The Shadow King

Abandoned, p.166. I tried, and I kept going well past where I would've given up on anything else because this was a recommendation from Mira Jacob. But it just doesn't work for me and was becoming painful. I'd call the writing poetic but in a murky way, not florid: it was like Mengiste avoided saying anything directly, preferring instead to hint and dance around even the most mundane actions. This, and the trendy Cormac McCarthyesque lack of quotation marks anywhere, made it too hard for me to follow the story; the characters themselves made it hard for me to care. They're (so far) all unlikable, barbarians trapped in roles imposed upon them by idiotic cultures: beatings, contempt, absence of listening or empathy or basic awareness. Not a shred of connection anywhere.

The Shadow King presents a lesser known chapter in the story of World War II: the Italian invasion of Ethiopia–more specifically, the role women played in the conflict. Mengiste's story is fully imagined here. Readers can easily identify with Hirut and her intense desire to keep ahold of her gun, a gift from her father. Aster's wishes and desires were less easy to understand. I never quite grasped what she wanted and didn't want, particularly in her relationship with Hirut. All together, this story moves with tremendous writing and a compelling storyline.

Ive been reading SUCH depressing books and this one isn't any different.

The writing in this one is unfortunately not consistently strong so closer to a 3.5 but when it's good it's great.

Also learned a lot of new things.

Ethiopia book around the world