RaveThe Los Angeles Review of BooksThe series speeds up from noir Rosewater’s unraveling admission of an invasion plan into political thrillers of invasion action and resistance ... unlike Rosewater, the middle and final novels are narrated through the rotating perspectives of several engaging characters, with familiar figures like the xenospherically sensitive human Kaaro, his secret agent girlfriend Aminat, and time-traveler Oyin Da joining new actors like mayor Jacques, his assistant Lora, and Alyssa, the first Homian alien uploaded to a human body. The rotating narration increases the speed of delivery, with readers jumping to and through different selves ... The concluding books of the Wormwood Trilogy answered most of my questions from Rosewater — I hope fellow readers also delight in getting to briefly experience Molara and Wormwood’s personal takes on the action. Fans of Kaaro and Aminat will be excited to rejoin them as the final books push the breaking point of romantic, community, and self affiliations ... Insurrection and Redemption wild reads. They wrap up threads and suggest new ones. They land a bit close to home ... The Wormwood plant is enticing and bitter. It stays with you. The Wormwood Trilogy is aptly named. Parts of the series keep rising to the tip of my tongue, even now, long after I’ve consumed it. I think I’ve developed a craving to taste it again in its full complexity.
Tade Thompson
RaveLos Angeles Review of Books...when I tell you that Rosewater is a science fiction mystery that is simultaneously about an alien invasion and a man trying to avoid being murdered, I do so knowing that each of those elements may conjure familiar generic conventions. If you add them up, you’ll have a relatively good sense of what reading Thompson’s first novel in the Wormwood Trilogy is like. But at a certain point in the book, you may find yourself dramatically reassessing those assumptions while spinning backward and cringing with horror-tinged delight. I urge you to throw your hands up and enjoy the ride.
