Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - The Fifth Season

This book y'all! It was everything that I had hoped for and then some plus a little bit more. It is about the end of the world, but not in the way that you think. Which is even more wonderful when you think about it. The title threw me for a while ... I don't know why I didn't get it being that there are four seasons and ths Fifth Season is when the world ends (sort of). I won't spoil the book by giving away too many details. Just know that it's glorious...there is magic (of a sort), so many people of color, tragedy, love, grief, moments of peace and happiness. There's some not great stuff too, because...balance. We see the evil that men do (and by "men" I mean all humankind). There's blatant hatred of those seen as "other" and the systematic dehumanization and degradation of those deemed not human. It was sad and disheartening, but there was always a seed of hope. No matter what happened, no matter how much pain and suffering Damaya/Syenite/Essun endure, there is always hope. Until it's gone.
Definitely a favorite and I highly recommend.

Content Warnings

albusmumblecore's review

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

winx15's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

blakethebookeater's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book is a literary masterpiece and a perfect example of sci-fi/fantasy storytelling at its finest. N. K. Jemisin’s prose is captivating and I could not put this book down.

We follow Essun, Damaya, and Syenite as they navigate being orogenes in a world that hates them. Orogenes are people who can control and manipulate the energy of the Earth (think an earth bender but WAY more versatile and way more dangerous). The people of the Stillness are terrified of them and straight up murder them most of the time. Some, like Damaya and Synenite are sent to the Fulcrum to study their powers.

Essun’s story is the crux of this book though, as she comes home to find her son murdered and her daughter taken by her husband. She tried to teach her children to hide their orogeny, but children can’t always control their abilities. So she sets off to find her daughter and the man responsible for taking away what she loved most.

All three POV characters are interesting and compelling in their own right (Synenite’s was my personal favorite) and the way they thematically build upon one another is astonishing.

As for prose, Essun’s POVs are narrated in 2nd person, which can feel strange but I thought it added a unique perspective to the narrative because it is so intentional and I have to believe Jemisin will have a payoff for it later down the line.

I have to say that it might be confusing for reader who haven’t read a lot of hard sci-fi/fantasy before and it took me about 100 pages before everything clicked into place for me. Jemisin doesn’t exposit about her world, just throws you in and you start to pick up clues from context, and although that may be off-putting for some people, give it some time and you’ll fall in love with the story.

This is a propulsive, character-driven novel that deserved every single award it won. I cannot wait to continue my adventures into the Stillness and more of what N. K. Jemisin has to offer because she is a one-of-a-kind writer.

Content Warnings

mariebrunelm's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

4.5

How to begin talking about this book? It's even hard to categorise it. Here you have a blend of fantasy and sci-fi in a post-apocalyptic world. Well, it would be better to say an apocalyptic world, because it feels like the apocalypse keeps happening. The Stillness is a big continent shaken by earthquakes, on which humans learn to survive the heard way. The story is split between three different women, Damaya, Syenite, and Essun, who each have harrowing hardships to overcome. Be warned, this book isn't for the faint-hearted. Some passages really made me nauseous and I almost stopped reading entirely at some point. But it's also an intense page-turner, one that was hard to put down even for all the heart-break.
In addition to fabulous character development regarding the three narrators, there is dense world-building. As with most great speculative fiction, the world-building can be boiled down to one characteristic (devastating earthquakes), but Jemisin has really thought about all the ways it impacts every aspect of geography & human societies, down to some we would never have thought about but which make perfect sense. In her world, magic isn't about creating something, it's about stopping "natural" disasters through energy transfer. There's also hints of lockdown and curfew and masks, which would have sounded exotic had I read this book before 2020 but now... Well.
TW: honestly, I felt there were all the trigger warnings in this book, but especially rape, enslavement, child abuse, child death, & emotional abuse. Heavy stuff.
Bonus point for trans & bi rep.

Content Warnings

yrioona's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

It took me a long time to get to this book, despite lots of recommendations, because I'm not really a fantasy reader, but I'm so glad I did! The characters are compelling, the worldbuilding is incredibly well thought out, the prose is beautiful, the story is gut-wrenching and suspenseful. NK Jemisin uses her alternate world to explore deep real-world conflicts and anxieties without being heavy-handed or skimping on the details that make this universe feel rich and textured and real. Plus there are canon queer and trans characters! There were a couple plot points that felt too predictable and overly foreshadowed for me, but that didn't stop me from buying the next book in the series the second I finished this one.

Content Warnings

More...