The Rosewater Insurrection

Tade Thompson
Completed 8/18/2021, Reviewed 8/18/2021
2 stars

I really liked Rosewater, but I read it almost two years ago and didn’t remember much of it.  I was looking forward to this second book in the Wormwood trilogy because what I did remember liking was the interesting plot, the great prose, and the Afro-futurist setting.  Unfortunately, this book felt like one big mess.  It was told from mostly four character’s points of view, with a sprinkling of chapters from other characters POV.  There were multiple plot lines with multiple voices that all sounded pretty similar and it left me confused and uninterested.  By the time I got to the end, I didn’t care what was going on.  This book has gotten a lot of love from the different book review sites I keep up with, so I know my opinion won’t be popular.  So take this review with a grain of salt if you’re one of the lovers.

Alyssa is a white Nigerian living in Rosewater who wakes up one day not knowing anything about her past, including her husband and child.  She leaves home only to be tracked by Aminat, the lover of the Kaaro, the main character from the first book.  Aminat works for the same agency S45, which believes Alyssa is the key to the survival of the human race amidst the alien invasion.  However, interfering with Aminat is the political dealings of the mayor of Rosewater, Jack Jacques, who is trying to declare Rosewater a city-state, independent of Nigeria. 

There were too many main characters in this book for me to get any sense of good character development.  There’s Alyssa, Aminat, Jack Jacques, and Anthony, the alien/human hybrid that is the avatar of Wormwood.  There was also Kaaro, Eric, Hannah, Lora and a few other secondary characters.  Out of all these, the only character I really liked and followed well was Lora the AI assistant of the mayor.  She had no real sense of humor and took everything literally. 

I found the world building to be decent but also confusing.  Having read the first book two years ago, I didn’t remember much about Rosewater or the domed Wormwood.  Getting recaps helped, but the ganglia and the spikes kinda lost me.  I understood there was a symbiotic relationship between the city and the dome, but I couldn’t picture the details.  The prose was also decent in this book, but as I said, everyone’s voice sounded the same. 

One chapter I liked was from the point of view of Will, a famous author drafted by the mayor to document the war for independence.  Will’s narrative was a lot of exposition and info dumping about the history of the development of Rosewater, but it helped me remember things I had forgotten from the first book.

I give this book two stars out of five.  I felt like it’s form and style were too complex, at least for me.  My understanding is that the form of the third book is again different, so I’m hoping I like it better.  I’ll read a few other books to give myself a break, then attempt the third.