this book had a lot of promise, but the author did not deliver. it's their first adult novel and you can tell. the writing was SO repetitive. i think 100 pages could have been cut just from repetition alone.
the plot twist reveal was not bad. i also usually dont like 1st person pov, but i think it works here due to sigourney's ability to "sink in" to a person's mind. bc of this, we get some parts that read like 3rd person, which is really interesting. however, this doesn't make up for the writing style itself.
parts of the plot are still not explained by the end or dont make sense no matter what. for example,

sigourney suspected niklasson of being the one tricking them, despite reading his thoughts and knowing that he loved the king and was deeply hurt and confused by the king's change in behavior

and that's just ONE plot point. there are many more.
maybe the editor was the friends we made along the way!

2.5 stars, rounded down.

Be warned, this is a long review.

I was so hyped for this book. First off, that book cover design is gorgeous. Secondly, the premise immediately caught my attention. A tale about slavery and colonization...but from the view of one of the natives herself; a would-be slave taking advantage of the little bit of extra privilege she has. It's an incredibly nuanced topic and one that you hardly see covered in books like this, I feel. In stories like this, there's always two distinct groups: the colonized and the colonizers. The foreigners and the natives. While still an effective setup for conflict, you hardly ever get into the more complicated layers of narratives like this. What about the levels of privilege within the marginalized group?

It's fascinating to me because it's strongly rooted in human history and human nature itself. Just research about colorism, where black individuals are treated differently based on the many different shades of their skin despite all being recognized as black. Or even look at the division that occurs within a group of people who you presume to be the same. Think of women who bring down other women who don't meet their standard of acceptability. Think of people who live in poverty who dislike others that are in poverty, who they perceive as below them. The LGBTQ+ individuals who express biphobia or transphobia. Hell, I know people like this in real life. I've met immigrants who hated other immigrants for being the "bad kind" and not doing it "right." People like this exist all the time in real life, and I was excited to read about this topic in a story such as this and to have it explored.

Even the magic present in this story was completely up my alley. I love stories with a fantastical element, and I don't think it makes it any less "realistic" or true to life. It can be a perfect reflective commentary on real life as we know it.

I was expecting a captivating story exploring marginalization among the marginalized, the differing levels of privilege within a group. That's not what I got. Was I too hyped for it? Maybe, but I think it came down to my most hated and yet common foe...great concept, poor execution.

For starters, Sigourney is a baffling character. I really don't know what the author wanted our impression of her to be. I first thought, based on Sigourney's whole character journey--infiltrating the kongelig colonizers and then killing them off one by one to be crowned ruler and exact revenge--made her out to be a clever, scheming woman. In some instances, this is showcased, by her influencing others with the powers of her kraft (her special ability, which is to read the minds of people and manipulate them). But other times, her decision-making was confusing. She'd make choices that made absolutely no logical sense, she'd confide in people who she had no reason to, put her trust in people who non-subtly want to kill her, and generally make decisions that almost felt like she was doing things at random and hoping they would work. Her actions would have no consistent logic. At first, I thought that maybe the author was trying to do some kind of twist with Sigourney, like that all the plotting in the world doesn't mean you're prepared to go toe-to-toe with merciless and cunning rulers. But I never got that vibe from the story, and even if that was the case, Sigourney can literally read minds. If you've been given a crutch that huge and still can't read the obvious signs from people, that's just poor writing. We'll get back to the kraft thing a bit later.

70% of the novel, Sigourney is a passive protagonist and disappointing to read about. Which is a shame, because she started so strong. Without diving into spoilers, she uses her kraft in a deadly way early on in the story to kickstart an event that plays to her advantage. *That* was exciting to read about. And then Sigourney just...doesn't do anything like that again in the book. Most of the story dragged on with Sigourney reacting to things instead of doing anything. Now, that's not always a bad thing in a story. An interesting story can be told with a reactive character, but the thing is...Sigourney isn't supposed to be passive. In her internal monologue, she reminds herself and the reader over and over again that she's here for a reason, that she needs to take an active part so she can be crowned ruler, gotta *do stuff* to accomplish her goals. And then she just...doesn't. And on the occasion she would do something, it wouldn't advance her goals. At first, I thought maybe it was a part of some clever 4D chess game she was playing, where some seemingly unconnected action would actually spiral into something that furthered her goals. There were a few times when she would do something that gave the illusion of her being an active character, but what would happen is that she would do something (usually showing something to someone else), the other character(s) would react, then Sigourney would go back to her cottage to continue...drinking tea and taking baths. At one point, even a character in the story points this out to Sigourney and asks her why she's taking her sweet-ass time getting her revenge plan in motion. 

