Reviews with content warning for Domestic abuse - Seasparrow

Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

dragongirl271's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

5.0

Content Warnings

Each of Cashore's books simply knock my socks off. Now that said, Seasparrow was more along the lines of Bitterblue. I actually did NOT like Bitterblue (person and book) as a teen, but I came to appreciate it on a new level when I reread it 10 years after publication. Winterkeep I devoured instantly. Hava's story (which is Seasparrow) reminded me a lot tone wise of Bitterblue, where it is quite long, slow, and there are a lot of slowly moving pieces, while the character goes through the growing pains of being a young adult after an extremely difficult childhood. Seasparrow deals with similar themes of young-adulthood as Bitterblue did, and like that one, I don't think I would have connected with it either if it had been released when I was still a teenager. Thankfully it didn't, so I probably over-thought that more than necessary. (nothing new there.)

Hava is a very difficult person to like. She is obnoxious, somewhat whiney, doesn't play well with others, and unwilling to share or connect with people she even considers her closest friends/family. In fact I didn't fully understand her until almost the very end of the book, maybe the last 100 pages. Hava's grace is what her mom deemed 'hiding'. She can shapeshift into anything - physics are no boundary. But the more her past is uncovered (especially since for the first time we have her own POV to narrate the story) the more I wonder about the graces in this world. Hava was a secret daughter of the tyrant King Leck. Her mom hid her existence in order to save her, Hava saw Leck eventually snap her mom's neck right in front of her. Fortuitous that her grace allows her to hide and protect herself, or turn herself to stone, which is one of her most common transformations. Are graces sometimes manifested out of need? No one knows how or why some people are born with graces, but similar to Katsa's, Hava's was integral to her survival as a child. I'm not sure that logic completely follows through, because we are told that some graces are 'silly' as in someone can hold their breath indefinitely, or singing, etc. But - fandom theory rant here - maybe these graces ARE ALL life saving at some point in the person's life, we just don't know it.

Relatedly, I can't help but connect Hava's shifting-to-stone power, especially since it happens when she's feeling very vulnerable, as a direct trauma response to her fucked up childhood. She is protecting herself in the most literal and straightforward way possible. Rarely does she feel comfortable being herself in human form and she even equates herself as being 'non human' sometimes. I can't imagine the trauma she's been through and how that affects her and her relationship with her body especially.

Now the romance in here is even more unusual than all the previous books. As the plot slowly crawled along I was becoming more curious about how it would play out. I did correctly predict the love interest, Linny. That being said, I have to wonder if Hava is aromantic and/or perhaps autistic. Her way of connecting with people (when she decides to) is not entirely predictable. So I am throwing those terms out there with kindness, and from what I understand about both, but I am neither. The ending leaves a lot of room for interpretation and is open ended in their regard.

As far as worldbuilding goes, the mysterious blue foxes we met in the previous book Winterkeep are intricately involved with the events in Seasparrow, and their mystery is a little bit unveiled. They're a little less creepy in my opinion now that I've learned more about how they work - but also the ones we encounter are a small isolated population so maybe others are still unsettling af. And since this is a sea voyage novel, many lands and environments are traversed, and within that traversing a lot of political games are happening. Bitterblue is still establishing herself as a monarch and dealing with the possibility of dangerous weapons being made and distributed around areas that aren't allies. There is a lot to keep track of, and I love seeing just more and more expanding of the world. Especially since this means endless opportunities for more future books in the realm!!!!

Content Warnings