Synopsis
Divided by their order. United by their vengeance.
Iraya has spent her life in a cell, but every day brings her closer to freedom – and vengeance.
Jazmyne is the Queen’s daughter, but unlike her sister before her, she has no intention of dying to strengthen her mother’s power.
Sworn enemies, these two witches enter a precarious alliance to take down a mutual threat. But power is intoxicating, revenge is a bloody pursuit, and nothing is certain – except the lengths they will go to win this game.
This Jamaican-inspired fantasy debut about two enemy witches who must enter into a deadly alliance to take down a common enemy has the twisted cat-and-mouse of Killing Eve with the richly imagined fantasy world of Furyborn and Ember in the Ashes.
The Good
It has a morally grey main character who is willing to get her hands dirty.
It has good fantasy moments that do not take 1/2 book to get to.
The setup and idea of world is interesting.
The Bad
I. Feels like a string of plot reveals and info dump more than a story.
II. There is an issue overall with how information was dulled out:
A. The story is very info dump and telling instead of showing.
B. Telegraphing reveals? It would tell you the reveals instead of just revealing through the action/flow of story.
C. Things happen without explanation or introduction. Thus 90% of time I was confused by what was is even happening.
III. Characters:
A. I liked Ira pov chapters for a season until I realized she was not as hardcore as I thought. Then I realized both of our point of view characters were stupid… Characters being stupid and/or flawed can be entertaining but I was not captured by the characters.
B. I was not emotionally attached to characters so when things happened it did not land.
C. The antagonist(s) were not done well either.
D. Do half the plot moves make sense as things characters would do? At times it felt like the plot was moving the story more than anything else.
IV: The World:
A. Is the world overly complex?
I think with the way that information was dulled out it felt that way for a bit when in reality it was less complex. It is complex in that it throws information at you not in the themes or message. What is frustrating is that it has such good pieces and good setup but the actual follow through is underwhelming.
Thoughts
Part of my discussion is started from this video,
Dear Publishing, Black People are NOT a Monolith the overall discourse on Black fantasy which spawned from J. Elle & others twitter thread and Witches Steeped In Gold By Ciannon Smart – Critical Book Review .
I. I am not Jamaican (in nationality or ethnicity).
I will say that I felt the patois was tacked on to the point it was jarring. It did not flow with the story.
II. Non- Western Fantasies:
A. These African/non-western books are the closest many Black people probably have to historical European monarchy type fantasies.
B. There is a effort to keep Black people out of “traditional” Europe fantasy- for Europe to be the most popular destination for fantasy why do we not have more Black European fantasies?
C. There is a problem with trying to shoehorn all of Black folks fantasy wants/needs into non-western stories.
D. If publishing allowed for more western fantasies maybe there would be less issues cropping up?
III. “Neutral”/ Broadly inspired fantasies
Black authors do not get to be inspired by multiple cultures. What if a story did not say inspired by x culture? What if you could speculate on the influence(s)?
IV. Miscellaneous
A. Are duologies a disservice to Black authors since they do not allow authors to craft and fully realize world? Authors are forced to rush and cram in all the world into two books. Is the shift to more dulogies than trilogies/longer series having an effect on books being published?
B. As much as I dislike many of the Black fantasy books there is something special about an author creating world lead and focused on Black characters.
VI. Drained/Critique
A. I was overwhelmed by level of discourse this book brought from in me. Then again all these different conversations have kept popping up because publishing is not fixing them.
B. It is weird (no disrespect to all the folks critiquing the representation) to have all this representation critique for the story to be bad. What is this story standing on?
C. I am tired of the discussion not being on how groundbreaking/enjoyable/etc a story is.
More Black fantasy discussions
themollyweather 