#also essun deciding in the last 10 pages of the book as a character that's been fighting and surviving her whole life to give up so

[kbookblurbs]

The Stone Sky - N.K. Jemisin (Broken Earth #3)

4.5/5 - at times too cerebral for my tastes; very fitting pyhrric victory; the mother-daughter relationship in this book makes me SICK. I'm obsessed.

MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW!!!

In an effort to keep this a bit more concise and to the point than my review for The Obelisk Gate, I'm structuring this review into three main sections:

Worldbuilding

Pacing & The Ending

Essun, Nassun, & their relationship

Worldbuilding

I deeply love that Jemisin devotes so much time to making sure that the worldbuilding here reflects on a (sub)textual level the point she's trying to convey regarding race, oppression, and the consequences of othering people. It's rich and allows for a really nuanced exploration into what it means to consider people subhuman, what that does to their psyche, and what that exposes about that society. The section about the "Briar Patch" is ... particularly horrifying. A match to the scene in The Fifth Season with the node maintainer in terms of sheer banal evil.

I do feel, however, that sometimes the commitment to this description and this worldbuilding on every page interfered with getting to know some of the characters. Obviously Essun, Nassun, Schaffa, etc. are very well-developed, but characters like Tonkee, Ykka, and Lerna felt very one-note at times. Since our main characters are in their own heads so much, it doesn't really feel like we really get to know anyone else - though that could be a narrative technique given Essun's tendency to misunderstand or underestimate her relationships with others. Either way, I personally wanted to see a little bit more interaction between everyone.

Pacing & The Ending

At times, the book dragged for me. I think this may be because I felt some scenes with Schaffa and Nassun were somewhat repetitive, but I understand the need to keep them in. They each show something different and unique and horrifying, to be perfectly honest, about their relationship and Nassun's underlying traumas.

The ending, however, was everything I could ask for. It's felt all along like Essun wouldn't survive this, but through books one and two, I had imagined more of a go-down-swinging type of exit. This one was, frankly, all the more heartbreaking. She loved her daughter more than she loved humanity, more than she loved herself.

And what a blow for Nassun. To be orphaned twice over, basically, and to have a hand in the death of each of your parental figures makes my heart ache for her. She's so young to have experienced the world like this. It's especially tragic and fitting, as far as endings go, that she loses her orogeny at the end of the series. It's not a stretch to say that Nassun literally lost everyone who ever loved her and a part of herself she loved (and an arm!). What ultimately brought her the most happiness was also the seeds of her own personal tragedy.

Essun, Nassun, & their relationship

Few things have made me more sick, angry, and deeply conflicted than the twisted ties between Nassun, Essun, & Schaffa. How tragic to be so traumatized by even the attempt to live a normal life that you inflict the same pain upon your child. That your abuser can recognize your actions as wrong. That there's no way you could have known any different!

That said, Essun being afraid of her daughter and understanding that she is afraid of Nassun because Nassun is just like her was, again, deeply sad and frustrating on my part. It was understandable, because even as Essun has attempted to accept the whole of her life, who she is, and what she's done, good and bad, she hasn't really forgiven herself for it. She hasn't forgiven herself for being born powerful and stubborn and ambitious and seeing those traits reflected back in her daughter made her frightened!

From Nassun's point of view, for her to know, but not quite understand, that Schaffa had a hand in making Essun who she was and is, made me as the reader miserable. Schaffa is treating her better than many of the adult figures in her life. But he's also grooming her into a weird, toxic, codependent relationship that only serves to confirm Nassun's impression of her mother as someone who doesn't (or can't) love her when Schaffa is literally the reason that Essun acts and parents the way that she does. It goes round in circles and makes me sick and ill and I will be thinking about this for the foreseeable future I fear.

Overall - an excellent book and an excellent series that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys a dense high fantasy or science fiction story. It packs a punch!