A review by linhsreadinghour
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.5

I’m so conflicted with how I feel about this book 🤣 I think I liked it but I wouldn’t rate it 5 stars because I found it to be so so slow until about 60% where it picked up for me. I was so so confused at the start but I still found myself wanting to read on?? The writing was dense and the POVs didn’t start to make sense until something was revealed later on, in which others may had already picked up on. The writer trusts the reader to make their deductions along with the characters but I think I’m not smart enough for this book so I was confused and wished the answer to some deductions were laid out clearly for me in some way - but this is personal preference and not a criticism of the book. Themes of race, morality, identity, indoctrination and the extent one achieves their goals,  were explored. 

Unique fantasy world and magic system with intriguing writing and structure. I’m just glad I’ve read it cause it was on my shelf for so long and everyone raves about it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Violence, and Grief