The Broken Kingdoms

The Broken Kingdoms by NK Jemisin

ISBN: 0316043966
Pages: 381
Source: Library

Publication Date: November 3, 2010

Appearance: 

In the city of Shadow, beneath the World Tree, alleyways shimmer with magic and godlings live hidden among mortalkind. Oree Shoth, a blind artist, takes in a homeless man who glows like a living sun to her strange sight. This act of kindness engulfs Oree in a nightmarish conspiracy. Someone, somehow, is murdering godlings, leaving their desecrated bodies all over the city. 
Oree's peculiar guest is at the heart of it, his presence putting her in mortal danger -- but is it him the killers want, or Oree? And is the earthly power of the Arameri king their ultimate goal, or have they set their sights on the Lord of Night himself?

 Hello everyone! So this review is long overdue - I've been falling behind on review lately so I apologize for that. With the summer around you'd think I would have more time, but I've just been this lazy ball of fluff...alright on that great note, let's get into this review!

Oree Shoth is a blind artist living in the city of Shadow. Her life consists of selling her pieces to the locals and avoiding the godlings who she can faintly see due to their magical abilities. Then she stumbles across a man beaten up in a dump and decides to take him in without knowing anything about him. After doing so, a chain of events start occurring that could possibly link her guest with the deaths of godlings around the city and the new rising religious cult.

The first thing I want to mention is that the awesome dialogue like storytelling from Book 1 continues! I have grown to associate this method of storytelling with NK Jemisin because it makes the novel seem so conversational. There's a lot of political intrigue as always but this book definitely leans more on the religious side as Oree and Shiny (her guest) figure out how to deal with the cult. There were times in the story however that felt a bit slow which made reading the book really difficult. Even though I read the first book over the course of a month, I enjoyed it despite not reading it in one sitting. However with this book, I found that I had to force myself to pick the book up and read it.

I also had a bit more trouble connecting with these new narrators as Oree kind of bugged me a lot. She could not make a decision even if her life depended on it and believe me it did depend on it a couple of times. Her indecisiveness lead to some tragic events (like deaths) that I'm still really miffed about. As for Shiny, it actually took me a while before I figured out who he was in relation to the first book. I kind of feel bad for me for what he's been through and how the others treat him, but at the same time...he sort of earned it? Two other characters that I want to talk about are old friends from Book 1. Okay Yeine changed SO MUCH! It was kind of weird seeing her as this wise distant goddess. Also, I thought Nahadoth was creepy in this book but I didn't think he was mean and man...he's really good at holding a grudge...

The cool thing about this book was being able to see more of the religion. The first book focused so much on building the political world so it was nice to see the religion fleshed out in this book. There's also Oree's magical ability which I thought was really cool, but was a bit disappointed by the execution of it. There were a lot of things that I wanted to know but it wasn't explained thoroughly.

All right, let's wrap things up with the end. It wasn't as big and epic as the first one, but it was definitely more heartbreaking. I'm going to repeat it: Nahadoth is mean and a big bully. Why can't they all be friends again?

Overall, I was a bit disappointed by this book but I'm still excited to continue. The next and final book in the trilogy is told from Sieh's POV which I am super pumped about since he's one of my favorite godlings! Oh and since I referenced the first book a lot - check out my review for Book 1 right HERE!

3.5 out of 5 stars

 

Foreverly Obsessed,