Happy blog anniversary to me! Can you believe it’s been two years. time flies.

Anyway, it’s been several months since Simidele made her deal with oisa of the dead, Olokun, that in exchange for helping to capture Esu, she will keep him company in the Land of the Dead. The bitter currents never leave her bones, and she misses the sun but Simi feels that her sacrifice is worth it to make up for her mistakes.

It’s soon revealed that in using one oisa to defeat another, more danger abounds in the kingdom of Oko. Olokun did not keep his part of the deal to send Esu to the surpreme god for punishment. He has kept Esu hidden and chained up in the deep, allowing the agojun (anti gods/warlords of destruction) to sow chaos across the Earth.

It seems like every time Simi tries to fix her mistakes, she ends up causing more trouble so her choice to team up with Esu to seal the passageway of the agojun could be another mistake. This adds a lot of suspense for the book as we wait for Esu to reveal his true trickster nature like he did in the first. This red herring allows for other double-crossers to go unnoticed by the group though I found it nicely forshadowed and was able to guess who it was.

Simi experiences some real growth here as she is reunited with Kola. He’s hurt over how she left him, and she stays distant because she thinks it will make it easier when she leaves again. After all, he’s still human and she’s still Mami Wata. They can’t be together.

However, that doesn’t change that she can be all-too impulsive and self-sacrificing which Kola calls her out on when she tries to help in a fight where she has no combat skills. Still, you can’t help btu feel for her as she cares so much about the people around her and wants to keep them safe even at the expense of herself. After everything that’s happened, her guilt is consuming her and she is unable to reach out for the happiness she deserves or sees that her actions have had good consequences as well as bad.

Kola has also changed, growing more into his role as a leader and more willing to make tough decisions so his people can survive the threat of the Tape and the ajogun they’ve bound themselves with. He gets his own surprising arc and identity crisis that brings he and Simidele closer together. I would say more but it’s spoilery. Let’s just say, it’s interesting what happens to him but it makes me wish Bowen gave Kola his own POV so we get more of his feelings.. As it is, he was shunted aside in Simi’s POV so it feels we got less of him than in the first book.

However, old friends like Yinka and Bem returned! As well as Simi’s fellow Mami Wata Folsada who accompanies Simi on land to watch over Esu and temper Simi’s impulsiveness, and Ara, Simi’s childhood friend whose experiences as an enemy captive make her a valuable resource to defeating them. As usual, Bowen’s character writing shines through as each occupy a distinct role in the team as well as their own personalities that mesh well together. They truly felt like family and reminds Simi that she isn’t as unhuman as she once felt she was. She is still the Simi she was as a human and a daughter of Yomoja, and more with everything she’s experienced.

This book felt darker than the previous as Bowen’s dive into West African mythology brought up such beasts as adzes (vampires), obambos (zombies), Ya-Te-Veo (life-sucking tree) and the Mokele-mbembe, also known as the West African loch-ness that supposedly haunts as Congo-Cameroon basin. This combined with the visions of the ajogun (who control death, imprisonment, disease, famine, etc. the eight big ills of the world) create a horrifying picture of those who choose violence and power over the supernatural with the misguided belief that you can control them. No one can control the oisa and their ike but no one seems to realize that until it’s too late. Still, such horrors fit in with the wider historical narrative Bowen depicts as the foreign slave traders encouraged the rivalries already present within the tribes to fever-pitch so they could swoop in and get more slaves.

You also really get the Little Mermaid vibes from Simi here, and the ending is very fairytale-esque yet satisfying. Though I wouldn’t say it’s the end as there’s still potential for Simi to reunite with her parents after readers been fed heartwarming flashbacks to her life before, and could add to the puzzle piece of who Simi was and how it informs who she’ll be.

A lovely blend of West African traditions, mythologies and fantasy.

4 sea sapphires