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Post #62: The Goddess Test

The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter

Post number sixty-two is for Aimee Carter's The Goddess Test, another title off my Greek Mythology Reader's Advisory. While this book was okay overall, I had some pretty significant quibbles with aspects of it; I'm going to focus more on those with this post than anything else, so if you don't want to read about sort of negative thoughts, you can skip the rest of this.

Pretty significant spoilers follow.

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So here's the general premise of this book, first off: Kate, who you realize early on is the daughter of a Greek goddess, has been chosen as a potential wife for Hades, now called Henry, because Henry can't handle running the Underworld on his own and needs help, and also wants a replacement for Persephone, who fell in love with a mortal. Henry - because he loved her - gave her her freedom, she gave up her immortality, and Henry (and the other gods/goddesses) have been trying to find a replacement for the last 100 years. Kate is the last potential girl; the previous eleven have all died while trying to complete the seven tests - The Goddess Tests - and Henry, not wanting to risk anyone else's life, has decided that Kate will be the final one to attempt the tests (and even then has to be talked into it by Kate's mom - Henry's "favorite sister").

So there's your premise. And I don't have a problem with it - it was actually unique, and I liked her Henry/Hades a lot, especially because she wrote him as a really lonely and rather tragic soul who's in love with a Persephone who never really existed, who is ready to give up because he just doesn't believe that he can ever find a replacement. (He is the epitome of the "tall, dark and brooding" character.) Not that he doesn't think he could ever love another - that's part of the inner monologue of Kate's, that she won't ever be able to replace Persephone, and she's afraid that Henry will never actually love her - but because the deaths of the previous eleven girls have basically robbed him of any hope of finding someone else.

The characters surrounding Kate, even before she meets Henry, are all gods/goddesses, even though you don't realize it at first. I figured out who Ava was pretty quickly, because she was over-the-top obvious with her constant flitting between boyfriends. Ella, too, is perfect; she's over-protective of her twin (so that tells you who he is as well), and makes Kate dress in these old-fashioned 18th century gowns with corsets, because of course Artemis wouldn't like the modern fashions in the slightest. You also get massive hints regarding whom Kate's mother is.

My biggest issue was the character of Calliope. See, Calliope is Hera, who is the goddess of marriage. However - and here's a major, gigantic spoiler, so if you're going to read this book do not read what I've blacked out!!! - it turns out that Calliope is the one who's been killing off the previous eleven girls because she's in love with Henry and wants him for herself. WTF?! She is the GODDESS OF MARRIAGE. She does NOT have affairs, or fall in love with other people! She is like the ONE goddess who DOESN'T have affairs (okay, I exaggerate, because Hestia, Artemis and Athena are all maiden goddesses, so they obviously don't have affairs either), and that's the character that she chose to be in love with Henry? This just ANNOYED ME SO MUCH, OMG. Also, Kate's seven tests are the seven deadly sins, which are a Catholic invention and of all people the gods have no right to judge anyone on any of them, seeing as they are the most lustful and over-indulgent beings on the planet. Zeus actually says to Kate at the end, "The one thing we cannot abide is lust," which was so LOLtastic coming from him that I literally LOLed for like several minutes.

Ahem. Also, I had trouble reconciling my opinions of what the gods/goddesses are like with her versions of them. I know this has a lot to do with how Rick Riordan's written them in the Percy Jackson books, but a lot of it also comes from Mythology itself, which I don't feel she was terribly faithful to.

Anyway, it was an okay book, but was definitely not as good as I was wanting it to be. I don't even know if I'm going to bother reading the second one, which comes out next year, because there were just so many things that bugged me. But maybe it will be different, since - SPOILER! - Kate does manage to pass the tests and become Henry's wife, and the second book is supposed to be about their life once she returns from her spring and summer away (a la Persephone) back to the Underworld. So maybe I'll give it a read at some point, and I might even enjoy it more because my expectations won't be so high.

