A review by anxiousnachos
The Bruising of Qilwa by Naseem Jamnia

4.0

I thought this was a really fab little novella! I read it it one sitting. I thought the world was so interesting, I loved the way it explored oppression, how do you come to terms with being oppressed when your people once were the oppressors. I think it has a lot of parallels to the idea queer white people should really sit with more, that yes they are oppressed because of their queerness but also the oppressor due to their whiteness. I thought the novella explored this well. I also really liked the way Firuz’s character played out, their responsibility torn between family and community, their student and self, the guilt they felt, they were so well-characterised in such a short novel. And of course, the medical blood magic!! Dark, gory, excellent.

I also very much appreciated the way queerness, especially transness, was woven into the magic of the story. The way transitioning was handled in the magic system, the style of introducing yourself, I loved this.

I definitely think it could have worked really well as a longer novel, it is such a richly built world with very detailed political, historical and magical systems but I think Jamina did well to fit in a lot of content about the world and history and politics in such a short book. Would love to read more work in this world!

Content warnings: Blood and gore, medical content, mass death/plague, body horror, colonisation, assault, poverty, self harm (for magic), refugee crisis, genocide, racism (particularly medical racism), body dysphoria, physical child abuse (past), death, graphic descriptions of corpses
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