Reviews

Inanna by Emily H. Wilson

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annabel_reads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book has three POV's: Inanna, Mesopotamian goddess of love and war, Ninshubur, Inanna's attendant, and Gilgamesh, the titular hero in perhaps history's first epic poem. Emily Wilson managed these three POV's very well in my opinion, with each voice feeling distinct and clear so there was never any confusion as to who was speaking.

For much of the book, these three POV's don't really intertwine, I was constantly thinking 'how are these characters going to cross paths?', and it was super interesting to finally see them do so in the book's final third. Ninshubur's part of the narrative for me definitely felt like the weakest; I just didn't connect with her like I did with Inanna and Gilgamesh, but the end of this book left her on a very interesting note and so I have high hopes that her story will get much more interesting in the other books in this trilogy.

Inanna's story was definitely gut-wrenching to an extent. A young girl who's been raised sheltered and to fulfil a duty she doesn't necessarily want to fulfil, seeing her grow into a goddess of both love and war, able to use powers she was unable to before, was absolutely enthralling and I think it was definitely the POV I enjoyed the most. Gilgamesh's story was also extremely intriguing; I love stories where you have a character who goes from being brash and selfish to being more self-aware and caring, and Gilgamesh definitely goes through this sort of change. The consequences of his actions hit him hard early on and he definitely grows throughout the book, and this I really enjoyed.

For as much as I loved this book, my perhaps biggest issue with it was the short and choppy writing style, which occasionally worked to the book's detriment. It took a while to get used to, and for the most part it worked well, but in the case of Enkidu for example, it worked against the book. I did enjoy Enkidu's character as a partner to Gilgamesh, but I didn't really feel like I got to know him well enough to understand why Gilgamesh was so upset when he died, or why Enkidu was so willing to get poisoned in his stead.

That being said, I still really enjoyed this book and I will absolutely be continuing this series! I might read the Epic of Gilgamesh in the meantime...

Content Warnings