Jessica

Really enjoyed this, although it’s not without its flaws. It combines a kind of tropey gay romance (as in, they start in an arranged marriage that becomes a real romance, and they spend way too much of the book not communicating about how much they really like each other) with court intrigue. The main characters, Kiem and Jainan, have to unravel the mystery of why Jainan's first husband was killed, and of course poking their noses into the conspiracy sees the two of them come under attack. It is one of those books where virtually every named character is a royal or a noble or a general or a diplomat (plus one professor), or an assistant to one of the above, but I enjoyed it in spite of its fixation on the ruling class.

This novel had me seriously questioning my recollection of the first two novels. I remember thinking that they were so good, and then this one was just... somewhat mediocre.

Perhaps it was a terrible mistake to let so much time pass between reading the second and third books? By the time I started this one, I'd entirely forgotten that the previous book had ended on a cliffhanger, and I spent the first few chapters trying to remember what was going on. The characters didn't seem as compelling as I remembered them being. Other reviews have said that with the exceptions of Rhy and Holland, not a lot of character development goes on here, and that is true. Then between about 10%–60% of the way through the book, the plot progresses so slowly and it takes seemingly forever for the characters to decide what to do about the major problem facing them. Once they finally get an idea, they take detour after detour on their way to pursuing that idea. There are random chapters from the POV of minor characters who aren't even in the same London where the bulk of the action is happening, but a parallel one where nothing much is happening. It all just dragged so much, and it was hard to motivate myself to keep reading.

Then, from about that 60% mark, things started picking up. I wouldn't say I loved the book from that point on, but at least I felt engaged. I'd give this book 2.5 stars if Goodreads let me, but it doesn't really deserve a mere 2, so I'll round up.

I mean, there are good things about this book. The prose is high-quality. The system of magic is still interesting, although (and this might be because it's been two and a half years since I read the last instalment) I was never fully clear on what the actual limits were on what the main characters could do. You have a bit of ordinary, non-magical conflict between rival kingdoms in the world of Red London, which seemed a bit more interesting than the magical conflict, and exposed more interesting world-building. As I said before, Rhy goes through some interesting character development (considering he was never exactly my favourite character in this series), while Holland is just consistently this book's best character, from beginning to end. Lots of depth to him, darkness but also softness.

Overall, though, I feel relieved to have finally made it to the end of this book, and glad to have finished the series.

This is a bit of a tough read at times, with a great many gruesome torture scenes, but ultimately I found it compelling. It follows a particular well-to-do family in Ethiopia during the “revolution” and terror of the 1970s, along with some of their acquaintances – all in all it amounts to a huge and unwieldy cast. Unfortunately this means that most of the characters seem rather two-dimensional, but the sheer breadth of the work distracted me from that while reading.

This novel's main strength is the unflinching detail in describing the horror of dictatorship. It's really unfortunate that within the text such dictatorship is equated with “communism”, as if intense repression was in any way the same thing as the democratic control of society by the working class, but y'know, Stalinism (and McCarthyism too, I suppose) should really take the blame for that. The other problem with the novel is that there are some rather unbelievable twists in the plot (mostly where the Colonel apparently had his own daughter arrested for handing out pamphlets, and she somehow without his authorisation got brutally tortured? how exactly was that supposed to have worked?!), as well as some turns that just didn't seem to come from anywhere. But nonetheless, I thought the novel evoked imagery very well – images of Ethiopia, of totalitarian regimes, etc.

I'd really feel more comfortable giving this three and a half; four seems too generous but three too harsh, considering that despite all the flaws I mentioned above I still found this gripping. I guess I would recommend this more as dystopian fiction than historical, and if you're coming at it from that interest, you'll probably enjoy it more.

I liked Purple Hibiscus, but I think I was spoiled by reading [b:Half of a Yellow Sun|18749|Half of a Yellow Sun|Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327934717s/18749.jpg|1651408] first. That book is so grand in scope, and this one is much smaller. It really just explores the insular world of fifteen-year-old Kambili, who grows up in a very wealthy, but stifling and abusive, household in Enugu. This you can tell from the blurb.

For me, a lot of the most interesting things were on the margins of the novel. I really liked the character of Kambili's cousin Amaka, who's outspoken and fiercely attached to Nigeria, talking contemptuously about the US in comparison. Another (very minor) character has studied at Cambridge, and tries to discourage Kambili's auntie from emigrating on the basis of white racism. I guess what I'm trying to say is that my favourite part of the novel was the political commentary, but this was much less extensive than in [b:Half of a Yellow Sun|18749|Half of a Yellow Sun|Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327934717s/18749.jpg|1651408] or her anthology, [b:The Thing Around Your Neck|5587960|The Thing Around Your Neck|Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1320413162s/5587960.jpg|5759301].

I found it hard to get attached to Kambili; I kept getting frustrated that she never stood up to anyone (not even her cousin), even though this makes sense for someone who's been raised in the environment she has. Even by the end of the book, while she's grown somewhat, I wouldn't exactly describe her as a strong character. Which is fine, because a lot of people are like that, and I wouldn't criticise the characterisation exactly, but it did frustrate me more than it made me sympathetic. I found her brother Jaja more interesting, overcoming that rearing instead. As for the character of her father, I didn't really understand him. He seemed to throw money around too indiscriminately for someone who despised anyone who wasn't a devout Catholic... did he only bother telling his family his opinions on religion? Considering he made such a big deal of them, that would seem weird, but it's the only thing that makes sense.

I thought the ending was brilliant.

All in all, definitely worth reading, although I'd probably prioritise her other books.

This Census-Taker did not start well. The beginning is slow, confusing, and nauseatingly gruesome. There came a point, though – once the narrative had actually caught up to the scene which opened the novel – where the haunting, gloomy atmosphere took over and I came to welcome the confusion.

The novella raises many questions, hardly any of which are answered by the conclusion. It's set in a small, macabre town, impoverished and largely isolated from the outside world. The narrator's father makes a habit of bashing animals to death and throwing them down a hole, for reasons which are never exactly explained to the reader, but can be guessed. He seems to progress to killing people; he seems to progress to killing the narrator's mother. The town has no real policemen, and the volunteers who stand in for them are friends with the narrator's dad and tell the boy that he must have imagined the whole thing. The story continues on.

In summary, this is a dark, atmospheric tale that you should only read if you can handle your questions going unanswered. That said, it's not too bad.