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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Features:
- A nightmare god and a succubus plotting a world-crossing heist
- Gods and spirits based on Yoruba mythology
- Based primarily in Lagos and London
- Explores themes of trust, love, and the cost of pursuing your desires
- A good blend of a steamy romance, heist, and fantasy
Getting what you desire comes at a price, and the cost for both nightmare god Shigidi and succubus Nneoma has been high. Though the present storyline centers on a dangerous heist, this book predominantly focuses on the Shigidi and Nneoma’s partnership and the experiences that have brought them to this moment. This book jumps around time, perspective, and worlds as the pieces fall into place, so you have to be willing to go with the flow. It has a literary feel but manages to stay very accessible throughout. I found the world and characters interesting (particularly Nneoma) and loved getting a small taste of Yoruba mythology through this piece. This one can get a little steamy, but I would definitely recommend this read to anyone who is interested in mythology-inspired stories and powerful beings getting up to no good.
Pro: True to their nature
Shigidi is a nightmare god, one of the lower tier gods in the Orisha Spirit Company. Where he once had a following that afforded him a decent lifestyle, people’s belief in him has all since disappeared. A chance encounter with succubus Nneoma gives him an opportunity to escape the dead end job he hates, but it will cost what little is left of his old life. When an offer to gain back everything Shigidi and Nneoma have lost and more arises, they can’t help but agree to a heist that is more likely to end in their destruction than in their freedom.
Shigidi and Nneoma have a complicated partnership and this book does a wonderful job developing these characters both individually and as a couple. Despite Shigidi being the titular character, there is more of a focus on Nneoma and she is definitely the more interesting one for me. Talabi manages to create a succubus character who is complex and relatable while still fully embracing her true nature and power. Things get steamy in both romantic and terrifying ways, but she never feels guided by pure, blind lust. Nneoma is very much her own woman and the desire to know more about her made me devour the pages.
Shigidi complements Nneoma very well in both personality and power despite being less interesting overall. Having been so restricted for most of his existence, there is very little about his past to explore and uncover. Instead, Shigidi’s journey is more about establishing his new identity and purpose. I love that a lot of this searching is done through his partnership with Nneoma, but it naturally puts the spotlight on Nneoma a little more.
The Breakdown: Here, there, and everywhere in between
Shigidi and Nneoma are both immortal beings who can exist in both the mortal and spiritual world. Talabi takes full advantage of their long lifespan and the exploration of their past experiences can jump back centuries. In addition to jumping around time, the location and perspective each section is told in can differ. Each chapter is labeled with a date and location, but it can still be a little difficult to tell which perspective it uses at first. Though it moves around quite a lot, I never felt lost while reading this book and I found it easy to figure out why we had jumped back to certain memories. However, the extended time span over which we experience these memories makes them feel a little disconnected from each other and it is a little harder to visualize the sequence of events that shape the characters. I appreciate how Talabi tries to embrace the immortal nature of his characters, so jumping around did not bother me too much. However, it does happen a lot and I can see it being annoying and/or confusing to some readers who like their stories to be more linear.
Special thanks to NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I'm sorry to say I didn't enjoy Shigidi, It felt like a heist movie for teens. Everything is very simple and straightforward, as if a novel had been adapted to film. It lacks the subtleties available in novels that are so hard to convey on screen.
I don't understand how it found itself on the same Nebula Award list as The Saint of Bright Doors.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I love how Talabi writes - that said I actually prefer his characterization of Shigidi in his short story collection.
This book was fun, a healthy mix of romance, sex, and adventure. But it was missing an element of characterization that I craved. I just found myself not caring for or rooting for anyone as much as I am used to. That said the scene setting was lovely, and I did feel like I was right next to the characters.
This book was fun, a healthy mix of romance, sex, and adventure. But it was missing an element of characterization that I craved. I just found myself not caring for or rooting for anyone as much as I am used to. That said the scene setting was lovely, and I did feel like I was right next to the characters.
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Grief, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Ableism, Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Infidelity, Vomit, Car accident, Alcohol, Colonisation
5.5 / 10 ✪
https://arefugefromlife.wordpress.com/2023/07/30/shigidi-and-the-brass-head-of-obalufon-by-wole-talabi-review/
Shigidi is a bored, dissatisfied nightmare god, slaving away his near-eternal existence at the Orisha spirit company, trying to get more prayers. But when he meets Nneoma, his existence changes. He leaves the company, his dull life, and begins anew.
