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A review by sinceremercy
Conjure Women by Afia Atakora
2.0
I really *wanted* to like this book a lot more than I actually ended up doing. It came to me highly recommended. There are so many interesting concepts here, and some wonderful side characters (in particular I loved May Belle and Sarah).
However, I was a little disappointed. The first two sections especially feel very hazy and confusing, in a way that seems at least somewhat international but that personally doesn't work for me. The main character Rue is the weakest character for me. So often she is just an observer when she should be a more active character (when Sarah calls her because Bean is sick, and then she checks his temperature and leaves the room until he stops breathing struck me as an egregious example). What we do get as core elements of her personality change throughout the novel, but without my "feeling" the change. Her fear and revulsion of childbirth and especially Bean changing to a powerful love for Bean (and maybe eventually her own child, though I could have done without that plotline entirely) could have been very compelling if I were able to feel the actual transformation more. Instead the change just kind of... Happens? Similarly I never really bought the change in her opinion of Bruh Abel.
Varina takes up so much narrative space during the "slavery/wartime" portions of the novel. Rue is set up as connected intrinsically to her, a connection which I thought at first might be romantic, but does not appear to be. However she all but disappears immediately after "freedomtime". The reveal that Varina was in fact alive and hidden took so long to emerge, but her absence during parts of the narrative in which she really should have been more present doesn't make sense. If Rue was feeding her, making clothes for her, and so on, when she couldn't even afford to eat for herself, that should have played a larger role in her thoughts. Even the cover art of the story emphasizes the duality of these characters, but it's Varina's half-sister Sarah who is her true counterpart. In a way I wish that Sarah had been the main character.
However, I was a little disappointed. The first two sections especially feel very hazy and confusing, in a way that seems at least somewhat international but that personally doesn't work for me. The main character Rue is the weakest character for me. So often she is just an observer when she should be a more active character (when Sarah calls her because Bean is sick, and then she checks his temperature and leaves the room until he stops breathing struck me as an egregious example). What we do get as core elements of her personality change throughout the novel, but without my "feeling" the change. Her fear and revulsion of childbirth and especially Bean changing to a powerful love for Bean (and maybe eventually her own child, though I could have done without that plotline entirely) could have been very compelling if I were able to feel the actual transformation more. Instead the change just kind of... Happens? Similarly I never really bought the change in her opinion of Bruh Abel.
Varina takes up so much narrative space during the "slavery/wartime" portions of the novel. Rue is set up as connected intrinsically to her, a connection which I thought at first might be romantic, but does not appear to be. However she all but disappears immediately after "freedomtime". The reveal that Varina was in fact alive and hidden took so long to emerge, but her absence during parts of the narrative in which she really should have been more present doesn't make sense. If Rue was feeding her, making clothes for her, and so on, when she couldn't even afford to eat for herself, that should have played a larger role in her thoughts. Even the cover art of the story emphasizes the duality of these characters, but it's Varina's half-sister Sarah who is her true counterpart. In a way I wish that Sarah had been the main character.