The Bruising of Qilwa

I have so many mixed feelings about this book. Nothing about it is a simple, easy read and there is nothing about it that I only have one one feeling on. Nothing herein is clear-cut.

The world building is interesting - and unique compared to that which I usually find in fantasy books - but it is also somewhat...painful? I don't know how to describe it, but there's a lot going on here of marginalization and judgement of people that are different from you. So, yeah.

The use of blood magic is...look, I hate the whole ‘evil magic is evil' thing that crops up so often in fantasy and this book does use a dash of that, but it also shows how blood magic can be a good thing. Which I did appreciate.

The medical stuff is interesting but also, ultimately, at the end of the day, something I found rather gross. Just me personally.

The characters are all deeply, deeply flawed people, difficult to actually like but also kind of difficult to hate. Which left me mostly indifferent to them. Which, more than anything else is why this didn't get a higher rating. (Or, conversely, a lower rating.)

Finally, I do like how queernormative the whole setting is. Everything is just chill and casually queer and I totally need more of this sort of books in my life.

I would be interested in reading more from this author, but I'd likely pass if it was medical based.

A very rich world. I would've loved for the book to be longer to get a bigger scope of things, other countries and cultures and more of the history and religion, but it's a shorter book and I have to accept that. I don't think shorter books are for me; or at least I end up holding them to a higher standing than I do full-length novels because they need to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. I had a good time with this one, but there were a few things I left wanting.

I like Firuz as a main character. Very much oldest child syndrome, continually working and doing everything to provide for their family even at the cost of their own health and their own relationships with said family. I wish we had gotten to see more of their mother but I think her absence was intentional storytelling of her place in their life and their brother's life. I adored the relationship they had with their brother an apprentice. Some nice found family vibes.

Plague storylines are always fascinating to me, and I did like the twist here. It didn't shock me, not because it didn't make sense, but because we didn't get a lot of time to build up to it.

Overall, I wish I could've gotten more of just about everything from this book, but I don't regret reading it.

C.A.P.E Rating:Characters - 4/5
Atmosphere - 4/5
Plot - 4/5
Enjoyment - 3/5