I don't know how to even begin reviewing this novel. Just... wow.

Right from the front cover, She Who Remains douses you in its atmosphere and refuses to let go, even after its final lines. I began reading it about half an hour before starting work and got through 20 pages or so before having to put it down. Those 20 pages haunted me for hours. I could not stop thinking about this book, its protagonist, and their family. In what probably amounted to a little over a thousand words, I got invested in characters to a degree that most novels fail to achieve in even hundreds of pages.

A large part of this is owed to Karabash's breathtaking prose, and the masterful translation done by Angel. The stream-of-consciousness narrative style here feels so unique. It absolutely feels like you're caught in our protagonist's thought-spirals with them, and the poetic nature of the prose really sells the transient nature of memory as they verbally recount events from their life to an unnamed journalist. Occasionally, though, there are these sharp yet fleeting images that force themselves through the haze of recall, and they just weigh. They linger. They haunt. There's so much imagery in this short little book that has been seared into my mind. I love when the prose itself is in conversation with the themes of the novel, and She Who Remains is one of the most effective examples of this that I've read.

And despite its length, the novel explores its themes to a deeper extent than I was expecting. Queer desire, gender non-conformity, patriarchy, sacrificing autonomy for acceptance, murder, betrayal... Every time I thought it couldn't possibly go any deeper and hurt me any more, it did, and it did not hold my hand through the process! The relationship between Bekija and their brother Sále is one of the most heartwrenching sibling relationships I've ever read in literature.

My only real criticism of She Who Remains are the instances in which the surreality of its narrative is weaponized to completely misdirect the reader. There's nothing inherently wrong with this, and it is in keeping with the themes of the novel, but there was something about the way it's done here that felt cheap and, dare I say, emotionally manipulative. In a book that was already so effective at getting me to feel, this was rather jarring. It's the only thing keeping this from being a full five star read (and it's entirely possible that the sour taste it left me with will soften over time to the point where giving it a full five stars won't feel wrong to me).

This is easily the best of this year's International Booker shortlist that I've read so far, and I'd be surprised if it gets topped. She Who Remains exemplifies everything I love about literature in translation: it taught me something about a history and a culture that I hadn't previously known, it inspired a curiousity that extended beyond the page, and it did this all while also being an incredibly moving, expertly realized piece of art.

4.75/5.

This had potential, but it failed at almost every opportunity to live up to it.

Now, obviously, I'm long past being the target audience for this, but even compared to the Warriors series (granted, I'm not caught up with the newer stuff written by the new team) this just isn't up to snuff.

I actually had high hopes coming out of the prologue, but that's where the intrigue of the novel peaks. This first book is paced way too slowly in the first two-thirds, then way too quickly in the latter third. There's no real compelling world-building or character work done in the slower sections, so you're just kind of dragging your feet, waiting for SOMETHING to happen.

I didn't find myself caring for any of these characters; in fact, I even had a bit of trouble remembering who was who, because all the side characters are just... lifeless. And the conflict between our two mains is unbelievably contrived and based entirely in miscommunication. Think Vi and Jinx if you took away everything interesting about them.

The climax of the book was at least slightly more interesting, but the cascade of events, coupled with a bunch of important events and relationship-building happening completely off-page for some reason, didn't help build my investment any. I might read the next book just to see if it takes off anywhere at all interesting, but based on this opener, I'm not holding my breath.

2/5.