A review by bestdressman
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

adventurous dark emotional 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

5.0

A phenomenally diverse book from racial, ethnic, and queer standpoints, N. K. Jemison manages to casually weave all of these elements together in a normalized background to the greater science fiction that is the Stillness. I felt transported into the world in a deep and imaginative way. I love when I can read fiction in a way that makes me feel I could study the history of a world for years and still not understand it, and Jemisen's worldbuilding ABSOLUTELY does this. For the first time as a white reader, I noticed I was envisioning most characters as people of color, and the deep storytelling that occurred along the way brought me to tears. It's wild that I haven't read this until now, and I wish I had been handed something like this FAR earlier in my life.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture

Moderate: Torture, Murder, Violence, Sexual content, and Slavery

Minor: Child death

somewhat detailed torturous description of individuals with superhuman abilities being medically incapacitated and used as tools

brief scene in which a mother kills her own child for self-preservation and prevention of child slavery