In One Word: Brilliant
A Beautiful Sentence: “The idea of long gone people from a past, unrecorded civilisation seemed strange to him and raised goosepimples on his skin.”
The Plot: Ria, a woman with the power to turn people to stone, hides her monstrous identity after committing an act of violence in self-defense. She retreats to an underground village of outcasts, where her sister protects her while grappling with their isolation.
Oh, what a treat this book was! Coming from someone who would happily ignore speculative fiction if not for this project, it might give you an idea of how much I loved this book. I was hooked from the first to the last line.
The novel starts in an interrogation room. The scene immediately swept me up and tickled my curiosity. Who are Ria and Eeric? What did they do? It then goes back to where it all started. The main reason I am usually not a fan of these kinds of books is that I always get lost. Between the inventend names, cities, and worlds, it quickly becomes confusing. Not in this case. The author made a huge effort to keep the book accessible with, for example, maps of the new world, a dictionnary at the end, and repeated reminders of new words when they were introduced.
However, what really is amazing about this book, is how realistic/unrealistic this story sounds. I am (pretty) sure there are no Medusa’s living in the quarries of Singapore. Yes, as I was reading, I started to wonder how sure I was about that fact. That little doubt makes the book such and enticing read. The author manages it through simplicity. For example, the way she described the quarry Ria lives in. They were vivid but straightforward at the same time. I could ‘see’ its entrance, the corridors, the main place. There were no unnecessary or fantastical froufrous.
Which allowed me, as a reader, to truly focus on the dramatic love story at the heart of the book. Not just between Ria and Eeric, but also with her sister and her community. Even without the fantastic world, it would have been a great story. But the addition of that world took the story into another reader’s dimension. It also gave me the mental space to reflect on the societal issues the author flagged such as discrimination, the treatment of helpers, and domestic violence.
Fernanco Pessoa once said that “Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life.” However, literature, like this book, can also help us to confront the darker truths in the world that surrounds us.
Takeaway:
Love, drama, action. This book is brilliant blend of fantasy and realisim, with a beautiful story that will keep in you in its grip until the very end. A must!
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