Post #61: The Sweet Far Thing

The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray

Post number sixty-one is for Libba Bray's third and final book in her Gemma Doyle trilogy, entitled The Sweet Far Thing. (NOTE: My thoughts on the first two books can be read here and here, if you're interested.) This book was exceedingly long - too long, in fact, because a lot of it could have been condensed; I felt like I was re-reading the camping portions of Deathly Hallows at times, because it felt like we were moving through Gemma's life day by day, and it got rather tedious at times because NOTHING HAPPENED. And then things picked up, and I didn't want to stop reading, so that saved it and made it better, although I still think I liked the second book the best.

Slight spoilers follow.

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So, again, I felt like this book was just too long. It picked up fairly closely to the end of the second book; Gemma's got the magic bound to her, and is trying to figure out what to do, and who to trust. But there were portions where I literally felt like nothing of value whatsoever was happening, or if there was something important, it could have been condensed into a couple of paragraphs to show the passage of time and then the story could have moved on. That being said, the book read amazingly fast for being almost 900 pages long, and I found myself completely engrossed in the story and wanting to know how things would work out.

Now for some more in-depth thoughts and spoilers, although I'll try not to get too specific. In typical fashion with these types of stories, Gemma makes a lot of mistakes; she trusts the people she shouldn't, and doesn't trust those she should. She also has it set in her mind that magic can fix everything, which she should have learned from the second book - especially when it comes to her father - that it cannot. And yet, she doesn't learn this, and it takes her nearly the whole book to learn to accept things (and, oddly enough, this acceptance comes from her brother, of all people).  She also goes through a "nobody likes me aside from the fact that I have magic" stage, which was rather obnoxious, especially because Ann and Felicity liked her from the start before they even knew about the magic.

While I had sort of accepted that Gemma and Kartik most likely would not wind up together - they're from different worlds, and Gemma has societal ties that prevent her from breaking free even when she wants to - the ending was disappointing and I will admit that I cried. Gemma was at times completely infuriating, but I couldn't help but feel sorry for her in the end. Ann and Felicity both got their happy endings, and Gemma, while finally being allowed to make her own choice regarding her immediate future, really didn't; she's heartbroken over Kartik and the last bit, where she saw him in her dreams and he told her he'd always be with her even if she couldn't see him, and just ... WAH! :((

There's more I could say about this book - in fact, I could probably go on and on and on about various things - but I think this will suffice. It was a good ending to the trilogy in that the storyline was mostly completed and things were mostly set to rights; but the personal story arc of Gemma was disappointing, not only because of Kartik but also because I didn't really feel like she grew all that much as a character, although I suppose she did learn a few lessons and have to make a few concessions and acceptances. Maybe that was enough.

Post #60: A Thousand Ships

Age of Bronze, Volume One: A Thousand Ships by Eric Shanower

Post number sixty is for Eric Shanower's Age of Bronze, Volume 1: A Thousand Ships, which is the first volume of his graphic novel interpretation of the Trojan War. It was a title I decided to use on my Greek Mythology Reader's Advisory, because I wanted to try to incorporate titles for both girls and boys, and this one fit the bill for something that would be suitable for both. I still intend to read Homer's The Illiad and The Odyssey, so this was a nice introduction to Homer's works.

Because the story of the Trojan War is basically history that everyone learns about at some point, I'm not going to worry about a spoiler space. If you don't want to know some specifics about this particular adaptation, however, feel free to avoid the rest of this post.