Now, over a year later, Shigidi is still trying to mend the fences over this particular break. He and Nneoma remain together, though their working relationship has become increasingly complicated. Meanwhile, the elder gods from his former company have unfinished plans relating to Shigidi, plans that are not so easily thrown aside.
Presented with a job that will even things up between the two parties, Shigidi is dubious, cautious, by he can hardly say no. From the beaches of Malaysia to the back alleys of London to the high-rises of Lagos the two chase this particular lead, eventually turning up at the British National Museum, pursuing the Brass Head of Obalufon, a stolen relic that they will now need to steal back.
—
After finally finishing this, I checked around, and The Brass Head of Obalufon has actually gathered quite a lot of praise from its early reader. Readers that stuck it out, had more patience than I, or simply connected with the tale better. Unfortunately, that was far from the story I experienced.
Instead, I found something that was obviously a full-length debut, with strange, often dramatically uneven pacing, such that I had long since last interest in the plot before it had really even begun.
See, we spend the first several chapters introducing our main characters—three of them—which seems perfectly reasonable. Only in doing so, we jump back and forth between timelines, often losing the threads of the overarching story between them. These long, sometimes vague glimpses might’ve been interesting had they followed some further kind of hook, but the early car chase didn’t wow me enough that I was willing to stow it for the first 40% to focus on the characters’ backstories. That, and by the end of them I had truly lost the plot—so much so that when I went back to find it it ruined whatever optimism I had for this.
Which is a shame, as the ride past the halfway mark begins in earnest, with some twists and turns that caught me completely off-guard. So. If you can power through to this point; or you can forgive a 300 page urban fantasy for building its characters up like a 1000 page epic fantasy; or maybe you connect with the story right from the outset such that one or two bumps (no matter how profound) doesn’t ruin your time—maybe you’ll like this one. A significant amount of people apparently do, as it boasts a 3.88 currently on Goodreads, quite a bit higher than I’d’ve expected from a debut that disappointed me so. So maybe don’t judge this book fully on my review, but take it like the one dissenting opinion that it is.
https://arefugefromlife.wordpress.com/2023/07/30/shigidi-and-the-brass-head-of-obalufon-by-wole-talabi-review/
Shigidi is a bored, dissatisfied nightmare god, slaving away his near-eternal existence at the Orisha spirit company, trying to get more prayers. But when he meets Nneoma, his existence changes. He leaves the company, his dull life, and begins anew.
Now, over a year later, Shigidi is still trying to mend the fences over this particular break. He and Nneoma remain together, though their working relationship has become increasingly complicated. Meanwhile, the elder gods from his former company have unfinished plans relating to Shigidi, plans that are not so easily thrown aside.
Presented with a job that will even things up between the two parties, Shigidi is dubious, cautious, by he can hardly say no. From the beaches of Malaysia to the back alleys of London to the high-rises of Lagos the two chase this particular lead, eventually turning up at the British National Museum, pursuing the Brass Head of Obalufon, a stolen relic that they will now need to steal back.
—
After finally finishing this, I checked around, and The Brass Head of Obalufon has actually gathered quite a lot of praise from its early reader. Readers that stuck it out, had more patience than I, or simply connected with the tale better. Unfortunately, that was far from the story I experienced.
Instead, I found something that was obviously a full-length debut, with strange, often dramatically uneven pacing, such that I had long since last interest in the plot before it had really even begun.
See, we spend the first several chapters introducing our main characters—three of them—which seems perfectly reasonable. Only in doing so, we jump back and forth between timelines, often losing the threads of the overarching story between them. These long, sometimes vague glimpses might’ve been interesting had they followed some further kind of hook, but the early car chase didn’t wow me enough that I was willing to stow it for the first 40% to focus on the characters’ backstories. That, and by the end of them I had truly lost the plot—so much so that when I went back to find it it ruined whatever optimism I had for this.
Which is a shame, as the ride past the halfway mark begins in earnest, with some twists and turns that caught me completely off-guard. So. If you can power through to this point; or you can forgive a 300 page urban fantasy for building its characters up like a 1000 page epic fantasy; or maybe you connect with the story right from the outset such that one or two bumps (no matter how profound) doesn’t ruin your time—maybe you’ll like this one. A significant amount of people apparently do, as it boasts a 3.88 currently on Goodreads, quite a bit higher than I’d’ve expected from a debut that disappointed me so. So maybe don’t judge this book fully on my review, but take it like the one dissenting opinion that it is.
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated