MASQUERADE by O.O. Sangoyomi │ARC Review

Hey Bookworm friends, I’ve got another ARC review for you today! With this, I have finished all my requests for the summer releases, hurray! 🎉Just in time to mood read for the creepy season! That being said, please enjoy my review of Masquerade below.

Thanks to Netgalley and Forge Books for the ARC; I leave my review voluntarily.

About Masquerade

Synopsis

Òdòdó spends day after day bent over a blistering forge with the other women of her blacksmith guild. One day, a mysterious stranger visits their forge in Timbuktu, and shortly after, she finds herself in the middle of the Sahara desert. She’s been abducted, and once she reaches the Capital city of Ṣàngótẹ̀, she learns that the enigmatic stranger was, in fact, the warrior king of Yorùbáland. And he has chosen her to be his wife. Òdòdó must defy the cruel king she has been forced to wed by re-forging the shaky loyalties of the court in her favour or risk losing everything—including her life.

My Review

Masquerade is set in 15th-century West Africa and that’s what drew me to it; It’s not a setting I’ve read before and it was lush and vibrant. The sense of place was fantastic because every scene was easy to visualize in vivid detail, despite my lack of knowledge about Yorubaland. I loved learning about the òrìṣàs, divine spirits of the Yoruba religion, as well as other cultural beliefs. Sangoyomi’s writing style was lyrical and I enjoyed her turns of phrase enough that I wrote down a lot of quotes I thought were beautiful or poignant. My only issue with the writing is the maddening repetition of the phrase “One of his braids came loose from his bun. He never noticed.” The author tells us this every time she describes the warrior king, I noted it at least 5 times and didn’t feel it was warranted—we remember.

I also really enjoyed the political intrigue and following the motivations of several factions. Òdòdó made several enemies by simply existing even though she was brought to court by force rather than by her own will. There are enough secret plots, rivals, betrayals and alliances to keep things interesting but not too much that it’s difficult to follow. I was especially fascinated by the blacksmith guilds, how they are connected to the overall plot and the broader implications of their roles in a patriarchal society. Blacksmiths were labelled witches and reviled despite being the backbone of the economy.

“Blacksmithing was not a profession that women chose. It was one they fell into after their parents deemed them failed daughters, or their husbands deemed them failed wives and mothers.”

Masquerade is supposedly a Hades and Persephone retelling, which I can see in certain plot points but if you’re reading it solely for that, I think you run the risk of being very unsatisfied. Instead, I think the relationship between Òdòdó and Àrẹ̀mọ (the Warrior King) is not so much a romance but rather an exploration of power imbalance and what an all-powerful king thinks love is. The King’s characterization is static and one-dimensional. Then we’ve got our FMC. She is forced to live through so many hardships due to the nature of her lowly station in life but she is also ambitious and not exactly concerned with doing the right thing as she crawls her way to the top. She inspires empathy, annoyance, and even condemnation which, in my opinion, makes her an interesting character. Unfortunately, I had one issue with her depiction.

Òdòdó is 19 years old, but she has not received any education, nor does she know how to read. Once in court, she’s provided with a teacher and we have a few studying scenes but they’re always interrupted by something. In other words, the reader doesn’t witness believable growth. Then suddenly we’re supposed to buy that within a season, she becomes a master military strategist and advisor to the king? She starts to solve problems that even the most senior generals haven’t been able to solve. No, I simply don’t buy it. At the same time, she’s also shown as being incredibly naive. She’s been sheltered her whole life so I don’t blame her but it just doesn’t add up! I feel like it’s an issue in both the plotting and the character.

“He waged wars, ravaged entire villages, and killed countless people. And I committed an act equally as violent: I loved him.”

Lastly, Masquerade is a Historical Fiction and despite being marketed as Fantasy, it contains one scene of magical realism. The author herself has stated she does not intend her book to be categorized as a Fantasy. It would be disrespectful to relegate the òrìṣàs as mere Fantasy when they’re part of a faith that is still being practiced today in certain parts of the world. I felt the need to point all of this out because reading other people’s reviews, it seems this miscategorization is a common source of disappointment and confusion, myself included. Hopefully having this information will help you set your expectations accordingly. I know it helped me better appreciate some choices that the author made, after the fact.

Final Thoughts on Masquerade & Rating

Overall it’s a worthy read. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to read historical fiction set in non-Western countries and people who support women’s rights and wrongs.

Reading Challenge Prompts Fulfilled: Book With A Map

I’ll be linking up this post with @athomealot’s Book Worms Monthly. It’s a monthly linky event where we can share our bookish content, up to 4 posts per month. Reviews, reading lists, interviews…Anything book-related is allowed. Come join in on the fun! 

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