People Who Buy A Book, Read The Book, And Then Go Out And Buy Another Book Are People I Aspire To Be

07.06.21 Morning in the South Park before the lab - some reading with a lovely view of Oxford. Starting The Fifth Season for a book club this Sunday - I'm very much in two minds about what I expect, there is such an unbelievable amount of hype around this series that I'm almost sure to be disappointed; but also I'm hesitant because I've tried reading The City We Became, thinking that I'd be sure to love it based on the reviews, but ended up DNFing it with a shrug. (I know a lot of people love it, but it just wasn't for me.) Well, I'll try to set all that aside and just see what I think of this one!

Albertine Books French Embassy New York City

When life just doesn't make sense.

“Dude this is not what it looks like!” “You know I have been looking at it for like 20 minutes and I still don’t even know what it is supposed to look like.”

The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson is a historical fantasy set in the sultanate in Granada just before the city is taken over by the armies of Isabella and Ferdinand, as well as by the reaching hands of the Inquisition. Fatima is a teen concubine born at the Alhambra; when she discovers that she and her best friend, a magical mapmaker named Hassan, are in danger, she chooses to flee, with Inquisitor Lulu hot on her heels.

I loved the magic in this novel. Hassan's abilities, the eerie djinn, the demonic unleashed curses, the winding journeys, the stories of the Bird King, were all wonderfully surreal and well-crafted by Wilson. The world-building is rich on the historical side as well: the gaps between cultures of the visiting Castillians and the Muslims of Granada, the insidious manipulation and influence of the Inquisition as well as its real-life horrors, and the atmosphere of Europe at the time of the conquering of Spain, all feel accurate and complexly depicted.

Some choices felt strange—such as both protagonists being Caucasian or Circassian, often considered white ethnic groups, in a story so inspired by Islamic folklore and belief. Some parts of the story dragged as well. But the horror provoked by the Inquisition, the power of mythmaking and faith, and the bonds between the characters all made this a very compelling read.

Content warnings for Islamophobia, homophobia, torture, violence, sexual assault.