Book Review: Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson

 

⋆⋆⋆½

Content Warning: death, rape, incest, abortion, violence, child abuse, spousal abuse, pedophilia, alcoholism, animal death, forced pregnancy. Please be aware that this book deals with extremely heavy topics, many of them graphic in text.

Tan-Tan lives on Toussaint. Her father is the mayor of their county, and so she lives a relatively comfortable life, in spite of the way her beautiful, spirited mother neglects her. But suddenly Tan-Tan's world is turned upside down when her father commits a crime that forces him to be exiled to the brutal planet of New Half-Way Tree, Toussaint's shadow-side, a place where dangerous creatures from folklore abound. Taking Tan-Tan with him, she soon discovers that her father is no longer the kind man who adores her. As she grows up, Tan-Tan will become the Robber Queen, feared and revered by those who tell stories of her...and hopefully, in the process, save herself from the painful trauma of her childhood.

There's something truly magical about the worlds that Hopkinson creates. In this case, it's a mixture of folklore, fantasy and science-fiction, a blend of different Caribbean cultures narrated in Creole. Our main character, Tan-Tan, is like all of Hopkinson's heroines -- powerful, complex, and totally and authentically human. Plagued by the horrors of her childhood, and trying desperately to escape from her past, this book is a riveting look into the life of woman forced to carry her abuser's baggage. 

Hopkinson's prose is both beautiful and horrifying, graphically relating to us the events that are taking place in Tan-Tan's life. Interspersed with snatches of folk tales about Tan-Tan, each of them make it clear that she is suffering under the weight of her guilt. From the moment the first traumatic incident occurs, Tan-Tan, like so many others who experience deep and lasting trauma, finds herself splitting into two: the "bad" Tan-Tan, who whispers self-hatred into her ear, and the "good" Tan-Tan, who remains loyal to her abuser in spite of his cruelty.

It's mostly the pacing that brought this down to three and a half stars. Still a good rating, mind you, and I enjoyed this book greatly; but it was prone to lingering, and it was a good while before I felt that the story truly began. To be fair, there was a lot of explaining needed, due to the sci-fi and fantasy elements, but I was both confused and a little bored in the beginning. However, once the plot picks up, things move very fast, and get interesting very quickly. I must mention the depth that went into this book, particularly the fascinating culture of the Douens, a species that lives on the planet. The worldbuilding could never be called shallow or superficial. 

This is by no means an easy read, and if the abovementioned triggers are things that you personally are affected by, I would not recommend picking this one up. It's beautiful and has an ending that will bring you tears (of both joy and pure relief), but the journey there is painful and incredibly dark. That aside, however, I would highly recommend this to those who love sci-fi, especially the kind that is diverse and has an amazingly written black woman protagonist!