The pictures are done in black and white, but are exceptionally well done. This version also told me something new about a story I thought I already knew, so that was fun, too. Volume 1 ends prior to the start of the war; Agamemnon and Menelaus are talking about the fact that, in order to succeed in this ten-year campaign against Troy, there will have to be a great quarrel among the Greeks (or Achaeans, as they're called throughout), and Agamemnon is not sure he wants to deal with that. The story starts with Paris herding cows on the hillside of Mount Ida (apparently it was actually sheep in the original version by Homer). I hadn't actually realized that Paris wasn't always a Trojan prince (or rather, he IS, but he wasn't raised as a prince, and doesn't realize his parentage/lineage), because the film versions I've always seen start with Paris either already in Menelaus' palace or in Troy. In this version you get a very good look at Paris, and he isn't at all attractive, at least personality-wise. He's arrogant, rash, and uncaring about the consequences of his actions. He is not at all sympathetic; I mean, I know that his taking Helen was the cause of the war, but I for some reason was always able to find some sympathy in that because they were in love (thanks to Aphrodite) and were unable to ignore their feelings. But this Paris is a hothead who wants what he wants when he wants it, and doesn't care that anyone tells him he ought not do what he wants to do (poor Aeneas gets dragged into the whole affair, as he was sent to accompany Paris - who was SUPPOSED to steal Hesione, Priam's sister, away from her abductor - and as a result gets Priam thinking quite unfairly about him). Helen, likewise, isn't very sympathetic, either, although I felt more sorry for her than I did for Paris.

I did enjoy the look into Trojan society; since Paris is on his journey to bring Helen back to Troy for most of this volume, you get a look into the inner workings of Priam's house, including his multiple children. His daughter, Cassandra, tries to tell him repeatedly that Paris will be the downfall of Troy (which is why he was sent to Mount Ida; he was supposed to die on the mountain but didn't -- divine intervention, of course), but they ignore her, thinking her visions are nothing but nonsensical ramblings (she was cursed by Apollo, if I remember correctly, so that no one would believe her when she tried to give them prophecies, although I can't remember off the top of my head what exactly she did). Shanower also based the Trojans off of the Hittites, so their dress, hair and looks are significantly different from the Greeks, which helped spice up the black and white illustrations.

I also felt a great deal more sympathy for Menelaus (he's pretty torn up about Helen's "abduction") and Agamemnon, who doesn't exactly want to go to war, although he DOES want his name to be the one in the history books to have destroyed Troy. It also explained why Agamemnon was able to call all those Greeks - one thousand ships - together to basically fight simply because Helen was taken. (The amusing thing about all of this is that NONE of them ever even have the thought that Helen perhaps WANTED to go to Troy, not that it likely would have mattered either way.) You also get to see the story of Achilles, who, despite his mother's attempts, simply cannot wait behind and let his name fall into obscurity. He's not exactly sympathetic in this volume, either.

One thing I will mention is that there's a lot of sex in this one volume, which is not surprising given the Greeks' propensity for lovers of both sexes. The sex is decidedly heterosexual at this point - Paris and Oenone, Paris and Helen, Achilles and Deidamia - but apparently later volumes deal with Achilles and Patroclus' relationship in rather great detail. I aso liked the glimpse of Penelope and Odysseus. Now Odysseus I liked quite a bit, because he was incredibly clever and witty, even if he DID try to fake his way out of fighting for the war by pretending to be mad (he simply didn't want to leave his wife and new son, and who can blame him? He also knew the prophecy that he would sail to Troy and end up returning several years later where no one would recognize him, missing his son's entire childhood).

Anyway, this was engaging enough that I will most likely read the second installment. There are apparently going to be seven volumes, but only three are released as of right now. Of course, the library system that I normally use doesn't have a copy of the second volume, but I was able to request one through the small library near where I work; the problem with that is that requests take absolutely FOREVER to move through this system, so it very well might be summer before I get to actually get my hands on the book.

Post #59: Watersmeet

Watersmeet by Ellen Jensen Abbott

Post number fifty-nine is for Ellen Jensen Abbott's Watersmeet, my final required reading assignment for my Fantasy Lit course. Hurray! All three books for tomorrow's class dealt with prejudice of some sort, but this book was much more overt about it than Dust City (the third book, Black and White, had me ridiculously angry within the first few chapters, so I didn't finish it; I know what happens and that was enough for me!).

Spoilery thoughts follow.

