A review by brontef11
She Would Be King, by Wayétu Moore

3.0

This is a solid 3.5 for me, and I waffled between giving it 3 or 4 stars. I thoroughly enjoyed the first section, introducing the three main characters of Gbessa, June Dey, and Norman and was impressed by Moore's ability to world build convincingly in three separate contexts. The second half was not as strong for me, where it was very Gbessa driven and I started to wonder why June Dey and Norman were introduced as characters at all because their stories seemed so secondary. I personally would have fleshed out their experiences more or streamlined and made the story focused solely on Gbessa. I also would have preferred a bit more from the ending - i.e. an understanding of the resolution a bit more - but I also understand that that is a personal choice and not necessarily something "wrong" with the author.

Overall, I think the prose is very beautiful and evocative, and offered a fascinating perspective on Liberia, which I haven't seen explored in many other works. Although this book ultimately didn't "click" for me completely, I look forward to reading more of this author's work.