On Storytelling and Indigenous Futurism: A Review of Darcie Little Badger’s A Snake Falls to Earth

by Addie Rahmlow

Darcie Little Badger’s novel, A Snake Falls to Earth, is an innovative work of young-adult indigenous futurism. Set in a near-future world, the story follows the main character Nina as she attempts to translate the last words of her late grandmother. However, Nina’s story is equally split with another character, Oli, an animal-person who dwells in a realm separate from earth. Darcie Little Badger ultimately combines Lipan-Apache legend with folkloric storytelling techniques to twine Nina and Oli’s stories together, thus creating a novel rich with two separate, yet somehow similar perspectives. Even so, Nina and Oli’s journeys do not collide until the end of the story. While Darcie Little Badger’s novel contains incredibly inventive and descriptive storytelling, many of its themes and lessons feel unfulfilled, and are often brushed over due to the book’s slow pacing. Though Darcie Little Badger briefly touches on relevant key topics—for example, the effects of human-caused climate change and settler colonization—the gradual plot and leisurely character development often prevents these themes from fully developing.

However, such an observation raises the question: when can a story simply be a story? In Western literature, there has long been an emphasis on exploring the “human condition”—picking it apart under a microscope; exposing its flaws; attempting to teach lessons about its limitations. This focus has long since defined its most famous and renowned stories. Similarly, Freytag’s Pyramid—the standard story plot structure—often characterizes Western literature, a trend seen in the sought-after phenomenon of the “Great American Novel.” In contrast, Indigenous storytelling, specifically that of North America,  isn’t often as bound by the confines of a rigid plot structure. Because of its oral history tradition, the pacing of many American Indigenous tales are much more natural and nonlinear, instead ebbing and flowing in an instinctive manner with the actions and dialogue of the characters within them.

Nevertheless, both Indigenous and Western stories contain common themes, or universal truths, despite their often different plot structures. AJ Eversole, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and a writer for We Need Diverse Books, notes that “themes of Native stories are as varied as any culture's, but they fall outside western expectations when they focus on broader concepts rather than narrow ones.” She explains that native stories often give “universal interpretations of the world,” typically commenting on “one’s place within it.” Darcie Little Badger’s novel, A Snake Falls to Earth, embraces many of these patterns, especially through its spontaneous switching of perspectives and fluctuating plot. However, though A Snake Falls to Earth touches on broader themes in an inventive manner, as AJ Eversole notes is common in indigenous storytelling, it ceases to further elaborate upon many of them. This once again allows the question of whether it’s possible for a story to simply exist as a story, free from the incessant want to uncover a singular, often Westernized, meaning.

In A Snake Falls to Earth, Nina’s main motivation throughout the first half of the book is to translate her grandmother’s final words. She consults the internet, her family, and various books, striving to preserve her culture while simultaneously growing into her own identity as a storyteller. Oli, on the other hand—a cottonmouth person who lives in a realm that mimics earth, but isn’t earth—spends the beginning of the book transversing the wilderness alone after being abandoned by his mother. He often wonders where his siblings are, searching for them on numerous occasions, and befriends various other animal-people. Oli and Nina’s stories do not intertwine until nearly two-thirds of the way through the novel, when the first conflict is introduced. After Ami, a toad-person as well as one of Oli's friends, becomes sick as a result of the gradual extinction of his species on earth, Oli and his cohort journey to earth to attempt to stop the extinction and save Ami. Eventually, Oli and Nina’s paths cross, and Nina agrees to help him. Along the way, they face various challenges—including a looming hurricane and an angry, suspicious neighbor—but are ultimately able to use their shared talents to overcome them.

Because Oli and Nina’s stories do not merge until the latter half of the book—and because the subsequent conflicts they encounter are often quickly resolved—A Snake Falls to Earth contains numerous filler chapters. WhileDarcie Little Badger is able to evoke a lucid, descriptive setting and provide sufficient context and exposition for both Oli and Nina in these chapters, the two characters seemingly fall flat, and don’t significantly develop by the end of the story. Ultimately, Oli and Nina fail to become truly memorable characters due to their limited development and ability to quickly absolve conflict.

Throughout the novel, Darcie Little Badger touches on numerous fascinating side-plots—from Nina’s grandmother’s inability to leave her house and land without falling sick, as well as a distant, ominous figure known as the Nightmare King. Both elements seem to carry allegorical significance, with the Nightmare King symbolizing colonial greed and Nina’s grandmother’s condition underscoring the sacredness of the land she was raised on. However, these themes are only lightly explored as the novel progresses. Pacing, as always, is inherently subjective, and as AJ Eversole notes, often fluctuates in indigenous storytelling. However, by perhaps allowing the conflicts—be it the hurricane, Ami’s extinction, the Nightmare King, or even Nina’s grandmother’s sickness—to create a more lasting impact on the characters, and impart a permanent lesson, A Snake Falls to Earth might not need as many of its early filler chapters.

Above all, A Snake Falls to Earth is a fascinating, new take on young-adult science fiction, though it might have benefited from less exposition and more attention to conflict and character development, thus allowing its broader, crucial themes to flourish. In the end, however, A Snake Falls to Earth is still a story, and should be able to exist as such without a constant deliberation for one inherent meaning. Darcie Little Badger’s work is ultimately a testament to Indigenous nonlinear, paranormal storytelling, and even where the novel falls flat, its significance—especially in a realm of young-adult literature often dominated by Eurocentric perspectives—remains strong. Even in its flaws, A Snake Falls to Earth is a critical step forward toward a future of more diverse literature. 

Works Cited

https://diversebooks.org/joy-of-native-storytelling/