6A — Monday, February 20, 2017
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

‘August Snow’ presents 
lively testament to Detroit

It’s always a weird feeling 

to be reading a story set in 
an area one knows. For this 
reason, “August Snow” feels 
like an eerie walk through 
well-known 
areas 
near 

Ann Arbor. Set in Detroit’s 
Mexicantown area, mentions 
of the University of Michigan 
and Traverse City abound. The 
way it paints Detroit is one of 
the greatest joys of reading 
this book, leaving no stone 
unturned on the misfortunes of 
the city, but yet still sounding 
well and truly in love with the 
city, despite the flaws.

Following lead character 

August 
Snow, 
the 
novel 

carries the reader through a 
thrilling mystery as Grosse 
Pointe rich widower Eleanor 

Paget is murdered at her 
home. Despite August not 
being in the police service 
due to a long lawsuit that took 
place previous to the book’s 
arc, he feels morally obliged 
to investigate and uncover 
the truth, as he carries an 
inherent distrust of the police 
and Detroit politics.

“August 
Snow” 
is 
an 

absolute joy to read from 
start to finish; Stephen Mack 

Jones has infused a real love 
of Detroit into every page. 
Characters are full of life, with 
August being a modern day 
anti-hero to a T, burdened with 
responsibility he never asked 
for but with the moral compass 
to ensure that he gets the job 
done regardless. It’s almost a 
break of convention from the 
reluctant, mopey heros that 
many 
authors 

are 
turning 

to. 
August 
is 

a 
community 

leader, 
cares 

about his peers, 
and 
has 
been 

through a crazy 
life and yet still 
is 
thoughtful, 

polite, and a thrill to follow 
through his adventures from 
his viewpoint. This backstory 
is only alluded to throughout 
the plot, and helps to create 
a little intrigue in August; 
despite the book being written 
in first person, nothing is 
revealed clearly about August’s 
past.

One of the main themes 

of this book is the strong 
sense 
of 
community 
that 

August builds around himself 
throughout the plot. As a self-
described 
‘blaxican’ 
(Black 

father, 
Mexican 
mother), 

August attempts to balance 
both aspects of his heritage 
throughout the book. In several 
touching scenes, he attempts 
to 
help 
an 
undocumented 

immigrant family, surprising 
them by being able to speak 
Spanish when they are initially 
wary of him.

Despite being a crime drama, 

it’s these small little moments 
that really make the book 
stand out as something special. 
There’s such a wide range of 

background characters that 
crop up occasionally, and each 
time they’re more memorable 
than the last. A stoic FBI agent 
with a wry sense of humor, a 
lesbian couple who live in a 
mansion near Traverse City, 
and a couple of old ladies who 
wear odd knitted hats are just 
a few personal favorites.

Even at the story’s most 

stagnant 
moments, 
it 
is 

consistently 
saved 
by 
the 

high 
level 
of 

characterization. 
Later 
in 
the 

book, in the more 
action-oriented 
scenes, 
there 

is still enough good banter 
between the characters to 
ensure the story is not lost 
behind the occasional action 
sequence. In fact, nearly every 
seemingly small conversation 
that occurs seems to have some 
greater significance that may 
not reveal itself until several 
chapters later. On his journey 
to solve the murder, August 
talks to many people, however 
it is never clear until the very 
end of the book who it may 
have been. When the big reveal 
eventually happens, it’s almost 
a nonchalant thing, as the 
murder has taken the back seat 
to a darker secret.

Stephen Mack Jones has 

produced 
a 
lovable 
ode 

to 
Detroit 
and 
the 
many 

characters 
that 
live 
there, 

and although the plot is not 
groundbreaking by any means, 
the liveliness of the world he 
creates is something to behold. 
With a potential for more 
books about August, we can 
only hope this isn’t the last we 
see of him.

MEGAN WILLIAMS

Daily Arts Writer

“August 
Snow”

Stephen Mack 

Jones

Soho Crime

It’s these small 
little moments 
that really make 
the book stand out

‘Humans’ requires time

A recent trend in cable dramas 

has been taking several episodes 
to build their story. They take their 
time by unfolding ideas slowly 
until the plot explodes in the last 
couple hours of the season. Some 
showrunners have embraced this 
ability, especially on Netflix where 
dramas are meant to be binged in a 
short time frame. Only some shows 
are able to pull this off, however, 
because they have strength behind 
their themes that to allows them 
to unfold their story slowly. Shows 
like “The Americans” use time to 
build their characters and allow 
the tension to become palpable. 
AMC’s “Humans” tries to use this 

format, and so far it’s been able 
to pull it off. “Humans” tells a 
fascinating story, but its slow story 
rollout will undermine all that 
work without great payoffs.

“Humans” picks up a few 

months after the events of the 
season one finale. Niska (Emily 
Berrington, 
“24: 

Live 
Another 

Day”), 
hiding 

in 
Berlin 
after 

escaping with a 
block of code that 
can make robots 
sentient, 
releases 

the 
code 
and 

struggles to form a relationship 
with a girl she meets at a club 
(Bella Dayne, “The Man in the 
High Castle”). Since she released 
the code, Leo (Colin Morgan, “The 

Fall”) and Max (Ivanno Jeremiah, 
“The Veteran”) have been trying 
to track down the synths that have 
become sentient in order to protect 
them while Mia (Gemma Chan, 
“Fantastic Beasts and Where to 
Find Them”) starts to work for the 
owner of an ice cream shop. The 

Hawkins 
family 

tries to move on 
from 
Joe 
(Tom 

Goodman-Hill, 
“Mr. 
Selfridge”) 

cheating on his wife, 
Laura 
(Katherine 

Parkinson, 
“The 

Kennedys”), 
with 

Mia.

“Humans” 
is 
interested 

in dealing with deeper ideas 
surrounding how robots deserve 
to be treated, especially as they 
gain more human traits. In this 
world, robots are used for slave 
labor. They take on jobs as cooks, 
miners, 
factory 
workers 
and 

maids, among other occupations. 
They’re being used to fill out roles 
in the workforce more cheaply. 
(In fact, Joe is laid off from his 
managerial job in the premiere, 
and is replaced by a robot.) When 
the robots gain consciousness in 
the premiere, they escape their 
jobs to try and figure out what else 
is out there besides the holes they 
live and work in. Robots aren’t 
being treated like people, so when 
they do achieve sentience, there’s 
a moment when they realize what 
humans want their role to be. The 
robots struggle with this much 
more than the humans do, and it’s 
one of the driving factors behind 
Niska’s actions. These fascinating 
questions are at the core of the 
show, 
and 
inherently 
make 

“Humans” worth following.

“Humans” tells its story at a 

very deliberate pace, which has 
mixed results for the show as a 
whole. The premiere spends a lot 
of time starting to build its plans 

ALEX INTNER
Daily Arts Writer

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

BOOK REVIEW
TV REVIEW

“Humans”

Season 2 Premiere

AMC

Mondays at 10 p.m.

