A review by kyirrin
The Winged Histories by Sofia Samatar

4.0

Truly lovely prose - I liked how each of the four women felt so different, had distinct voices. The overall book was, hm, hard to describe? A little confusing? The first history, with Tavis, just throws you into this extremely complex world, in the middle of a war and perhaps a rebellion. More of the politics are explained later, but at first everything is moving so fast. Tavis' account feels more like a brief and dazed description of her grim experience as a soldier, and recovery afterwards. I still thought the overall politics and such were confusing, though to be fair they did not feel like the focus of the novel, instead being a background against which to tell the stories of these four women. Three of the four are intimately connected to each other, but still I thought the overall story was maybe disjointed or odd... it felt very literary/complex? I was excited for the last story, Siski's, to find out what happened with her and Dasya (I was sure it was something horrible, but no), and what would happen to them next. I liked Siski's story, desperately trying to escape from knowing Dasya's secret into the shallow life of a socialite, and finally returning and waiting with him until the end, and at the end Dasya in her place making a different choice than she did (I think?). However, I thought the romance (?) between them was a little weird, and I wasn't sure what to think about the Dreved (?).