But I could tolerate these shortcomings better if at least the writing was good. The book didn't even have that going for it. The prose wasn't too bad, and in some ways, I did enjoy it. Some of the descriptions were visceral to read: early on, Sigourney reads the mind of one old woman and we get a graphic, tragic passage of the horrible treatment she went through (and of course, all inspired by real-life torments inflicted on slaves at one point). It was gut-wrenching to read and powerful. But repetition...dear God, the repetition. It's an effective tool when used properly. Keyword being properly here. How this book was written, you could make a drinking game out of it. How many pages before Sigourney uses the phrase "dark skin, wide nose, and full lips" to describe someone? How long until Sigourney once again harps that she respects Marieke's privacy and won't read her mind? I didn't have a problem with her repeated monologues about feeling shame about how her fellow islanders hated her, because it was a huge part of her character arc.

Major spoilers below and trigger warning:

This brings me to a specific instance about Sigourney's weirdly illogical characterization...A huge part of her internal monologue is her agonizing over how she's "forced" to keep slaves in order to keep what little power she has over the kongelig and how she has to sometimes have them whipped and even executed to not suffer herself. It's a very, very compelling conflict and one of the better parts of the book. She is seen hesitating and being eaten up by grief when she has to treat one of her slaves this way. But if this is the case...then why, oh, why...does she attempt to **rape** one of her slaves? And this isn't an instance of being forced to do this to keep her station like the other instances are. This is a private occurrence when she's alone in her cottage, and something just...compels her to want to force her slave to have sex with her?? There's no explanation for this and it makes no sense with the rest of her internal conflict.

Please don't try and tell "well she didn't go through with it" or "but she felt really bad about it" or anything like that. Attempted rape is attempted rape. She also attempts to use her position of power as his owner to get him to submit. I'm not trying to make an argument about Sigourney being likable or not, that has nothing to do with it (and I think it's clear that Sigourney's not supposed to be likable, and that's totally fine). The problem is that this action has absolutely no logical basis in her motivations and character arc.

My last complaint: the kraft. A very cool but poorly utilized aspect of the book's worldbuilding. Some people have magical abilities, and islanders are typically punished for having them. I liked the detail about it being used against the islanders as another tool for their oppression, but...you run into a common pitfall when you write abilities such as these: why don't the characters use them more to their advantage? Some of the kraft manifest as very powerful, very useful abilities: the ability to make someone always tell the truth, the ability to read minds and memories, etc. It can't be because the kongelig don't want to kill each other, they all very plainly want to kill each other for the chance to be crowned ruler of the islands. It can't be fear of punishment, since there doesn't really seem to be much punishment over other kongelig killing each other (only when it's a slave doing the killing is when it's instant death). In Sigourney's case, she has the ability to read minds, one of the most powerful magical abilities you can get. Granted, it's shown that people can sense when her kraft is being used on them, but still, that seems like something odd to leave to go to waste. Her kraft can even make it easier to kill people, which is her *goal*. Usually, when Sigourney uses her kraft, it's so the book can info-dump about the pasts of characters and their feelings. It feels like waste.

But let me finish this review off with things I enjoyed: the reveal at the end was not one I saw coming. I guess there could be some complaint that ties into my earlier "it made no logical sense and came out of nowhere" points I raised, but I do give kudos for legitimately throwing me off guard and giving an actual compelling reason for it to happen. The worldbuilding was clearly inspired by real-life history, and I appreciated how it was a reflection of actual historical eras. I do appreciate how there are one or two Fjern that are not completely heartless and are given some redeeming qualities, it makes it feel more real than if it was written as "the obviously bad guys versus the obviously good guys." And I always praise a book that doesn't bore me and motivates me enough to keep reading to the end. This book was that, and I don't remember any parts reading where I was bored.

