Just finished, and I'm gonna need to some time to process all of my feels

I read this book as part of the book club at my local indie. As one of my fellow readers noted, this book did not "have" to be written. A great satire of American culture and the Iraq war, but not anything ground-breaking. I did appreciate the accurate depiction of these war heroes, who are really just young guys who were thrown into a war and are now just trying to get by.

I adored NK Jemisin's previous books from the Inheritance trilogy, but for some reason, I didn't really connect with this book until the very end. Perhaps it was the shifting narrative or maybe the complexity of the mythology. A good book, just not the best I've ever read.

Did you know that writing stories down kills them? Of course it does. Words aren't meant to be stiff, unchanging things. My family were tale keepers once, though they now make funerary urns and jars. Many, many generations ago, before pictorals and numeratics and hieratics, word were kept where they belong, in mouths.

Still reading this giant book. I find that I'm really loving the disjointed narrative style and I can't wait to see how this mystery unfolds. 'cause so far, I'm 400 pages in and I have no clue! 🤓

"It thrilled him that his employer was up to no good." Albert is definitely my favorite character. He has said nothing and done nothing so far, but this alone endears him to my heart.

Here the men were not self-made; they were self-making, as they squatted in the dirt to wash it clean.