Hunting by Stars: Chapters 10–17

by Cherie Dimaline
After a plague of dreamlessness spreads across North America, seventeen-year-old Frenchie is captured so the Canadian government can harvest his bone marrow as a cure. Frenchie must find a way to escape and reunite with his found family.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–9, Chapters 10–17, Chapters 18–22, Chapters 23–29, Chapter 30–Epilogue/Prologue

Click here to explore our lists for The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. wretch
    someone you feel sorry for
    Though I was only a boy, a confused and lowly wretch, I was saved.
  2. forbear
    refrain from doing
    “The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
    the sun forbear to shine;
    but God, who called me here below,
    will be forever mine.”
  3. perfunctory
    hasty and without attention to detail; not thorough
    He smiled again, this one more perfunctory than the last; no more reveals for now.
  4. stoic
    seeming unaffected by pleasure or pain; impassive
    The doors slid open, and they went back to their stoic stance.
  5. solemn
    dignified and somber in manner or character
    Two men with scraggly moustaches and longer hair lifted their fists in the air as I passed, eyes solemn and connected to mine.
  6. opulence
    wealth as evidenced by sumptuous living
    The world around them was lush to the point of opulence, and they were once again kids left to roam the garden.
  7. scour
    examine minutely
    “Okay, okay,” he answered, scouring the ground as they walked.
  8. billow
    rise and move, as in waves
    Beside the first one was another tent, orange and crushed under the weight of a fallen branch so that it sagged and billowed like a plastic bag.
  9. venture
    proceed somewhere despite the risk of possible dangers
    Surely they wouldn’t have ventured too far on foot, and there was no way a van could have gotten through this tangle, not even close.
  10. sinewy
    stringy and difficult to chew
    It sounded like an ax hitting a young trunk, one wet and sinewy enough to resist.
  11. reprieve
    a relief from harm or discomfort
    All around, a soft drizzle fell like a reprieve.
  12. reprimand
    censure severely or angrily
    Annoyingly, Rose could hear Wab in her head, reprimanding her for trying to rush off.
  13. stave off
    prevent the occurrence of; prevent from happening
    The sides of the bigger punctures couldn’t meet to start stitching back together, and there was no medicine to stave off infection.
  14. throes
    violent pangs of suffering
    I was the boy who had almost died after losing his brother, in death throes in the dark woods, before Miigwans had found me all those years ago.
  15. interminable
    tiresomely long; seemingly without end
    After an interminable amount of time, the siren stopped, but I was already hollowed out from it.
  16. contracted
    reduced in size or pulled together
    Isaac crouched beside him, arm encircling his contracted width, rubbing his shoulder.
  17. teeming
    abundantly filled with especially living things
    From a helicopter, it would have looked like another hill, just another blank spot teeming with flora and bugs.
  18. eaves
    the overhang at the lower edge of a roof
    But under the heavy eaves, the mold-dotted windows flickered with lights: candles lit on the inside.
  19. skulk
    lie in wait or behave in a sneaky and secretive manner
    And try to stay in sight. I can’t exactly skulk around.
  20. stanch
    stop the flow of a liquid
    He was looking at his leg; the shirt they’d used to try to stanch the bleeding was crusty and dark.
  21. prow
    the front part of a vessel
    The crickets’ music shifted in tone but not in volume, like they were singing from the prows of small boats riding the waves made by her movements.
  22. scrawl
    write carelessly
    The fireflies were always just up ahead of her, scrawling a broken calligraphy into the dull sky.
  23. laden
    filled with a great quantity
    In front of it was an uneven coffee table laden with candles and random dishes.
  24. threadbare
    thin and tattered with age
    On the floor, in between the chair legs and more pillows, she could make out the threadbare remains of actual carpet.
  25. mesmerized
    having your attention fixated as though witchcraft
    One threw its head back and laughed, teeth pointed in silhouette. She was mesmerized.
  26. languid
    lacking spirit or liveliness
    From the hallway, six others entered, all wearing white, some of them draped in what looked to be bedsheets knotted like togas. They placed themselves around the room like wilting flowers, languid and slightly off. When all the chairs were taken, the last one poured onto the floor, supine and slightly curved like a bright comma against the dark carpet.
  27. supine
    lying face upward
    From the hallway, six others entered, all wearing white, some of them draped in what looked to be bedsheets knotted like togas. They placed themselves around the room like wilting flowers, languid and slightly off. When all the chairs were taken, the last one poured onto the floor, supine and slightly curved like a bright comma against the dark carpet.
  28. wane
    become smaller
    A large crow, feathers iridescent in the waning light, landed on a branch that bobbed under its weight.
  29. prone
    lying face downward
    Because there, crashed through the bush, hand still clutching the stock of their rifle, was Derrick’s prone body.
  30. wan
    pale, as of a person's complexion
    Rose took in their dark knees, small hands, and the unreadable features set in a wan face.
  31. ornate
    marked by complexity and richness of detail
    Rose noticed ornate frames around cloudy pictures hanging crooked on the walls.
  32. wainscoting
    wooden panels that can be used to line the walls of a room
    Stacks of pulpy magazines were piled against the walls decorated with peeling wallpaper and water-damaged wainscoting.
  33. impending
    close in time; about to occur
    She started to think perhaps their better bet would have been sweating in the dark of the woods, under the moon, surrounded by flora and the kind of impending danger she could at least understand.
  34. forthcoming
    easygoing and open when speaking or sharing information
    There were only two things I wasn’t forthcoming about: Rose, and the nature of my capture. I held the truth of them so tight, I started to believe my own stories.
  35. disillusioned
    freed from false ideas
    And I had been leaving on my own, disillusioned by a long, hard life in the bush.
  36. omission
    leaving out or passing over something
    If the Agents didn’t know about this network of allies, I wasn’t about to reveal it. I had already tried to keep the group in my rendition small, to leave out the resistance camp we’d joined, but they already knew about them. That omission had gotten me two hours in the siren room.
  37. inaugural
    serving to set in motion
    I do advise on the Program, since I was part of the inaugural class. I’ve yet to take the final step into the field, but hopefully soon.
  38. dissent
    the act of protesting
    They could be taken as a sign of dissent, of rebellion.
  39. allotted
    given as a task or a portion
    “Make sure these residents put them together correctly, with nothing extra, not even one cracker more than the allotted four.”
  40. deference
    a courteous expression of esteem or regard
    “Oh, uh, yes, sir?” I wasn’t sure of the hierarchy at this point, and I figured it was better to err on the side of deference.
Created on Tue Sep 20 16:12:10 EDT 2022 (updated Tue Oct 04 13:40:20 EDT 2022)

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