbrarian

  What an awesome finale to this trilogy about Jared, an Indigenous young adult who learns he's the son of a trickster. I love how Robinson manages to fill the book with wonder and magic while addressing dark topics, body horror, and harsh realities. Jared is a wonderful character (his superpower is both being annoying and being incredibly tenderhearted). There is a great cast or magical and non magical Indigenous characters surrounding Jared too.
• 
  Jess

  What follows is not objective in any way so be forewarned. I LOVE this series! I LOVE Eden Robinson! I really, REALLY love Jared. Yes, the ending pages felt rushed, yes another chapter would have been good, but I don’t care. I wanted to spend more time in Jared’s magical world and if there is a price to pay, so be it. I have never wanted to write fanfic before ... but these characters linger in my imagination long after I finish the book!!!
  
  I deeply respect the Trickster Series and the way Robinson approaches character, community, and constant pain. There is such a rich wealth of lived experience in these pages. In addition to addiction and trauma there is deeply felt and often expressed genuine love. The kind of love that is difficult to articulate. The kind of love that takes courage to admit because the risk of loss is so very present. The kind of love that just shrugs at the idea of “happy endings” knowing that nothing is permanent and change is constant. Did I mention I love and respect these books? They’re also really funny! Talk about a dark comedy.
  
  To sum up: I LOVE this Trickster Series!
• 
  Ashley Daviau

  I have so many things to say after finishing this book and with it, the series. The whole trilogy has catapulted to the top of my ALL TIME favourites list and that is some serious business. All three books were perfect from start to finish and every little thing about this stunning conclusion is as well. My feelings are most definitely NOT okay after finishing this book. My mind is just reeling and trying to process all the different emotions I went through and the wild ride I was just on. I went through it all; from fear and wonder to grief and happiness, from tears and laughter to heart palpitations and shivers down my spine. This whole series and this book just goes beyond words for me. It’s a beautiful and weird as FUCK coming of age story blended with the most fascinating Indigenous folklore in the strangest and darkest way and it will just shatter your world. That’s what it did to mine anyways and I’m still trying to pick up the pieces.
• 
  Allison ༻hikes the bookwoods༺

  I was a bit disappointed with this book. The first two in the series were great as they were really more about Jared than all the fantastical things happening around him. This one, however, was just the opposite. It was a wild ride from the start with too much craziness and not enough character. Overall, a wonderful series.
• 
  Stephanie

  Was it perfect? No. Did i read the last 100 pages in one sitting? Yes. That deserves 5 stars in my books.
• 
  Andrea McDowell

  A very satisfying end to a groundbreaking fantasy trilogy.
  
  First off, I love Jared. What a gift he is to the literary world. He is so gentle and kind, and he tries so hard to do the right thing and take care of people; he's such a true realization of the child of a dysfunctional family and addicted parents, struggling with people pleasing and enabling; and all he wants is to be a normal person with a regular job living in a decent house paying bills and he keeps getting drawn into these alternate realities due to inborn traits he has no control or influence over.
  
  The entire cast of characters is a gift. Every one of them felt fully realized. The dialogue was brilliant. The short italicized chapters about physics and life and magic and the anthropocene (particularly in the first two books; in the third they brought in the storylines of other characters) were treasures, and all ended up linked to the plot and storyline at some point. The writing was beautiful.
  
  It was often a difficult read. There is violence, and the violence is realistic. You can tell these scenes were told by someone who has thought long and deep about violence and its impacts and after-effects. Characters become traumatized and act like traumatized humans, rather than stoic emotionless monoliths, ready for the next battle after a sarcastic quip.
  
  But what I valued most, and what made the violence worthwhile for me to deal with, was that the story is ultimately about love. And it's not a facile or trite love. It's a complicated, messy, deep familial love between people who have been damaged by genocide and generational trauma; they don't always express it well and often cause each other harm. Not everyone is forgiven, not every relationship is repaired, but both the love and the harm are shown and described in ways that are real and compelling. And ultimately, Jared prevails not because he is the biggest, the strongest, the smartest, the trickiest, but because he loves and is loved.
• 
  Rose

  Review coming soon. Strong end to a wonderful series and a new favorite for me. There were several moments here I had to take pause on because as humored as some parts of this were, they also hurt and I really felt for Jared.
• 
  Jess

  3.5
  
  ...And the award for the most abrupt ending goes to... All the bullet point-like wrap-ups in the "epilogue" warrant expansion, dammit. Eden Robinson could write a collection of short stories and vignettes for all of those ideas and I'd gladly read them all.
  
  The characters, especially Jared, are all over the place in this instalment- not only because they must work through a heartbreaking amount of trauma, abuse, and death, but also because Eden Robinson chooses to stylistically wrap this trilogy up at a neck-breaking speed. There's little to no breathing room here, or a chance to linger and reflect, and I'm incredibly sad about that.
• 
  Joel Hill

  I'm really struggling to put into words how great these books are. What a fantastic trilogy!
  
  But seriously, I think I just need to talk to someone else who's read the Trickster trilogy because I keep writing paragraphs and deleting them because my words aren't coming out right, haha.
  
  Just read the books, sooooo good.
• 
  Jennifer (formerly Eccentric Muse)

  Incredible.
• 
  Nicole

  This was a great end for the trilogy. Such great fun! I laughed out loud a few times. That epilogue!! Omg!!! I’ll miss Jared and this cast of quirky characters.
• 
  Leigh

  I found this trilogy very uneven. I think what saved this book for me was the chapters from other character’s perspectives, where things actually happen or are explained. My main issue is that Jared doesn’t seem to have any agency, things just happen to him. And other characters go and do things off screen, and we briefly hear about it later. By the end of the series Jared still hasn’t learned much more about being a Trickster, or how to do magic, or really anything about himself and his family. Honestly, I feel like this could have been one book but there’s so much filler padding it out into three (a lot of it being rehashing what happened in previous books, Jared cooking, descriptions of characters clothing and accessories, or Jared being drunk and feeing sorry for himself). I would love to see a book from Maggie’s perspective, or Sophia, or Anita, or Sarah (or really any of the other characters who actually get to do stuff). I still enjoyed this one more than the second one, which really suffered from middle-book-syndrome.
  
  Oh also, the epilogue-ish was nice and succinct. So that was good.
• 
  Jalilah

  
  Return of the Trickster is the third and final novel of
  Eden Robinson Trickster series and brings a perfect closure to the story.
  After waiting several years for this instalment, I now envy everyone who can read all three books of this series right away for the first time!
  To describe the events in this novel would give away spoilers for anyone reading the first 2 novels, so I can just say this has got to be my all time favourite trilogy! I love Jared, his family and friends and the world Eden Robinson has created!
  I recommend this book for everyone who likes fantasy, mythology and folklore that is also rooted in reality and touches upon real life issues.
  Thank you Eden Robinson for writing this series! I will read everything you write!
• 
  Brahm

  3.5
  
  I really liked this series overall, but the characters are just so hard to like it pushes me away. Definitely a series worth checking out but damn.
  
  MILD SPOILERS FOLLOW
  
  A lot of the plot in this final book was advanced with this repetitive cycle:
  Anyone: "Jared, do not leave the apartment! Whatever you do. You're in danger!"
  Jared: "Okay"
  Jared:
  Jared: *leaves apartment*
• 
  Erika

  A great ending to an awesome trilogy.
• 
  Moe Chowdhury

  Its been year since i anticipated a sequel. Thank you miss Robinson, for giving me back a part of my youth that i didnt realise id missed.
• 
  Mallory Whiteduck

  3.5 ⭐️
  
  It felt like no time had passed when I picked up Return of the Trickster and joined Jared and his eclectic group of family, friends, ghosts and creatures from the beyond. In Robinson’s signature weird and funny style, the first chapter (this is not a major spoiler) finds Jared puking his guts out. Literally. His liver and other organs come out, sprout limbs and try to run away from him.
  
  This book had me laughing out loud, brought tears to my eyes and, at times, had me scratching my head as Robinson moved between worlds. It introduced my favourite character of the series, Wild Man of the Woods, and I could read a whole book starring him as protagonist. But I felt like something was missing. As I read on, it seemed Jared lost a bit of his spark as the main character. He spent a good portion of the novel confused and lost, and as a result, so did I as the reader.
  
  This is a genre-bending book and series. Like trickster stories, it leaves the readers laughing, crying and sorting out its lessons for themselves. Definitely worth the read and Robinson’s storytelling prowess continues to wow.
• 
  Samantha Trillium (Just Reading in the Rain)☂

  I love this trilogy so much!!! This last book is definitely the darkest out of the three, and had the most magic, so if you have read book 1 and 2 and thought there wasn't enough Trickster or magic, I think you'll be very happy with this one.
  
  I have to point out the skill that Robinson has in her writing because almost all her characters end up coming together in this one for the final stand off, so to speak. And at times when this happens in conclusion trilogies it can get very repetitive and slow the pace down if the author is jumping between POVs and/or having to tell the read where everyone is and what is happening to them. But in this book, I never felt like the pace slowed or that it dragged. In fact, I was constantly stressing over how much of the book I had left because I wasn't ready for it to be over. This is a series that I would be happy for another three books!
  
  If you have read any of Robinson's previous books you also know that this series is kind of "light" on the aspects of horror that she has been known to write about. Well, she absolutely made up for it in this book, and I was really worried about the outcome of the characters lives.
  
