A review by mal_eficent
She Would Be King by Wayétu Moore

dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad slow-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This was beautiful, and engaging at every moment. I felt so much for these characters and what they were going through that I had to pause the story every now and then just to break away for a moment. It was tense, enraging, and exultant all at once – helped by the style it's written in, which is more like a spoken story being retold than a written one. It gives the book a rhythm that made it, for me at least, really easy to listen to, but I'm not sure how it would have been to read. 

I'd definitely recommend picking up the audiobook if you can, both because Moore does an excellent job, and because it gives the story a pace and intonation which I think will improve the reading experience for people who don't normally like this writing style. Plus if, like me, your language doesn't give you an idea what the pronunciations/accents are supposed to sound like, the audiobook will definitely help! 

If you're slightly confused by some of the events and context (particularly the American Colonization Society) then I'd recommend reading Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi. Without it, I'm not sure I would have fully understood what was going on in some places, or the historical/political context. You don't necessarily need that context to enjoy this, but it helped me as a white person understand the depth of nuance behind what was going.
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