She Would Be King

I wanted so badly to LOVE this book. This is a debut novel with a mystical bent about the founding of Liberia, something I, admittedly and unfortunately, know little about. The three main characters whose journeys we follow throughout the book are compelling. Gbessa, an indigenous woman who can't die; Norman Aragon, a biracial man who can disappear; and June Dey, a boy of questionable origin born on a plantation in America who is, basically, Superman. Each one had an emotional, riveting back story which were powerful on their own. I was probably most intrigued by Gbessa, being that her narrative felt like the one the author lingered on the longest.

There was some truly beautiful writing in here and some really great ideas and concepts. However, many times I lost the thread of connection with the characters and just when I was beginning to feel empathy for them, the story moved on. The chapters themselves were also relatively short with several breaks in between. Personally, this broke up my connection with the characters' stories and whisked me along faster than I would have liked. Because of the weird pacing, I found it hard to connect to the books and the story and found myself wanting to put it down when I was over halfway through.

For me, the most impactful part of the story was the ending which was brief and which seemed to have come out of nowhere. I also had no idea how any of the characters ended up where they did at the end and could not connect the dots.

Overall, this is a good first book and I would definitely read the author again. I was disappointed by the lack of cohesion and by the lack of connection I felt with the characters. These stories do need to be told, however, and I would love to see her delve back into this type of tale.