  My only complaint about this has to do with the audiobook. The first two books were narrated by the same person, and this one was done by someone new. I don't know why the first narrator didn't come back but I was really disappointed because I had really come to know his voice as Jared. That being said, the new narrator did do a great job, but it's kind of like when you buy physical copies of a series and then the publisher decides to change the look of the books for the final installment. Super annoyed. I did not let that affect my rating of this story though.
  
  This has become one of my all time favourite series. The fact that it is written by a Canadian author is just icing on the cake. I have reread book 1 so many times, I keep finding new things I love about this story. Jared and his mother Maggie are two of my all time favourite characters. They are just so perfect, I can't even tell you why they have stuck out to me after all these years.
  
  Still pissed at CBC for cancelling this show, the adaption of season one was so incredible. But that's a different rant for a different time...
• 
  Alecia

  I so wanted to love this. The first book was a slow build but I appreciated the attention to detail. I thought things would pick up in the second book, and when the climax didn't hit until the very end I just knew I was in for an action packed final installment. Instead it was more talking and thinking and thinking and talking and thinking until Jared almost gets himself killed for the fifty-leventh time, someone close to him gets murdered and his mom gets kidnapped and tortured. The final confrontation ends abruptly, and that's the end of it all other than an epilogue featuring a short paragraph dedicated to the fates of the main characters.
  
  What this series has in its favor is a microscopic attention to emotional motivation; nuanced portrayals of addiction, grief, and intergenerational trauma; and an authentic, non-stereotyped portrayal of modern Native American identity. But after three whole books I was left wanting more. This was a slow moving, slice of life story where the life in question just so happens to come from a seriously dysfunctional magical lineage. I would have been okay with that had Jared taken any initiative to learn about that part of himself. Instead we follow him to AA meetings, and to the coffee shop after the meetings, and back home to stew in his feelings and pretend there's no ghost in his apartment.
  
  There were so many cool ideas but we don't get to see them fully play out because our protagonist spends the whole series running away from everything supernatural. He won't even learn basic protection spells in the interest of his own survival. He just buries his head in the sand until the bodies start dropping. And even though the books are about a Trickster, there's precious little background given about the Trickster's role in Native mythology.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Mindy McAdams

  The title of the third and final book in the trilogy about a young Native and Canadian man, Jared, means it's not a spoiler to tell you he's back in the world after the nail-biting cliffhanger that ended the second book. But he's damaged, and he's not safe, and neither is his unusual and endearing extended family.
  
  It's a good wrap-up to the story, not exactly disappointing, but maybe a bit less wonderful than the other two books — just because it is wrapping things up, and not very much that is truly new appears here. We do get more of his "bio dad" Wee'git's backstory, including an explanation concerning otters. We get a fuller picture of how the evil Georgina became so evil. Both of Jared's grandmothers and even a sister grandmother come into the action here, although I was not always clear on what was happening with Sophia.
  
  There's one wholly new character who even gets a special mention from the author after the end of the story, and frankly, I would have enjoyed seeing more of him. He has the capacity to teach Jared how to muster and shepherd his power, but that doesn't get a chance to happen because all the spillover danger from book two has to be dealt with here. I feel bad for Jared that he's got no great mentors, and he's still just thrashing about in his ignorance.
  
  As before, Jared remains an empathic and sweet-hearted character, often helping others because he just can't see any other way to be.
  
  Books 1 and 2:
  
  
  Son of a Trickster
  
  
  Trickster Drift
  
  .
• 
  Jasmine

  I'm a fan of Eden Robinson, and overall, I enjoyed her Trickster series. But with Return of the Trickster, I'm torn between liking it and not liking it -- I'm not quite sure. First, it had been so long since I had read Trickster Drift (over two years!), that I couldn't remember all the details and who was who, so I was lost (it also didn't help that in the Trickster TV series -- which I highly recommend, by the way -- Sophia was portrayed as Maggie's mother, not Phil's mother), and there was too much magic for my liking. (Bob the octopus "ghost"?!) And the ending, WTF? It was almost as bad as the ending in Stephen King's It; it seemed like Robinson didn't quite know how to end a good story.
  
  Overall, it was an enjoyable series, and I may re-read it in the future. I give Return of the Trickster somewhere between 3 and 3.5 stars -- I'm not quite sure.
  
  One niggling question that I had throughout the book -- what the hell are coy wolves?!
• 
  Genevieve Paquette

  I was so excited to listen to this. And it didn't disappoint. It ties up the trilogy nicely, and it has a bonus "epilogue-ish" which let's us know how things turn out for our heroes. I appreciate that.
  I feel like the ending was a little abrupt, but the author did manage to tie up any loose ends, so I'm not complaining.
  I liked it. It managed to be entertaining and also give voice to social issues without being ham-fisted. That's a rarity.
  
  Also, Sasquatch!