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The main character in this book is a girl named Abisina, who is the daughter of the village healer. She's also an outcast; people don't talk to her, she's not allowed to look them in the eye, and when they *do* speak to her, it's usually to throw insults in her direction. The reason for her being an outcast is because she was born with dark skin and hair, which is very far away from the ideal person (blond hair, blue eyes; no surprise there!). A new leader has taken over the land, named Charach, and he comes to their festival of penance, which is when all hell breaks loose. Charach decides that the village needs to do away with all their outcasts, so Abisina ends up fleeing for her life. Her mother isn't so lucky; she's killed, but not before telling Abisina a bit about her father. Abisina's father is from a place called Watersmeet, and Abisina looks just like him.

So Abisina decides to set out to find Watersmeet and her father. The first part of the book details her search; she meets a couple of dwarves, who saved her, and she has to fight against her own prejudices when it comes to them. They, likewise, have to fight against their own regarding humans, who have terrorized them and killed their friends and loved ones. It's an interesting dynamic; Abisina has been looked down on and spit on her entire life, and yet she cannot help but do the same to others. Her mother always told her she wasn't a demon and that she was beautiful, and Abisina sort of believed her, and yet she couldn't shake the ideal of beauty that her neighbors believed in.

Anyway, the prejudice is only part of this book, but I don't want to spoil things. One thing that I will say is that this book read extremely fast; I had a hard time putting it down, and in fact not only went well over my lunch break finishing it today, but also stayed up way to late last night because I just couldn't stop reading. I especially loved reading about Abisina and Haret's journey across the world to get to Watersmeet, and I loved seeing Watersmeet once they'd arrived. The characters all seemed very real to me, and I found myself very interested in how things would end.

One bigger spoiler: I totally saw the revelation about Abisina's father coming. It wasn't very shocking to me, as there were plenty of hints that led up to it. But that's my only little quibble, that and the semi-ambiguous ending. There is a sequel (this is apparently the first of a trilogy; big shocker there), but it got absolutely pounded in the reviews I've read, which makes me sad, since I liked this one so much. I'll probably read it anyway, but maybe I'll wait until all three volumes are released so I can go right from the second to the third; I'm not a very patient reader anyway. :)

Post #58: Dust City

Dust City by Robert Paul Weston

Post number fifty-eight is for Robert Paul Weston's Dust City, which is fairy tale-based in that it's about the son of the Big Bad Wolf who killed Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother. It was a required reading assignment for my Fantasy Lit class, and while gritty and gruesome in some places, I actually liked it a lot.

Spoilery thoughts below.

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So Henry, the main character, is currently serving time in a juvenile detention center for dropping a brick onto a window a passing delivery truck. Henry's father is in jail - he's been accused of murdering Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother - and his mother was killed by a delivery truck (the same company whose truck got the busted window courtesy of Henry). Henry's best friend in lockup is Jack (of the beanstalk fame), who has a girlfriend, Siobhan. Henry's mortal enemy is Roy, who is also a wolf and also currently in lockup.

After the psychiatrist is killed, Henry discovers that people have been keeping certain things from him, and he decides to get out of juvy and go on a search for the truth. See, the faeries have disappeared, and their realm - called Eden - is now home to a company that sells "dust" (i.e. fairy dust) to help people with their ills. There's also a thriving underground dust business; this dust comes from the nixies and is a bit more "magical" (or at least more reminiscent of the original magical fairy dust), and can therefore do things that the manufactured stuff cannot. But Henry figures out pretty quickly that things are quite wrong in this city, and that there's some underhanded scheming and a whole lot of lying and turning blind eyes going on, so with the help of Fiona, Roy's sister, he sets out to try to figure out what is going on.

