Daré kept me engaged the entire time with this story of a remarkable girl who faced tremendous, yet unfortunately typical, challenges in a world not designed for her. Her story shows the complexity of simply existing as a woman in Nigeria through her interactions with a variety of different other women. It’s not just about what they do to her or can do for her. Her interactions enable her to observe their lives and see things that
affect how they move around in the world. I highly appreciated my reading experience.
I find it unfortunately fitting that I read this book while I set up my ELA classroom days before I participated in the second meeting of a book award committee. Jones speaks with vulnerability about a time when she became a political talking point of slimy operatives out to make so-called conservative values the law of the land. The way that they took her sincere, non-partisan comments and weaponized them, transforming them
into something not only not what she said at all but also supposedly revealed deviance that justified their taking control and beefing up their own power, a sign of fascist authoritarianism made me so mad. I really wish this and other books were not so relevant to current times.
I enjoyed this story and look forward to the sequel and conclusion to the duology yet found myself a bit perplexed by some of the aspects of the setting. It read like a British regency plopped down in an Arabic like country without seeming to clash. Aside from that, I enjoyed the story of these two female main characters who pushed against societal conventions in a world of men itching to go to war. Hopefully, it will not take me too long to get to the sequel.
Kadish drew me in to this slow-moving dual timeline saga and would not let go. The meat of the plot does not involve heavy action and intrigue – far from it. These two timelines – one in the near past of the early 2020s and one much further back – focus on Jewish scholarship and what it would mean for a woman in the 1600s to have written philosophical works – under a pseudonym – in the midst of the plague and rampant
antisemitism. This unlikely philosopher takes the role of main character of one timeline while two modern day researchers – one beginning his career and the other facing the end of hers – share the other main character role. I loved this slow moving, intricate narrative.
Samantha Shannon continues to weave an intricate, ever-expanding web, managing to not drop a single thread. Characters you thought long gone reemerge in complex ways, deepening Paige’s character growth. At book five in the series, especially a series like this, describing almost any details risks incredible spoilers. Hopefully, books six and seven will not take as long to arrive as book 5.
According to my Goodreads and Storygraph, I read this book barely 4-5 years ago. Unlike other books I pick up years later having forgot that I have already read them, I remembered nothing from that initial read. Perhaps the lackluster plot and unlikeable main character prompted my brain to yeet all details from my memory. Based on the cover, I expected a much more introspective novel in a non-western setting but got a fairly
typical contemporary story with a bratty pre-teen sent to family in Indonesia (I believe this was the country but my memory already fails me here) for the summer. I do not recommend.