Amorpha and Akwaeke Emezi

[lb_lee]

Due to health insurance fuckery, Amorpha are needing cash again. Go help them out if you can!

Also, after mirrorofsmoke gave me content warnings for the first six chapters of Akwaeke Emezi's Freshwater, I decided to shotgun the book. (Bought it a couple weeks ago, where it'd been lurking on my desk, staring at me. Daring me to read it.) The content warnings are immense and I'll put those in the comments for those who want them, but I also wanted to give a spoiler-free, warning-unnecessary blurt about my feelings on it.

First of all: god I wish I'd had this book in 2019 when I was having my unwanted religious experience, it would've been such a boon, eesh. Because wow did I find the "I am having a religious/spiritual/metaphysical experience but that's not allowed, I keep trying to force this into the 'mental illness' box, WHY ISN'T IT WORKING" relatable. Also gods and spirits as terrifying nonhuman entities that, even if they are ostensibly benevolent towards you, run roughshod and drag you along behind them? Yeah. Much relatable.  This may not be our cultural context or ontology, we're just a walking graveyard, but YUP.

Second of all, I am now even MORE irritated at how this book keeps getting portrayed as "mental illness book" since THE WHOLE FUCKING STORY is, "this is a metaphysical identity story, mental illness is a red herring that's kind of besides the point," only for reviewers and such to keep going "BUT WHAT IF NO THOUGH???" I don't know how Emezi stands it, I would've shoved my face through a wall.

Third, I feel like this book is important and a must-read, even though reading it myself felt like holding my hand to a stove burner. (This is true for basically every plural book I read, because plural books are, inevitably, about TERRIBLE THINGS happening to said plurals.  Maybe one day we will make it culturally to a place where a plural protagonist doesn't get eaten alive by rapewolves, but that day ain't here yet.) It's the first book I've really seen engaging with metaphysical plurality without sneering or being so incoherent that I had trouble reading it.  This is the first book I've seen dealing with how gender and plurality interact, and the compromises therein.

I don't think I'll enjoy rereading this book, or doing so often, but I'm definitely keeping it.

Comments

Content Warnings for Freshwater

[lb_lee]

This book is a ROUGH read. Unlike others I've read, there isn't a "misery half, recovery half" set-up, the pain keeps coming all through--and is indeed, part of the theme of the book, living in pain.

So, heads up for: starve-style eating disorders, self-harm (cutting), rape, trying to kill your headmates (mercifully brief), suicide attempts, hospitalization, really shitty relationships, violence (a childhood car accident, getting smacked around by partners), homo and transphobia, and gods refusing to leave you the fuck alone.

Re: Content Warnings for Freshwater

[beepbird]

Thanks for the warnings- we've been thinking about finding a copy ourselves and this gives us an idea of what to expect if we do find and read it.

[starfallhaven]

I do kind of want to read it from those thoughts.

FWIW we're writing a plural book with kind of metaphysical stuff associated, but it takes place in another world and the culture that the main character is from venerates people like her. Idk if that would scratch the itch, but I do wanna write and try to publish various plural fiction that doesn't necessarily have that hand-to-the-stoveness.