There's quite a lot of violence in this book. This is not a pretty fairy tale world; it's very dark, with a lot of conniving people running things behind the scenes. The main bad guy (if you will) is Skinner, who Henry thinks may have manipulated his father into committing the murders he's in prison for. I enjoyed the relationship between Fiona and Henry - it helps balance the darkness - and also the humor from Jack in the beginning. There's not really a happily-ever-after, either, although things are more hopeful at the end. But there's also a lot of prejudice between the Edenites (i.e.  humans/hominids, like giants, humans, dwarves, etc.) and the animalia who aren't allowed in Eden. So the story is also dealing with that.

The torture/violence reminded me slightly of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere; I had to skip some portions of the story because the violence was so specifically spelled out. I can handle a lot, but some of it was just truly dark and twisted and awful. That being said, the story itself is really well done, and, again, I liked it a lot. Just don't let the fairy tale aspect throw you; this is not bright and sunshiny and glittery. Think of it more like the actual Grimm fairy tales; not all of them really had happy endings, after all.

Post #57: The Greek Gods

The Greek Gods by Evslin, Evslin and Hoopes

Post number fifty-seven is for The Greek Gods by Evslin, Evslin and Hoopes. The book was one I'd initially looked at for my Greek Mythology Reader's Advisory and discarded, mostly because I found something that I liked better. That being said, this book was fine; it provided a nice overview of the Gods of the Greek Pantheon, as well as some of the Greek Nature Myths, like Prometheus, Pandora, Psyche & Eros, and Orpheus & Eurydice. The book didn't really provide me with any new information, although the ending to their tale of Psyche and Eros was quite different from the one I'd heard, and the one I'm familiar with.

One thing of note to me as a Percy Jackson fan was the mention of how Arion, Hazel's magical horse, came into being. Its parents were Demeter and Poseidon, in horse form. :)) See, Poseidon wanted to impress Demeter (so he could have sex with her, of course, as the Gods do), so he created the horse for her. She loved it, but still wouldn't give in to him. So she changed herself into a horse and ran from him. He followed suit and chased after her. When he caught up with her, he finally got to have sex with her - as a horse. :-P The result was Arion, an immortal horse who runs like the wind. So there's the story behind Hazel's horse!

Post #56: The Graveyard Book

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Post number fifty-six is for Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book, another required reading assignment for my Fantasy Lit course (only three more of these for the semester, hurrah!). I actually bought this book when it first came out and then never got around to reading it. I am not a massive fan of Neil Gaiman; although I've enjoyed many of his books (most notably Stardust and Coraline, and also Good Omens, which was co-written), I don't think he's the best thing since sliced bread. That being said, I liked this book a lot. I found the main character sort of charming and enjoyed the plot and the supporting characters.

Brief spoilery thoughts follow.

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The main character is Nobody Owens, nicknamed Bod. When Bod was a baby, his family was murdered in their home, and only an impromptu nighttime stroll by the toddler saved his life. He wandered into a graveyard, where the denizens ultimately decided to take him in. His parents are Mr. and Mrs. Owens, and his guardian is Silas, who promises to get him food, since obviously the ghosts cannot (Silas is not a ghost). Bod grows up in the graveyard, getting his lessons from ghosts who have been dead for a very long time (I think they're all from the Victorian Age or earlier, but might be misremembering). Meanwhile, the person who tried to kill him is still looking for him, but can't find him because he's in the safety of the graveyard. Bod also meets Scarlet, a very real girl, and they become friends, although she leaves him when he's quite young (four or five) when her family moves to Scotland. They're reunited towards the end of the book, which is what helps bring the culmination of the plot into being.

You'd think that a child who grows up in a graveyard would be a bit morbid, but he's actually quite thoughtful and funny, and his interactions with the ghosts are wonderful. His parents love him, Silas is the silent and brooding (but deep down deeply caring) sort, but there's humor throughout, most notably with the epitephs on the headstones of the ghosts, and the stories they tell him of we learn from Bod when he's talking about them. The book's chapters are told a year or so apart, so we get the first one when he's a baby, then again when he's four/five, then again when he's ten, etc. He's sixteen when the book ends. There's also illustrations interspersed, and the ones in the first chapter are especially good; they set the tone and mood of the story perfectly and really draw the reader in.

