A review by annexelizabeth
The Furrows by Namwali Serpell

dark emotional reflective 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

3.0

i wanted to fall in love with this novel, but unfortunately the approach here didn't quite work for me. i thought the first part of this novel, with its exploration of grief, trauma, and identity, was intriguing. it captured the surrealness of loss and trauma quite nicely, and i wanted to stay in cassandra's head, exploring these themes. however, we ended up switching to another point of view, which in turned shifted the prose style, which i had liked fine in the first part of the book. this character's story only vaguely connected to cassandra's story, and i found him insufferable and his narration to be dull. when we shifted back to cassandra's pov, it felt like too little too late — i wanted so much more of what we had started with, and instead suddenly we were focusing on the interlacing of cassandra and quasi-wayne's stories, which was not that interesting to me. overall, decent, but not as good as i had hoped.