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

adventurous challenging dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

There's a lot to love about this book. 

• Phenomenal world-building and themes
• Complex characters with great dynamics, especially Syenite and Alabaster
• A unique writing style, which takes some time to get used to, but once you do, it's very immersive
• The subtle reveals that certain characters are lgbtq
• Alabaster, my beloved <3
• That scene with Damaya and Schaffa when
  you think he's comforting her by telling her a story and then breaks her hand
  and when Syenite and Alabaster
  go to the node and find one of his children dead and essentially lobotomized.
  Absolutely haunting.
• Overall just how dark this book is

But it also had some issues for me, mostly towards the end.

• Using rust as a curse word got so annoying so quickly. Truly felt like it was on every other page.
• Binof:
  I just didn't buy how she knew anything about the empty space inside the building, how easy it was for her to get into the Fulcrum, and how nobody cared that she was there because "Aw, Damaya finally made a friend." Surely somebody would have enough sense to question what she was doing there? And then everything that happened after that too. You could tell the author needed to get these two to meet so she could reveal who Tonkee was and details about the giant tunnel in later chapters. It soured the last chapter we had with Damaya and just felt so much weaker than other scenes up until this point for me. And unfortunately, it kept getting weaker.
• Literally everything with Innon:
  The moment he's introduced, it's obvious that he's going to die. It feels like he was only added so Syenite could see someone she "cares about" have their orogeny turned against them like Alabaster described, but because she literally only spent time with Alabaster and he's too important to kill just yet, the author had to invent a guy. He's described as being super charismatic and charming, (which is told to us, but never shown) so he came off more creepy to me than anything else. Also within hours of meeting him (~5 pages), Syenite and Alabaster are both in love with him? And he's also into them and wants a polyam relationship? ...Huh? I reread that section twice just to make sure there wasn't a time skip or something that I missed. It was so jarring and unnecessary, as was that weird sex scene. Much preferred the semi-friendship Syenite and Alabaster had. Though, I did like the moment when Syenite comes back to their room and cuddles into Alabaster while he's crying. Really, really enjoyed that. He needs human connection so badly (╥﹏╥)
• The climax and its build up:
  Once I realized the major plot twist, I knew Coru was going to die (or else Essun would've been looking for him because it's established how much she loves her children), and it unfortunately prevented me from caring about him. It became less "What's going to happen next?" and more "So when is this baby going to die?" which isn't a pleasant thought to have for multiple chapters. I also did not understand Syenite's motivation for repairing Allia. She manages to essentially fake her death, gets to live happily on an island that has already survived for centuries and is run by orogenes, and yet she's willing to risk exposing herself and Meov's existence because the Fulcrum hasn't fixed the hot spot yet? And of course, a Guardian is hanging out and waiting for her to come back and do just that three whole years later? It's another moment where you can feel the author's hands guiding the narrative instead of it feeling like it's unfolding naturally. So the attack on Meov had no tension, aside from when Alabaster gets sucked into the earth, because Essun exists and everyone else was already dead the moment they were introduced. It was really disappointing, even though the message behind Syenite killing Coru was super powerful.

Overall, I'd say I enjoyed about 75% of this book, even if the plot got super shaky at the end for me, and I'm actually really looking forward to reading the next one!