jassmine 's review for:

Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon by Wole Talabi

DID NOT FINISH

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She shouted at the driver as she pressed her hand into Shigidi's and pulled his head into her bloody bosom.

Eeeeh, okay?

DNFing this one at 12% because I couldn't care less about the plot or the characters and some of the choices are making me upset.

This book gets compared to [a:Max Gladstone|3405346|Max Gladstone|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1440009008p2/3405346.jpg]'s [b:Craft Sequence|13539191|Three Parts Dead (Craft Sequence, #1)|Max Gladstone|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1333049511l/13539191._SY75_.jpg|19101555] quite a lot and I can see why - it's the gods obviously and the way they form a firm or whatever BUT once you look at the details the books are really nothing alike. I had mixed reactions to Craft Sequence too, okay, especially to the

Spoiler

shark sex scene

but what can't be denied is that Gladstone is incredibly considerate when writing his female characters and he writes them well. On top of that he clearly thinks about the language he uses and works with it in a way I rarely see - especially male - authors do. His writing is very feminist in ways that are quite subtle and although I love reading campy books, I think this subtle way has a great value too.

So yeah, how does that connect to Shigidi? Well, there is just none of that... the male gaze is strong in this one. The bosoms, the leather skirts and sex descriptions that made my skin crawl for some reason. I can't really pinpoint all the specific problems I have with all this, but it doesn't work as a whole to me. I think that Talabi makes significant effort to make Nneoma a three-dimensional character that is complex, but she comes across as sex object and emotionally unreachable femme fatal. It's one of those things where you feel like the author is seeing her from the outside but doesn't actually understand what it feels to be like her? I mean, if you are succubus it probably makes sense to wear leather skirts and people objectifying you is something you are going for, but if this was Talabi's intent it just isn't working out.

I didn't get very far into the book, so I might not getting all of it correctly, but... the romance is... I just hated it. Shigidi used to be ugly as a nightmare god and now he's hot because Nneoma got a new body for him - meaning he can finally get some. He falls in love with Nneoma and he tells her he loves her and pesters her to give him the answer if she loves him too or not. And she doesn't want to. And you know what, that's fair, if you love her, give her a break, it's pretty obvious she has some issues she has to work through! Shigidi is just giving me a masive incel vibes* and I don't think Talabi made that decision on purpose.

* To be clear, incels are also victims of the way our society functions, this isn't black and white situation, I'm just saying that Wole Talabi included very actual and sensitive topic without realising he did that and it's just not working out for me.


So yeah, I was so distracted by all of this that I wasn't even capable of paying attention to the plot which lowered my motivation to continue to zero. The audio is narrated quite pleasantly, so I'm sorry to drop it, but... yeah. Not a book for me. At this point I would probably give this two stars, but I feel I dropped this too early on to actually rate it.

BRed at WBtM: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/22843613-shigidi-and-the-brass-head-of-obalufon-sff-botm---august-2024