PositiveBook SlutThe mystery of Fra Keeler\'s death drives the narrator forward, while the narrator\'s thoughts, endlessly circling, spooling out and back in, drive the reader ... Though difficult to describe, the book is a pleasure to read. Rather than constructing an argument, the narrator\'s thoughts accumulate and accrue, pooling around the yurt, the skylight, Fra Keeler, and other people and objects. Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi makes use of the narrator\'s logical wanderings to engage in word- and thought-play that is both delightful and, as the narrative continues, vaguely threatening ... Even as events cohere, the narrative dances amid the surreal, frustrating attempts to impose sense on the narrator\'s senselessness.
Tade Thompson
PositiveStrange HorizonsA map is cleverly encoded in the opening paragraph of Rosewater, Tade Thompson’s near future novel of mind-readers and aliens ... There is enough action in the plot to encourage reading at a quick clip, to find out what happens next or what new creation is waiting in the next chapter. The narration encourages a quick pace as well ... it\'s unsurprisingly uncomfortable to spend time within Kaaro\'s perspective. Neither hero nor villain, he often makes wrong or imperfect decisions, hurting others and himself as much through inaction as action. For this reader at least, that discomfort became a distraction on my first read of the novel ... My second read of the novel was much more fruitful ... A second read also revealed layers of image and resonance, like the map I mentioned encoded in the opening paragraph. The elements of that paragraph—Kaaro\'s borrowed anxiety, the city streets he observes, and a skylight above him—are little gifts to discover when you already know what happens next.
