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A review by karenaparker
The Smoke That Thunders by Erhu Kome
Did not finish book.
Thank you to Erhu Kome, Norton Young Readers, and Netgalley for sending me a copy of this book to review. Unfortunately, I got about 52% of the way into this book and decided to put it down, but I will do my best to provide feedback on this title.
Having read and enjoyed Children of Blood and Bone, Forged by Blood, The Gilded Ones, and Beasts of Prey, I was eager to read The Smoke That Thunders to learn more about Urhobo and West African folklore and to appreciate the rich diversity across the African diaspora in YA literature. Although the story does well to introduce me to these parts of Urhobo and West African culture in a very simple and easy-to-understand way that would appeal to school teachers and to younger YA readers, what it lacks for me is a compelling story to support all these things.
Naborhi feels like a classic YA protagonist who shuns her arranged marriage and has haunting dreams about a boy who pleads her to save him. She completes her rite of passage, she says goodbye to her fellow friends as they get married or betrothed, she sees an animal spirit that happens to be a messenger of a god—All these things feel like they happen to her instead of her making them happen. When she wants to travel and see the world, she saves up money for the purpose of doing so but is later taken to a neighboring queendom when she is shot with a sleeping dart, which robs her once more of any tension and conflict that would propel her to travel and explore on her own.
I also couldn’t quite tell what the age of the reader was for this novel. Because of the travel, spirits, and adventure aspects, it feels more middle-grade adjacent, but Naborhi is sixteen at the start of the novel and is coming of age. There are some scenes where women are physically beaten by men and even one scene where a man declares that a woman has “lost her innocence” and “her pride” for allegedly seducing another man. He then asks, “Who will marry a broken thing like her? Not any man in his right senses,” and although Naborhi wants to step in and help, she’s ultimately made to turn away. That thinly-veiled misogyny intersecting with her feminist desire to help, learn to read, and be independent is very upper-YA, but it’s not quite fully addressed. It makes it hard for me to understand what the story’s point is thematically as a result. What does Naborhi end up wanting if she ends up getting it right away? What part of the story, according to the blurb, is political intrigue and fierce love?
To that end, I don’t think this quite hits the mark. However, I would love to read more of Erhu Kome’s works in the future and hope that I’m given the chance to do so.
Having read and enjoyed Children of Blood and Bone, Forged by Blood, The Gilded Ones, and Beasts of Prey, I was eager to read The Smoke That Thunders to learn more about Urhobo and West African folklore and to appreciate the rich diversity across the African diaspora in YA literature. Although the story does well to introduce me to these parts of Urhobo and West African culture in a very simple and easy-to-understand way that would appeal to school teachers and to younger YA readers, what it lacks for me is a compelling story to support all these things.
Naborhi feels like a classic YA protagonist who shuns her arranged marriage and has haunting dreams about a boy who pleads her to save him. She completes her rite of passage, she says goodbye to her fellow friends as they get married or betrothed, she sees an animal spirit that happens to be a messenger of a god—All these things feel like they happen to her instead of her making them happen. When she wants to travel and see the world, she saves up money for the purpose of doing so but is later taken to a neighboring queendom when she is shot with a sleeping dart, which robs her once more of any tension and conflict that would propel her to travel and explore on her own.
I also couldn’t quite tell what the age of the reader was for this novel. Because of the travel, spirits, and adventure aspects, it feels more middle-grade adjacent, but Naborhi is sixteen at the start of the novel and is coming of age. There are some scenes where women are physically beaten by men and even one scene where a man declares that a woman has “lost her innocence” and “her pride” for allegedly seducing another man. He then asks, “Who will marry a broken thing like her? Not any man in his right senses,” and although Naborhi wants to step in and help, she’s ultimately made to turn away. That thinly-veiled misogyny intersecting with her feminist desire to help, learn to read, and be independent is very upper-YA, but it’s not quite fully addressed. It makes it hard for me to understand what the story’s point is thematically as a result. What does Naborhi end up wanting if she ends up getting it right away? What part of the story, according to the blurb, is political intrigue and fierce love?
To that end, I don’t think this quite hits the mark. However, I would love to read more of Erhu Kome’s works in the future and hope that I’m given the chance to do so.