Reviews tagging 'Genocide'

Fevered Star by Rebecca Roanhorse

1 review

lolajh's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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? Yes

5.0

Such an impressive sequel to Black Sun. Worldbuilding continued to develop along with the characters. Honestly liked this one even more than the first.

Xiala develops a bond with Iktan in this book, which is such a powerful duo that I adore and greatly enhances both these characters. Their relationship developing from mistrust and suspicion to a true friendship as allies was beautifully done. Xiala also opened up to xir about her past as a Teek, where Xiala’s flashbacks of her past murders were finally explained as well as the trauma she faces because of it.
Events of her facing past relationships and family trauma, banishment from her people explain her issues summoning her Song and how it triggers her to use it.
She also remains yearning for Serapio and dedicated to returning back to him, their love for each other so beautifully illustrated. And Xiala on her own is still so strong and an admirable character that keeps her as one of my favourites still, despite going into this having read reviews of her whole character in this book being about her helplessness without Serapio, which just isn’t true, because she barely lets herself grieve over their separation, and continues her journey by herself and then with Iktan very easily without Serapio’s help, proving she is a very capable woman on her own.
Also did not like her temporary relationship with Aishe at the beginning. I wasn’t a fan of mainly due to Aishe knowing of Xiala’s feelings for Serapio, but still using Xiala for sex anyway, and she does lowkey assault her by touching Xiala when she’s just looking out a window. Yikes.


Iktan’s character absolutely blossoms in this book. Xe also opens up to Xiala about xir history as the priest of Knives, as well as xir past relationship and feelings towards Naranpa. Whilst there are no pov chapters from xir perspective, Xiala’s chapters where Iktan is present were able to show so much more about Iktan than Naranpa’s chapters in the previous book, showing the difference between Xiala’s and Naranpa’s connections with Iktan. I was able to fall even more in love with xir more once able to see xir character away from the other priests and on xir own. Xir cursing, authority, motives, dominance, humour, sarcasm, cockiness, confidence, strength, power, xir care for Naranpa were all just so perfect. 
“I know xe is charming and funny and—”
“Attractive.” A voice came from outside the tent flap. “Don’t forget shockingly attractive.”

“We are all prisoners here, Xiala. You, Ziha, even myself. Prisoners to fate, that unreasonable bitch.”

“If I wanted them dead, they’d be dead in seconds. Assassin, remember?”

“I was in a rage when Nara went missing. I blamed myself. Eche tried to claim that Nara had killed the tsiyo at her door and run, and while I am a fool, I am not an idiot. I tore the tower apart, sent dedicants out to search for her, and nothing. I couldn’t prove it, but I knew what they had done. When the time came for the Convergence ceremony, I sent one of my tsiyos in my stead. It was a thing I did often when I didn’t have the patience for their pomp and bloviating, and I was in no mood to stand shoulder to shoulder with those who had killed my friend.”
Even getting little hints about xir physical characteristics, mannerisms, traits like xir smirking and flirtiness, xir clothing style??? Xe is literally hot as fuck I cant take it.
“Xe was tall and sinewy, with a prominent nose in an angular face. Xir black hair had recently been shorn but since had grown in as a soft fuzz. Xe rubbed a hand over it now, as if annoyed at its length.”

“Iktan pulled off xir shirt, knotted it up, and dipped it in the water. Xe continued xir ablutions, wiping across xir underarms. Xiala turned to give the priest privacy when xe began to unselfconsciously strip off xir pants. She heard the splash of water and the soft rub of cloth against skin. The scent of yucca and lavender soap filled her nose. She caught sight of Iktan’s backside as xe padded over to a trunk in the corner and threw it open. It was piled with fabrics, and xe plucked various articles of clothing from inside, holding them up for size. Once satisfied, xe dragged on a pair of white pants and a plain white shirt that looked very much like the lesser cousin to Ziha’s finer ensemble.”
All these little hints of who Iktan is rather than chapters directly from xir perspective (although they would be perfect), allow Iktan to feel so much like a gift when there are less interactions and focus on xir character compared to Naranpa, Serapio or Xiala. It makes xir feel like a gift whenever we get little specks about xir life and personality that I do cherish a lot. Xir gender is also discussed in this book, which was lovely. Xir pronouns and identity are completely normalised in this world, and there are minimal, if any, instances where xe has to explain xir identity to anyone.
“I’m no woman,” xe said, “but I’m no man, either. It is a gender most common to my clan, but I have heard there are others.”
PERFECT description of being non-binary. Much better than Powageh’s “third gender” explanation xe provided in the first book, but since Iktan said there are more genders than man, woman, and xir gender identity, there are probably many other non-binary identities apart from Iktan’s, and gender can feel different for everyone, I just favour Iktan’s description of it much more because being non-binary isn’t describing what somebody is, but rather what they aren’t, which is exactly what this description depicts, making it much more inclusive and less binary than the description “third gender”. 

