A review by bowman
The Winged Histories by Sofia Samatar

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Like A Stranger in Olondria, this is a wonderfully vivid poetic masterpiece of fantasy. Unlike Olondria, where the land itself is essentially the main character (as viewed by the titular stranger), Histories is more character-focused. The fate of Olondria is much more precarious in this book, but the heart of the story is still about the intimate lives and ambitions of four women struggling to maintain agency in a world that works against them. As always, the world-building is stellar, and the prose itself is absolutely wonderful. I was also delightfully surprise at the true genre of this book, which disguises itself as political fantasy but ends up actually being

a paranormal teen vampire romance?!

. Like honestly, this is one of my least favorite genres ever conceived, and Sofia Samatar pulls it off. It's almost infuriating how good she is.