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A review by lyssaczernek
She Would Be King by Wayétu Moore
3.5
3.5 stars - I enjoyed reading She Would Be King; the plot was interesting and kept me rooted in the story. I liked the magical realism Moore brought to the origin story of Liberia and think it added a layer that the book would have suffered without. One of my favorite aspects of the magical realism in the book was the personification of nature. Moore did such a fantastic job weaving in elements of whimsy by making the narrator the wind and giving free will, emotions, and action to elements of nature. The wind talks to the characters and is a reassuring presence that helps the characters continue on their chosen paths. Nature plays a huge role in the book by raising Gbessa; the animals and sun become their own characters and provide a feeling of comfort. I think this style choice really added to the atmosphere of the story and did a lot of heavy lifting with the setting.
However, there were a couple of decisions that I did not love toward the end of the book. I wish June Dey and Norman were explored more as characters in the second half of the book, I think Gbessa took center stage and while her story was interesting, we did lose out on character development for the other two because of it. The last three and a half pages of the book are when the trio is finally reunited again. Before this, there are a few short chapters that focus on either Norman or June Dey, but Gbessa is definitely the main focus. As a reader invested in the stories of these men, I felt I lost something by Moore advancing time four years and only telling us what had happened to Gbessa in that time. There is a line in the last chapter that states June Dey is nearly unrecognizable to Gbessa and Norman because of how much he has changed and I felt similarly. I didn’t feel like I knew Norman or June Dey by the end in the same way I knew Gbessa. It was unbalanced considering we got lengthy origin stories for each character.
Finally, I don’t mind ambiguous endings and often I’m excited to make my own inferences as to what happened. But this story ended in the middle of the “final” battle between the slave traders and the oppressed group of people Gbessa, Norman, and June Dey were fighting for. It left the ending unresolved in my opinion and I was hoping to see the action wrapped up before the ambiguous ending was introduced.
However, there were a couple of decisions that I did not love toward the end of the book. I wish June Dey and Norman were explored more as characters in the second half of the book, I think Gbessa took center stage and while her story was interesting, we did lose out on character development for the other two because of it. The last three and a half pages of the book are when the trio is finally reunited again. Before this, there are a few short chapters that focus on either Norman or June Dey, but Gbessa is definitely the main focus. As a reader invested in the stories of these men, I felt I lost something by Moore advancing time four years and only telling us what had happened to Gbessa in that time. There is a line in the last chapter that states June Dey is nearly unrecognizable to Gbessa and Norman because of how much he has changed and I felt similarly. I didn’t feel like I knew Norman or June Dey by the end in the same way I knew Gbessa. It was unbalanced considering we got lengthy origin stories for each character.
Finally, I don’t mind ambiguous endings and often I’m excited to make my own inferences as to what happened. But this story ended in the middle of the “final” battle between the slave traders and the oppressed group of people Gbessa, Norman, and June Dey were fighting for. It left the ending unresolved in my opinion and I was hoping to see the action wrapped up before the ambiguous ending was introduced.