Everfair

Ooof, this book was very much not for me. Only reason I finished is I'm reading it for a book club.

I was excited to read it! Alternate history in Congo, some Afrofuturist elements, some steampunk. Complicated politics of race, culture, colonialism. Sexy lesbian relationships. All seemed promising.

But the book never grabbed me. I finished the whole thing and can barely recall what happened or who the characters were. Sometimes I'm a lazy reader so maybe that's on me, but I think the writing just really didn't work for me.

Structurally one problem other reviews have noted is the chapters are very short. You get 4 or 5 pages at a time so it's hard to really get in to one particular character or set of emotions before the narrative moves on. I've read other books written this way that worked for me but I think this structure was part of the problem.

The other problem for me is there were too many characters and I really couldn't keep them straight. There's several factions, then 3 or 4 people within each faction, then also the action takes place across many years. Just a whole lot to keep straight. I also don't think the author did a great job defining every character with a personality. I felt the only way to distinguish them was by their names, not by who they were.

One specific detail stuck with me though that I thought was great: how many people have prosthetic hands or other limbs. Partly it creates a bit of a steampunk opportunity with people having various unusual attachments. Also of course a callback to the horrible abuses of the Belgians in the Congo with their abuses, dismembering people. The prosthetics even take on an erotic tinge in a couple of cases, a sort of light fetish. That could have been creepy maybe but it worked.

I also liked the bit about "riding cats". I was hoping the steampunk elements would be more fun too but they are not the focus of the writing.