Week 24

Wooooooof it has been a hot week. I feel as though my brain has perhaps leaked out of my ears a little over the course of this heatwave, and the words have been, uh, difficult lately. Either way, I did manage to read some books!

This week: Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo, Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi

#38) RULE OF WOLVES by Leigh Bardugo

Hot damn I loved this book.

My relationship with the Grisha series has been a little winding, and a little complicated. I read SIX OF CROWS years ago and didn’t care for it. I started reading the SHADOW AND BONE trilogy last year and my feeling was “this is fine I guess”. And then somehow, I became deeply attached to the story and the characters and now I’m a little obsessed?

Part of this, I think, is that Bardugo’s writing has grown since her debut. These latter stories are more complex, and she’s willing to take more risks. For the most part, I think that these risks really pay off. It’s interesting to see a writer return to a world years after years, and the way in which the writer and the story changes; what was the “final ending” of the original trilogy is disrupted again and again.

Without spoilers, this totally delivered on the promises set up by KING OF SCARS. In fact, I think I liked this book more - being grounded firmly in the real world, as opposed to the sort of side dimension introduced in that, helped it a lot. The growing character development worked for me, I loved all the developing relationships, and I was fully happy to sink my teeth into the combination of fantasy magic and technology, as well as the political intrigue.

I’ve got a smattering of critiques about the book: the ending is both a little drawn out and a little abrupt, I’m not sure how I feel about the obvious parallels this story has to the real-world history of the world wars, and I’m furthermore not sure about the use of a chronically ill villain and a trans character discovering his transness, but only in the context of disguise.

And yet, I’m still all in, and I’m so pumped for whatever comes next in this series. The final line sent such a rush of excitement through me that I’m genuinely not sure how I’ll wait for the next.

#39) FRESHWATER by Akwaeke Emezi

Wow, this book is fascinating.

Everything I’ve read from Emezi so far has been really interesting - they have a beautiful way with words, with telling stories, and the way that they straddle the line between spirituality and what one might consider “speculative elements”.

The examinations of selfhood, as well as of gender and sexuality, were really interesting to me. I don’t know exactly how much of what’s in this book mirror Emezi’s own personal experiences, but either way, they are wrought with pain and truthfulness, and I felt the echo of that, even if I couldn’t directly relate to all of the experiences.

I didn’t know much about ogbanje before reading this, and I’m still looking to increase my knowledge, but I was intrigued by the way the topic was handled in this book. My understanding is that Emezi identifies as both ogbanje and plural, and I can see both elements present in this book. The intersection of them, and the way in which Igbo spirituality is placed above Western ideas of gender and mental health, stood out to me as incredibly powerful.

Content warning if you’re checking this out for depictions of sexual assault, self-harm, and suicidality. Absolutely, though, I recommend reading this, if you’re okay with the subject material.