The ending was a little heartbreaking and sad, although perfectly right, and I'll admit that I teared up a bit. I would be curious to see if Gaiman ever writes a sequel.

All in all, this was a really enjoyable book with a really wonderful main character and a fine supporting cast. I would definitely recommend it.

Post #55: The House of Dies Drear

The House of Dies Drear by Virginia Hamilton

Post number fifty-five is for Virginia Hamilton's The House of Dies Drear, another required book for my Fantasy Lit course. To be honest, I don't know why we read this; I know she wanted to get books that featured non-white characters, which this one does, but it doesn't (to me) fit the fantasy genre in the slightest. The book is billed as a ghost story, but to me that fits under a different category than fantasy. I dunno. Guess I'll have to see what she says in the intro to this book during our discussion.

Slight spoilerish thoughts follow.

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I'm not completely sure when this book is set (it was written in 1970), but the book starts out on a small farmstead-type place in North Carolina and moves to Ohio, where the Small family has just decided to move. Dies Drear, from the title, was a white abolitionist who helped slaves move through the Underground Railroad. He was murdered, along with two slaves, back prior to the Civil War, and ever since his house has been classed as "haunted". Thomas, the main character, is the son of a college history professor who wants to move into the house purely for its history; he doesn't believe in ghosts or other supernatural goings-on, so thinks the superstitions are ridiculous. Thomas, on the other hand, is thrilled that they'll be living in a "haunted" house. So he, his mother, twin brothers and father are going to rent the house. The only person on the land is the caretaker, Mr. Pluto, named for the Roman god of Death of the same name. It's not his real name, just a nickname, but it fits him quite well.

There are some strange things that happen almost immediately after Thomas and his family move into the house, and it was fun to read along with Thomas as he discovered them and tried to methodically put things together to get them to make sense. He's quite the logical thinker, and it's fun to read along as he analyzes things and figures things out. There was one sort of WTF moment, though, when Thomas randomly loses his temper with this father; it seems to come out of the blue, and while you get why he's mad when it happens, there's absolutely no build up of the emotions that would support such an outburst. It was the one very strange moment in the entire book, especially because prior to that point, Thomas never once commented about that aspect of his father.

There were lots of twists and turns in this book, which I enjoyed. I won't go into any other details because I don't want to spoil the story or the surprises. Needless to say, if you read it, I think you'll understand why I said what I said about it not really being a fantasy book. It just really doesn't fit that genre. That being said, I enjoyed the book. It was interesting enough to keep me engaged and turning the pages; I wanted to see how things would work out, and was pleased with the ending. It was worth a read, if nothing else.

Post #54: Among the Hidden

Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Post number fifty-four is for Margaret Peterson Haddix's Among the Hidden, a required reading assignment for my Fantasy Lit course. The book is the first of five all taking place in a sort of dystopian US, where the government is totalitarian and has implemented a Population Law. The books have been around for a long time now, but I never was really interested in reading them (and still wouldn't have looked at the first one, if it weren't required), most likely because dystopian fiction doesn't really do it for me. But this book was a super-fast, easy read, and quite the page-turner once the main character meets Jen.

Brief spoilery thoughts below.

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Luke, the main character, is a "hidden" child, i.e. one that shouldn't have been born because the Population Law indicates that families can only have two children. Luke is the third, so he has to stay hidden away from everyone. This okay, until a new housing development tears down the woods surrounding his family's farm, and he's not allowed outside. The family gets more and more stringent about what he can and can't do (way more can'ts than cans, obviously), but one day while looking out toward the new development, he sees a face in the window of the neighbor's house, when he'd already seen all four of them leave. This face is Jen, a hidden child, and once Luke works up the courage, he goes over to the house to meet her and they become friends.