Overall, I'm not happy to report that this book, after spending so long on my to-read list, ended up being a disappointment.

Was this book well written? Absolutely.

Was it fun to read? Not in the least. It's full of the darkest stuff humanity has to offer. Unapologetically brutal, violent, and traumatic. I would not recommend reading this unless you've reviewed trigger warnings and are in a good mental place for it.

disclaimer: I don’t really give starred reviews. I hope my reviews provide enough information to let you know if a book is for you or not. Find me here: https://linktr.ee/bookishmillennial

Admittedly, this was not my favorite Kacen Callender book. However, that doesn't mean it's a *bad* book. It just wasn't particularly my jam. I thought it was intriguing - biracial (white dad freed her Afro-Caribbean mom and then married her) slave owner Sigourney who wants to take power of her island to seek vengeance for her grief. It's a clever arc of the oppressed becoming the oppressor, and I deeply appreciate a morally grey, messy main character. This story forces you to examine what colonisation does in the aftermath, how these systems of oppression take hold deep within you (it takes a *lot* of active, uncomfortable unlearning, you're not just a perfect accomplice/ally/activist because you posted your lil black square), and how you can also become complicit in the very system that is hurting you/others.

Sigourney may be Black and biracial, and absolutely cannot escape that in a colonized society, but there are other intersections of her identity (class, social status, owning property) that actively contribute to the slavery and vile conditions that her people are currently enduring. She contends with it sometimes, but mostly justifies it - this is what I mean by being morally grey. She's aware but also laser-focused on power too! Meanwhile, the kongelig (what the colonizers are called) are being murdered and all signs point to Sigourney.  

I take no issue with that premise, let me be clear. I appreciate a book where you're internally struggling as you watch the main character make questionable decisions based in even more questionable motives. Like, I didn't feel like there were any "heroes" in this book, which I appreciate from a story, forcing people out of the good versus bad binaries, and instead presenting you with deeply layered, nuanced, fallible humans. 

I mostly took issue with the audiobook narration and the writing felt so far from what I'm used to from Callender. The writing and dialogue felt repetitive, and that repetition only made me wonder, 'Couldn't this book have been about 100 pages shorter?' I understand it's the first in a duology, so it's supposed to set the world up for us, which I don't typically mind. However, it didn't add to my understanding of the world and the way magic worked, it just repeated a lot of the same sentiments, and told us a lot (character motivations especially) instead of showing us. I recognize Sigourney's kraft was being psychic, but this just resulted in info-dumping, which was repetitive and slowed down the pace. 

I will read the next book, but I hope it's a bit less full of unnecessary fluff that this book had. 

i cannot stand the main character and her perspective. Am I supposed to feel bad for her that she was born free and doesn't have to be a slave? Am I supposed to feel bad that she is complicit in the brutal acts against the islanders, her own people? Am I supposed to feel bad that she doesn't feel deserving of love and forces her own slave to be intimate with her? I HATE her. And she's consistently having a pity party about her life and I'm just so done. I'm not even going to make myself push through this.

This is the most depressing book I have ever read. If you like reading torturous things happen to people then this is the book for you. I get what this is trying to do, but a book advertised as "they will know her vengeance" implied that the mc will have vengeance? Instead she just goes around feeling bad that everyone hates her and while I felt empathy for that, I also hated her. I just couldn't do it. 

This book was definitely a challenging read. It makes you question the effect privilege has across communities and shows a character that you aren't sure you want to root for. It challenges the MC’s own motivations (are they in the her best interests, or everyone’s?) and how readers perceive the MC. It highlights the brutality of colonization, slavery, and genocide. It toes the line of unreliable narrator (their perception of their reality may not necessarily be real) and makes reader questioning what is and isn’t reality.