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calamitydane's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
I've rarely read books of this quality. The characters have my heart. The world building is so whole. Like you can really imagine being there. The character development felt so real and hopeful. Ejii is the sort of person I wanna be. I'm buying the sequel tonight.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery, Body shaming, Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, Murder, Sexism, Animal death, Religious bigotry, War, Fatphobia, Trafficking, Colonisation, Death of parent, and Child abuse
adancewithbooks's review
adventurous
medium-paced
3.0
Thank you to DAW and Netgalley for the review copy in exchange for an honest review. This does not change my opinion in anyway.
Shadow Speaker was originally released in 2007. This year the whole duology is being rereased. It is an interesting novel that is set in a post-apocalyptic world, taking place in Niger.
In the past a nuclear war and peace bombs created a world where magic was released over the world. Doors opened to other worlds and children got gifts. Our main character Ejii can talk to shadows and her friend can control the weather. When the shadows tell Ejii to follow Jaa, the leader of her town and the person that beheaded her father, she goes. Against the wishes of her mother because the shadows told her she'll make a difference in preventing the war.
There are a lot of really interesting things in this world. How this world came to be for instance. But also the opening of doors to the other worlds. A lot of things are seeping through in our own world. From talking cats to the guardians of the doors to the other worlds. The other world we actually visit has a problem with us because of the polution we bring. Their world is complete nature. There are so much great things to be find here.
But I didn't love it. I struggled to connect with the characters. I felt very far removed from them byt he writing, and as such it was hard to care if something happened to them. I missed some depth in places.
Even so, the world building in itself interests me enough to want to try the conclusion to this duology.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Fatphobia, Body shaming, Death of parent, and Death
Beheading
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