Then there’s fucking NARANPA. Can I just say I’ve loved her since day one when everyone was shitting on her, and she really proved her worth in this book. She grows confidence in herself,
develops power from the sun god and
proves to be such a powerful woman I love so much.
“She wasn’t sure when it happened. The healing power she had called to aid Denaochi morphed into something else. And in the cauldron of her anger, that something became heat, became fire, and flames roared from her palms Her back slammed into the ground but she did not let go. She clamped her hands to the sides of Pasko’s face, willing the fire to consume him. At first, his skin only smoldered, tendrils of smoke intertwined with his curling black hair. Then heat built as if from inside, and his skin began to bubble like water on the boil. His cheeks collapsed, then his forehead, and his eyes popped and sank.”
Like??? This bitch is fucking POWERFUL as hell!!!
Naranpa also reconnects with her brother, Denaochi, and their whole arc about reuniting and building their relationship once more only to have what happens to happen, broke my fucking fragile heart.
“See, Brother, Naranpa thought. Zataya, Sedaysa, your foolish older sister. You were well loved after all.”
Also Naranpa gay panics:
“Naranpa could not hide her sharp inhale. This was the most beautiful woman she had ever seen, and for a moment she forgot her words.”

And SERAPIO??? This man had a full on corruption arc where his character turns extremely morally grey but where I am still able to love him so much. Dude has a whole scene of building a castle around him from nothing full Elsa-style, so what’s there not to fucking love? And he is still so pure deep down, his yearning and care for Xiala, the scene where he summons a crow for some random kid, then when he breaks down and asks Maaka to tell him stories to calm down because that’s what Xiala always did, like dude that shit is beautiful.
Then, there’s his eventual truce and blossoming friendship with Naranpa where he shows that he isn’t all that bad despite being a full on murderer.
His powers are also cool as fuck, and this bitch is still blind! Like he’s so powerful???? And then there’s his full on identity crisis he goes through for only being perceived as a god and not a person, which increases his yearning for Xiala because she had never treated him differently after finding out who he really was. 
“The desire to take to the sky and fly to her was so strong he had to force his breath to steady. It was as if he were made only of need, a thousand shards of desire in the shape of a man, and he would give whatever he must to reach her.”
He’s so in love? Serapio’s treatment from other people is also explored, especially regarding how people treat him when he is disabled, and the amount of disrespect he receives and is only worshipped, not truly loved by anyone other than Xiala.
“Hands reached for him to hold him up, but all he felt was the panic of being touched by people he could not see.”

“Look at me, Odo Sedoh!” “No, look at me, Crow God!” I’m blind! he wanted to shout. Can’t you see that I’m blind?”
Serapio is vastly disrespected, his privacy and right to not be touched being violated, and the discomfort of that escalating because he can’t see the people doing it to him. Being touched without consent is a frequent occurrence experienced by disabled people, which I think the author brought awareness to with how Serapio is treated.

There are also a lot of other interesting characters such as Zataya, where the shadow world that Serapio connects with is delved into further, as well as pov chapters from Okoa and Balem’s perspective, but they didn’t interest me as much as other characters. Overall, Roanhorse’s writing is absolutely impeccable—chapter 20 in particular was written perfectly, and I was able to so easily picture everything going on. Most perfect fucking book ever.
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