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floralfox's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This book was stunning. I was intrigued by the premise, and made some assumptions about obvious things that I thought would happen based on it, and those things DID happen, but never quite how I expected. I loved how the plot unfurled—shocking reveals with motivations peeled back slowly. You think you have the whole story, but you never do. Every scene is always getting recontextualized by later information. Time bends and loops and moves forward in equal measures. And the ending! Bittersweet in a way that I'll be thinking about for a long time.
I especially loved the characters. They were so desperate and so flawed. Above all, Akin wanted Yejedi, and the lengths he went to keep her were the very ones that drove her away. And Yejedi wanted a child, and the lengths she went to be a mother and the wringer that life put her through as a mother was absolutely brutal.
Yejedi is a product of her history as an illegitimate daughter of a mother who died, thought to be cursed at birth and ostracized by her father's other wives, treated like an orphan. The created a deep loneliness in her. Her desperation for a child was so visceral that I was half-tempted to believe her even when there was more compelling reasons to doubt her. Akin's betrayal cut so deep that I understood every awful thing she did in response to it.
And Akin was a coward in so many ways—his decisions ruled by his fragile sense of masculinity. And yet that fragility underscores that there was sacrifice in the act of deepest betrayal, too. He could appear cruel and indifferent, but also incredibly gentle and romantic.
They were complicated, and I didn't them, but I understood them, and for that I loved them.
I especially loved the characters. They were so desperate and so flawed. Above all, Akin wanted Yejedi, and the lengths he went to keep her were the very ones that drove her away. And Yejedi wanted a child, and the lengths she went to be a mother and the wringer that life put her through as a mother was absolutely brutal.
Yejedi is a product of her history as an illegitimate daughter of a mother who died, thought to be cursed at birth and ostracized by her father's other wives, treated like an orphan. The created a deep loneliness in her. Her desperation for a child was so visceral that I was half-tempted to believe her even when there was more compelling reasons to doubt her. Akin's betrayal cut so deep that I understood every awful thing she did in response to it.
And Akin was a coward in so many ways—his decisions ruled by his fragile sense of masculinity. And yet that fragility underscores that there was sacrifice in the act of deepest betrayal, too. He could appear cruel and indifferent, but also incredibly gentle and romantic.
They were complicated, and I didn't them, but I understood them, and for that I loved them.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault
Moderate: Child death and Sexism