Contests of Strength
by Melissa Slager
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Pub Date 20 May 2025 | Archive Date 28 Oct 2025
Truth & Story | Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members' Titles
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Description
“Contests of Strength, with its drama and romance, is reminiscent of a blockbuster movie, but perhaps more awe-inspiring is that the story grew not from fantasy but from real legends...” —Micah McCarty, former Makah tribal chairman, from the Foreword
He’s a warrior, not a whaler. She’s a noble, not a slave. But the sea makes the rules.
It’s 1699, and a quick-tempered warrior, Dushuuw, struggles to tap the spiritual guidance he needs to help his beloved brother in the whaling canoe and to regain his good name in the community. Meanwhile, Amuun'ax̱sum fills her role as a spurned slave, helping the village shaman, all while aching to return to the noble life she once enjoyed. In a society governed by strict cultural rules, each of their secrets is fraught with danger—and Dushuuw’s and Amuun'ax̱sum’s choices could make them deadly as well.
The danger is mirrored by a seaside landscape of crashing waves and rugged cliffs, with hints of impending disaster building at every turn. When the earth violently shakes on a winter’s night in 1700, a wall of water is sent rushing toward Dushuuw’s and Amuun'ax̱sum’s village.
Will their dreams survive—if they survive at all?
The answers are rooted even deeper in the past…
This lush historical novel—14 years in the making—is written by award-winning journalist Melissa Slager, of Everett, Washington, who ties together the latest scientific research with the oldest Native stories about the Cascadia subduction zone earthquake and tsunami of January 26, 1700.
A Note From the Publisher
eBook: 9798991543521
Other Contributors: Micah McCarty, foreword; Aaron S. Parker, maps; Ross Jimmicum, chapter headers
eBook: 9798991543521
Advance Praise
“A masterfully crafted tale — rich in detail, immersive in its storytelling and unforgettable in its impact.” — Meredith Parker (Makah)
"A cinematic and involving historical novel… riveting…" — Foreword Clarion Reviews
"The natural disaster that waylaid the tribe is a real one, with her research into it and scholarly command of all the relevant source material nothing short of magisterial. … However, this book is, first and foremost, a novel, and it tells an engrossing story. … A historically rigorous and emotionally riveting period piece." — Kirkus Reviews
“Slager skillfully balances the history with a fundamentally human story…” — BlueInk Review
“Contests of Strength is rich with battles, murders, whale hunts, slavery, spirit quests and secret love, climaxing in the massive subduction zone earthquake that devastated native Pacific Northwest communities on January 26, 1700. It is also a hypnotic portal to a lost indigenous world of fogged forests, smoky longhouses, and waves crashing on America’s northwest tip, told with careful research and real empathy." — William Dietrich, author of the bestselling Ethan Gage series
"Most books on Pacific Northwest history are set after the arrival of European colonizers. Contests of Strength is delightfully different by presenting a well-researched and fascinating story of the people of the Cape; people we know today as the Makah tribe. Through an achingly impossible romance between a chief’s headstrong son and a proud slave woman, and immersive depictions of lives lived as one with nature – even when the usually life-giving sea turns against them – this must-read novel captivates the reader right to the very last page. I look forward to more from this author." — Kelli Estes, USA Today bestselling author of Smoke on the Wind and The Girl Who Wrote in Silk
"Melissa Slager's Contests of Strength is an intensely emotional and captivating read. I was instantly drawn in by the dual perspectives of Amuun'axsum and Dushuuw — their troubled pasts and secrets, hopes and yearnings, and the danger that erupts and threatens their lives and world in the tsunami of 1700. Slager's elegant prose, complex characters, and meticulous research about the Makah people of Washington state are evident throughout. Her portrayal of every aspect of everyday life in a small whaling village in the American West Coast, and most especially in the song, dance, and folklore of the Makah Tribe, is told with reverence. Readers will think about the trials and heartbreaking journeys of Dushuuw and Amuun'axsum long after the last page. A must read!" — Adriana Allegri, author of The Sunflower House
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9798991543514 |
| PRICE | US$19.95 (USD) |
| PAGES | 520 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Geoffrey S, Librarian
“Contests of Strength” was not only beautifully written, but one of the most deeply and truly immersive reading experiences that I have had in a good long while. The book was like a small time machine that took me from knowing almost literally nothing of pre-Colombian indigenous life in the Pacific northwest to as if I was standing upon the shores of the Olympic peninsula hundreds of years ago, with everything feeling so real I could practically feel the salty Pacific sea air blowing upon me.
There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that an enormous part of what makes the book work so well is the fact that Melissa Slager wrote it upon a rock-solid foundation of both intensive research, and more importantly, a deeply held appreciation and respect for the indigenous Makah people of the northwest. It’s a truly heartfelt reverence that becomes obvious within the opening pages. And to ensure that no readers make any mistaken assumptions, in the author notes she is very open about her own identity as a woman of mixed European descent who just put in the research with the help of several Makah elders and experts - whose help she is trying to repay back by donating proceeds of the book toward the Makah Cultural and Research Center. On top of that, Slager is also refreshingly open about how even with all of the said research that she poured in, her book still likely holds plenty of errors.
“Contests of Strength” honestly has become one of my favorite reads of the year so far. The extent to which it transported me away from wherever I sat curled up with my e-reader feels nearly unmatched. I personally found it to be immersive storytelling at some of its finest. That, and through this books’ creation, its author has set up an impressive and very respectful model of non-indigenous fiction authors handling indigenous subject matter that I would really love to see borrowed by others going forward.
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