Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon

This book was pitched to me as an anti-colonial heist. And while there is a heist, and some pages of scathing rage about the plunder on display in British museums, the vast majority of this book is a nonlinear romance between an Orisha and a fallen angel. Also Aleister Crowley is here for some reason, but at least the author remembered he was bi? There is very little on-page prep for the heist and it goes by extremely quickly when it finally happens. There were some beautiful moments (who knew you could make a board meeting crackle) but it lacked both the social commentary bite (anti-capitalism was right there!) and the character moments I was looking for.

There's also a very uncomfortable chapter where our only female character of note uses her succubus powers on a unwilling man to have sex with him then eat his soul, from his perspective. Pure nightmare fuel that also left a bad taste in my mouth.

It was still wildly inventive and I will be reading future works by this author, but this wasn't for me. If you're a romantasy girlie who can handle immoral characters and are looking for something with the scales tipped more on the fantasy side, especially if you're looking for Black characters, you might want to give this a shot.

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ramreadsagain's review against another edition

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Ah man, I really wanted to enjoy this: Yoruba gods stealing back an artefact from the British Museum? Sign me up!

The main thing I couldn’t get past was the treatment of women. Apart from the main female character (more about her later) every woman existed solely to be sexualised, usually in the form of waitresses wearing skimpy clothing, or else just exists as the ‘hag’ trope.

But Nneoma is our main female character; she is a succubus. I’m not against the use of these in fiction but I’m not convinced this book progressed beyond the misogynistic origins of the succubus myth. Despite being the second main character, Nneoma’s role consists of having sex and mentioning a mysterious loss of her sister. They need someone (a man) to help them in their heist? Don’t worry! Here’s a flashback where Nneoma had sex with a guy and now he owes her a favour. Oh and the sex is never fully consensual by the way, the first time this happens, it’s with Aleister Crowley, who is gay, and she magically seduces him right in front of his male partner, which was such a nice way to treat your queer characters (/s). The second time this happens, she quite literally rapes a man while he is saying “No, please” and crying thinking about his family. He then dies. This was the moment I DNF’d.

Beyond that, our main character Shigidi did not have enough characterisation for me considering I was at the 54% mark, and the writing style also wasn’t for me - way too many adjectives and adverbs man 😩 I don’t need a paragraph of what the sky looks like every time we change scene.

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bookishpriest's review

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adventurous dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.0

This book was a fun read. The world-building reflects a great deal of work and planning, besides which I love a heist story. The incorporation of traditional Nigerian mythology with modern ideas and structures made for interesting commentary on colonialism and capitalism. The idea of the spirit world structured as corporations with "pray pay" and spirit-eating freelancers was intriguing and a fun way to think about the shadow world. Really well done, there.

I found the regular timeline jumps a bit jarring, rather than the clever device that I hoped they would prove to be. The bouncing around required extra effort from me as a reader and, most of the time, I wasn't invested enough in the story for that to be an easy ask.

While the timeline jumps fleshed out some of the histories of Nneoma and Shigidi, they didn't do enough to get me invested in the relationship. It wasn't a distraction from the main plot, but I also wasn't convinced that it added much to the story either.

Overall, this is an interesting premise and I'd be interested to see more in this genre from Talabi.

I was provided with a free digital copy of this book by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

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2treads's review

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adventurous 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? No

4.0

I was drawn to this book's title first because it reminded me of the Bronze statues that still remain in the hands of the thieving British in their royal museum.

But this story follows more than the history of looting and brutal colonial mindset of the brits. Here we follow Shigidi who chose to make a deal to remake himself in a visage that he believes is desirable, so that he could remove himself from beneath the thumbs of those who show him neither compassion nor respect.

Talabi shows real control as he is able to meld the world of orishas with fallen angels turned succubi, occult magicians, and a spirit world that has its own governing body and political relationships. He also explores power manipulation and dynamics as we see lower gods being used to maintain the status of higher deities.

With a new partner and new confidence in himself, Shigidi embarks upon a magical heist in order to be truly free and live the way he wants with no ties binding him to those who would only use him for their own ends.

I enjoyed how seamless the transition from past to present was, how he was able mold his main story around historical and biblical events and characters. All these elements made this read really good.

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uranaishi's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious 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? No

4.5

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