Reviews with content warning for Blood - Rosalera

Rosewater is an interesting book. I'm not quite sure its my cup of tea however. I very much enjoyed Thompson's voice and his attention to detail in the setting. His prose is beautiful and really draws you in. However, the narrative is very disjointed and while that serves the overall story quite well, I had difficulty following even with the chapter headings. My suspension of disbelief was also occasionally broken both by the timeline changes and some of the plot points. Overall if you would like a genuinely fascinating sci-fi world to explore, this is a great fit. Just be warned that it can occasionally be difficult to follow despite how beautifully written it is. I am excited to read further works both in the Wormwood trilogy and by Thompson.

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queer_bookwyrm's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

2 🌟 CW: violence, murder, mob violence/lynching, sex, zombies, descriptions of blood and corpses, medical/body horror, ethnic cleansing mention, cannibalism mention, grotesque descriptions of mutated bodies, torture

I Initially bought Rosewater by Tade Thompson, because it's a scifi novel by a Nigerian author, but upon reading I was very disappointed.

We follow Kaaro, a Yoruba man in Nigeria in 2066, who works for a secret government agency called S45 (reminds me of Section 31 in Star Trek.) Kaara lives in Rosewater, a town that didn't exist until 11 years ago when extraterrestrial life crashed to earth and released viruses called Xenoforms. The xenoforms that were released by the alien had different effects on people. In Kaaro's case he became a psychic they call a Sensitive. It sort of reminded me of the show Sense8, but instead of a specific cohort, you can read all people.

I did not enjoy this book. I struggled to get through and seriously thought about dnfing it several times, but powered through anyway. I found the MC to be a misogynistic asshole, and didn't really have any redeeming qualities. I thought the going back and forth in time was a weird choice, since the flashbacks were all out of order, which made it a bit hard to follow.

I felt like the author didn't know which plot points to follow, so he just threw them all at you. There was even a zombie plot at one point. I wasn't quite sure what the point of Oyin Da's character was since it didn't seem to really go anywhere. There was also a weird sex thing happening that I thought was unnecessary.

This was very high concept scifi, and the author is clearly very smart and a talented writer, this story just wasn't for me. I will not be reading the rest of the Wormwood trilogy.

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skudiklier's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This book was super interesting! I had a weird experience reading it because I did so very slowly and deliberately, which is unusual for me. It was somewhat dark and not entirely what I expected. But I hope to read the rest of the trilogy eventually!

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kylieqrada's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I'm waffling between a 3.5 and a 4 ⭐s on this one. It is a fascinating and wholly original start to a sci-fi series set in Nigeria and following a biological alien lifeform that changes the makeup of Earth itself???? And then there's like people with telepathic powers???? And spy stuff???? And government conspiracies???? And I loved it???? The writing style was definitely different, it took a bit for me to get used to it. Also our MC is not the most likeable of bros. But overall, I enjoyed this immensely and will be continuing the series and reading more from Tade Thompson.

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v171's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious reflective tense fast-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 was an incredibly engaging, interesting read from start to finish. I have been on a New Weird kick recently, and I think Rosewater has set the standard. Everything about this book's construction was spot on. The writing was accessible, but not bland. The characters all felt distinctly human. The aliens felt "appropriately" alien. The setting across real world African locations and fictional areas was interesting to follow. If I had only one critique, it was that the story was a bit touch and go, but with how engaging it was, I didn't mind at all.

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atarihehe's review against another edition

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adventurous dark informative mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I enjoyed reading this book. At first it was quite slow and hard to get invested into but after about 25% I was really into the story. I don't really mind books with forward-backward storylines but this one has like three or four timelines and they're not always in the same structure throughout the book so sometimes I need to think and count. The main character is a complicated dude. He's not very likeable, but not unlikeable either as he has many many flaws and basically a criminal past but he has his own weird philosophy in life. I went into this book quite blindly since I've forgotten about it after buying it months ago so I was pleasantly surprised by a lot of things. I like the science-y aspect of it, I like the multilayered characters, I like the worldbuilding. I like how even if it's quite futuristic it's still not very different from the world we live in right now. They have tech implants but they still have beggars at the traffic stop! Now that's some realism.

Many other reviewers have said that Kaaro, the main dude, is sexist, and I agree but it was mentioned in the book that he is sexist and that his boss realises it as well. It was quite annoying though reading his thoughts about women's thighs and other stuff that made him horny.

All that being said, I enjoy the worldbuilding and the story and everything that passed here. I think I'm going to read the second book because I'm quite intrigued in what could happen afterwards.

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ohlhauc's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

This was just an okay read for me. The concept was interesting and some of the plot points and ideas were interesting. While a small thing, it was also refreshing to see aliens not portrayed as a monolith race but as different groups of the same race (like we have people from different countries, etc.).

I didn't care much about any of the characters and felt most of them were underdeveloped, and the main character who was well-developed was sleazy, sexist, and moody.

What really didn't work for me, however, was the execution of the multiple timelines. The story jumps between different years in the main character's past, progressively moving towards understanding the alien technology. However, the chapters were very short and they often ended during an emotional moment or cliffhanger in a scene. As such, I never got the emotional payoff and by the time the story returned to that moment, much of the investment had dulled. Because the chapters were so short and there were quite a few timelines, it was also hard to keep track of each storyline, so I often felt in a daze, trying to remember what was happening, and having to flip through past pages to trigger. It was a frustrating readable experience and it meant that I was never able to fully connect with any of the side characters or scenes.

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horizonous's review against another edition

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There are only so many orgasms - by the male MC, just for clarification; the women in this book only seem to exist in terms of his sexual satisfaction or for him to disrespect them - and descriptions of breasts and mentions of vomit I can read about before I call it quits.

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