Reviews with content warning for Racial slurs - The Obelisk Gate

Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin

13 reviews

mizz_mack's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced

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

4.5

So much happened in this book! It's been a bit for me so I may forget some things, but I really enjoyed this book!

Here we meet Nassun! I was so excited tbh, since this is the child Essun was so desperate to get back to and save from her former husband, Jija. If any reader thinks that, maybe, Jija wouldn't harm his other child, the book very quickly squashes that hope (much like many of the hopes of the characters in these books).

And Essun takes her ragtag traveling group and finds a new community and despite everything, she starts to build a life.

Jija insists that he does love her, still, and that he wants to fix her; cure her of her orogeny. Through their travel to a place called Found Moon, Nassun had to learn the appropirate way to act in order to not to not incur his wrath and hatred. All while struggling with the feeling of love she has for him, despite the fact that he murdered her brother. It a lot for a then eight year old to deal with.

I think, when a person reads Nassun's chapters, they may find her reasoning unbelivable given how young she is, but I think we need to remember that this story, much like Essun's is being told to us by our narrator and not Nassun herself. So all of her complex reasoning is being filter through decidely not eight year old eyes. I think it's an interesting choice and one that works really well, because enough of Nassun's self, imo, comes through that to me she still feels like an eight year old and then about ten as the stroy goes on.

There were a few times where that did make me �� while reading her sections, but then I remembered about the narrator and it all went back to making sense to me.

The bits with Jija were very interesting and a pretty good display of this deep seeded hatred that one can't overcome. Even if Jija had a traumatic experience in the past the story makes no effort to try and excuse his treatment of his daughter or the things he says and believes about Orogene. All of the scenes between Jija and Nassun are full of a lot of tension, keeping the reader (me) on edge, always worried that he may abuse her again or kill her like he had killed Uche. It so stressful and I spent so long wishing for someone, anyone, to help Nassun.

And unfortunatelly the person who comes to save Nassun is that bastard Schaffa!

He didn't die after the events of the last book. But he was changed by the events however. The change within him were interesting to read. I would say that the Schaffa from the previous book hadn't disppeared completely, but the way he interacts with Nassun is very different, and for her in the situation she's in, he does protect her, keep her safe, and doesn't treat her Orogeny like some horrible curse. It makes sense why Nassun attaches to him so fiecerly.

Essun along with Tonkee and Hoa make it to a place called Castrima Under, called there by Ykka through some kind special Orogene vibration. Essun, with all her Fulcrum training, has no clue how she does that and ultimately never learns. But it signals to the reader that there's more to Orogeny than whatever the Fulcrum believed and taught. I think that was hinted at in the last book, with everything with Alabaster, but it's really driven home here.

I think its an interesting...contrast (I think thats the word I want) not only with Essun but also Nassun.

Ykka had outed herself as a Orogene (she only ever calls herself a Rogga, which is a slur in the world of the Stillness) when she was young, saving her comm from a fire, and instead of being killed by the comm (which is very common in other places across the world) and she fully believes that Orogens and Stills (so...this would is also considered a slur for people who can't use Orogeny if I understand correctly) can live together peacefully, out in the open and work together, coorporating. Whenever Essun thinks about Ykka and her skills she often finds that Ykka falls short, but that's because she's using Fulcrum metrics. When she thinks about Ykka outside of that, when she separates herself from that metric (tho that never happens completely) she realizes that Ykka is plenty skilled in her own right, things that she can do intuitively that it takes a while for Essun to ever wrap her head around.

But I think this does a good job of contextualizing Nassun. Nassun had a kind of Fulcrum training from her mom when she was younger, culminating in Essun breaking Nassun's hand much like Schaffa broke her. It was abusive. Essun felt it necessary in order to make sure her daughter lived and wouldn't out her powers because that would lead to her being porentially being killed. Nassun does not like her mother very much. But while she's in Found Moon she gets to play around and explore her Orogeny, its one of the reasons why she ended up so powerful. Not every Orogene will become super powerful, or anything like that, but given the chance to play and explore and didn't live in fear who knows what any one of them could achieve and learn.

I honestly don't have much to say about Essun and her life in Castrima Under. There's a lot of inner workings about comm life, and building things to run during a season. It was interesting, but doesn't give me a lot to talk about really.

The bit with Essun that stuck with me the most is her continued relationship with Alabaster. When we meet Alabaster again and he is dying. Whatever happen after he caused the Season is slowly turning him to stone and any other time he uses orogeny more and more of him is turning to stone. He's also got a Stone Eater, these...other beings that inhabit the world, with him called Antimony and she seems to be eating any of the parts of him that turn to stone! One may suggest that he simply not use Orogeny anymore, but Alabaster is a man on a mission and that mission is, potentially, creating a better world for Orogens everywhere.

A noble goal to be sure, but he needs Essun to do it and to do that he's got to teach her how to connect with the obelisk, how to use her orogeny in ways she's never done it before while also teaching her about this new element of their powers called Magic, these silvery threads.

Their time together isn't all cozy (their relationship has never fully been cozy) but they fall back a bit into something familiar. Its so obvious that they still care about each other but everything that had happened-- the years between them, all the pain and hurt-- but the end of their story line is so...devastating it really hit me hard.

I think the narrator of the audio book was just as good as the previous time. I think some of the voices changed, but nothing was distracting or took me out of the story.

To be honest...there's probably a lot more I could say/ramble about. This book is so dense and rich imo. I could talk more and more (and I hope this sorta...makes sense) but yeah...that's it!

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lizziaha's review against another edition

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Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

I feel like the first book did a disservice to this book by being SO good. Like, if this book had been preceded by anything else, it would be 5 stars through and through. But the first book just set the standard so high 😭.

I think the pacing on this book just let it down a bit. It’s a classic second book—there’s a lot of setup going on. Everyone is standing on shaky ground, and any relationships formed are tenuous. It makes the characterization very interesting, but also harder to really root for anyone. Mostly I just wanted to get through this book and on to the next.

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