It's at this point that the book really picked up; prior to this, it was sort of dragging, because Haddix was trying to set up the world and explain the laws and the state of the US government (totalitarian). Jen's family is from the upper class - called Barons - and her dad works for the government, so they get a lot of perks, like super nice houses, junk food to eat, etc. Luke's family, meanwhile, struggles financially, especially when the government declares they can no longer raise their hogs.

Jen is a bit of a radical thinker; she wants "thirds" to have the same rights as everyone else, and she's willing to fight for that belief. Luke, on the other hand, is scared and doesn't want to take a stand; he tells her at one point that it's people like her who change the world, while people like him just sit and wait for things to happen.

What really struck me with all this was how incredibly selfish the parents who disobey the Population Law are. Yes, it's a stupid law, but they are basically having a child that will have no freedom growing up, and maybe even after that, because there's no guarantee that they could get a fake ID and do something as adults. The kids can't go outside, can't go to school, can't go ANYWHERE. They're stuck inside these houses, trapped, and that's just NO way for anyone to live. And that selfishness really made me angry.

My reaction to this book was similar to The Hunger Games, although not in regard to the emotional impact it had on me. Maybe if I were an elementary student reading this it would, but for me myself, as a twenty-something Graduate student, it didn't. What did strike me in terms of similarities, though, was the restrictions that the government had placed on both worlds, and the ways they used their jobs/regions/etc. to dictate who does what and where was almost exactly the same. The only difference is that in this book, the US is still the same, although the initial democratic government has been overthrown, and is now run by a "General" instead of a "President". But whatever; the situations are nearly the same, although at least in Among the Hidden they didn't have to go fight to the death. :-P

Anyway, it was an okay book, but not nearly interesting or entertaining enough for me to read the rest of the series.

Post #53: Time's Memory

Time's Memory by Julius Lester

Post number fifty-three is for Julius Lester's Time's Memory, another required reading title for my Fantasy Lit course. I'd never heard of this book before, and most likely would have never picked it up, mostly because - and yes, even I do this - the cover wasn't that interesting, and was sort of monotone in color. I realize now that it's it a sort of African style, which fits with the story, but it still isn't eye-catching (to me) in the slightest. Nonetheless, I liked the book, although it's not a favorite by any means.

Brief spoilery thoughts follow.

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So this book was a little odd in that it kept switching main characters at the start. You start out with Josiah, who is the captain of a slave ship. He's visited by the spirit of his dead wife, who tells him that one of the slaves on the ship is pregnant, and he needs to rescue her and save the child. The woman is Amina, who gives birth but doesn't really to a full-grown adult man named Ekundayo, who is the spirit of Amina's tribal leader. The whole point of this setup is that Ekundayo has been brought to the US (this is prior to the Civil War, obviously), to try to save the world from all of the nyama (i.e. spirits/souls) of the deceased. The more violent the death, the more vengeful the nyama, and Amma, the supreme god of Ekundayo's people, is concerned that they will basically tear the world apart. So there's your setup, and then, suddenly, things change drastically, because Ekundayo's nyama is taken by Amma from his body and placed in that of Nat, a slave in Virginia, who happens to be in love with Ellen, the daughter of the plantation owner (and she with him).

The rest of the book (parts two and three) are all about Nat and what happens to him at the plantation. There's violence courtesy of Nat's father, Gabriel, but Ekundayo finally figures out what he needs to do in order to let the nyama of the dead finally rest.

The overarching theme of this whole thing is basically how important it is to not forget your ancestors, to know their stories, and to share them with others. Ekundayo's able to help everyone with their grief by getting them to cry, and then by sharing their favorite stories of their loved ones. It was these passages that were the most touching in this story, as was the story of Nat and Ellen, who simply were born at the wrong time and place, and had to suffer because of it. This was also a very interesting look at African culture and beliefs, particularly that of the Dogon people of Mali, which is where the idea of a nyama and everything else comes from.

Overall this was a good read, a worthwhile library checkout, but not worth a purchase, at least in my opinion.