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A review by bcdoliveir
Brave the Betrayal by K.A. Applegate
4.0
Surprise, surprise, Jalil narrates the story that takes place in Africa. Although, in all fairness, I would have hated to read it from any other characters’ point of view.
I’m actually really excited about this, because how often do we hear about African mythologies (I’m purposefully excluding Egypt)? We all know Thor and Zeus and Jupiter. Even Ra from Egypt and Quetzalcoatl from the Aztecs are mentioned frequently enough that we know their names.
But after the grotesque simplification of the Aztec religion, I was scared. If they reduced an entire mythology and pantheon to “this guy eats so many hearts blood flows like a river from the pyramid”, what would Applegate do to an African religion?
And yes, she did oversimplify the Orisha and Eshu. Still accurate, but over simplified. I have the Legacy of Orisha books lined up to read after I finish Everworld, and this book only excited me even more to read about the West African Yoruba religion by a Nigerian American author, because wow, we don’t know anything about them over here!
Anyways, I was happy to have a book that wasn’t overly focused on Jalil’s OCD in the “real world”. I’m fact, his life was positively normal, trying to ask a girl out and everything. Of course Christopher had to ruin it for him. Interesting that it would be Jalil who ran into Christopher getting beat up on by the Aryan Nazis and save him. I’m glad to see Christopher trying to make changes in his life after that though.
In Everworld, our heroes piss off the Orisha by refusing to sacrifice to their gods (April for religious reasons and Jalil for atheist reasons). So they end up in tipsy turvy town with an African deity demanding that they make a sacrifice or die. You would think our heroes would know better than piss off gods by now.
We also see Senna getting stronger and falling into her witch role with more practice. I’m not so sure if that’s a good thing or not yet.
Overall, I’m glad to see Applegate including lesser known mythologies in her story and when I backtrack and remember that these books were written in 1999 and 2000, they’re actually very progressive and address some serious issues of racism and misogyny that are still painfully relevant today. Could she have done a better job of it (especially as a white woman)?Absolutely. Is it still good to have these difficult conversations even if we stumble and mess up? Yes.
I’m actually really excited about this, because how often do we hear about African mythologies (I’m purposefully excluding Egypt)? We all know Thor and Zeus and Jupiter. Even Ra from Egypt and Quetzalcoatl from the Aztecs are mentioned frequently enough that we know their names.
But after the grotesque simplification of the Aztec religion, I was scared. If they reduced an entire mythology and pantheon to “this guy eats so many hearts blood flows like a river from the pyramid”, what would Applegate do to an African religion?
And yes, she did oversimplify the Orisha and Eshu. Still accurate, but over simplified. I have the Legacy of Orisha books lined up to read after I finish Everworld, and this book only excited me even more to read about the West African Yoruba religion by a Nigerian American author, because wow, we don’t know anything about them over here!
Anyways, I was happy to have a book that wasn’t overly focused on Jalil’s OCD in the “real world”. I’m fact, his life was positively normal, trying to ask a girl out and everything. Of course Christopher had to ruin it for him. Interesting that it would be Jalil who ran into Christopher getting beat up on by the Aryan Nazis and save him. I’m glad to see Christopher trying to make changes in his life after that though.
In Everworld, our heroes piss off the Orisha by refusing to sacrifice to their gods (April for religious reasons and Jalil for atheist reasons). So they end up in tipsy turvy town with an African deity demanding that they make a sacrifice or die. You would think our heroes would know better than piss off gods by now.
We also see Senna getting stronger and falling into her witch role with more practice. I’m not so sure if that’s a good thing or not yet.
Overall, I’m glad to see Applegate including lesser known mythologies in her story and when I backtrack and remember that these books were written in 1999 and 2000, they’re actually very progressive and address some serious issues of racism and misogyny that are still painfully relevant today. Could she have done a better job of it (especially as a white woman)?Absolutely. Is it still good to have these difficult conversations even if we stumble and mess up? Yes.