2025 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste.


Pages: 448 pages


Length: 1 Month (March)


Participants: Trisha, Sunny, June .


Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.

Hello :)
Would it be alright with you if I'd join in?

Joanna wrote: "Hello :)
Would it be alright with you if I'd join in?"

Joanna, yes! We’ll be delighted to have you! 😀

Trisha wrote: "Joanna wrote: "Hello :)
Would it be alright with you if I'd join in?"

Joanna, yes! We’ll be delighted to have you! 😀"

That's great! Thank you very much :)

Got my copy this week. Looking forward to it!

Hi guys, anyone saving this for the readathon. I will probably start this one next week.

Started this one last night and read 45 pages.

(view spoiler)[ Don't know as much about WII in Africa as I do other areas. So I'll be looking more into this aspect of the war.

Love the lyrical poetic narration. The author has the most amazing sentences to give you a picture and sense of things: It is a space made to fit two people who have been made to fit their lives around one woman and her husband.

I'm finding the absence of quotation marks to be startling and a bit annoying -- even though, I do get that the flow of words isn't broken by them.

Hirut is an interesting character -- a servant to Aster and Kidane, who are rich and have and intriguing relationship. I like her and am on her side regardless of what else takes place. Bless her she's doing the best she can under trying circumstances.

Thought on the last lines on page 45: Was what for nothing?

Looking forward to seeing how everything intertwines and how they come to relate to one another as things change for them with the coming of the war. (hide spoiler)]

I'm on page 110 of my ebook and agree with Sunny about the language. It slows down my reading a bit, but it's a poetical one, one that runs deep.

A couple of years back I've read Beneath the Lion's Gaze by Mengiste and enjoyed that one as well. Already with reading her first book I've learned a lot about Ethiopia, and with this one my knowledge will deepen. I'm sure.

I like a few pages finishing up the 1st part.

(view spoiler)[ I feel sorry for the females, they are treated like things rather than human beings. I can not imagine what it would have been like to be 14 years-old and married to some one in his 50s. I don’t think Aster age was given when she was forced to marry Kidane. The way the rich treat their servants/slaves makes me feel even more sympathetic toward Hirut, Cook & others in the same positions as they are. Cook’s name isn’t even mentioned. How demeaning/dehumanizing not to have your name used.

The war/battle scenes are vivid and make things real enough to feel as though you’re there. I’m think that the women could fight against the enemy better than the men … if they were allowed.

I’m torn between disliking characters and at the same time feeling sympathetic toward them. (hide spoiler)]

Looking forward to the coming events to see how things play out.

(view spoiler)[I totally agree with you, Sunny. Sometimes I have to stop reading, because I first need to deal with what I just read, before I can continue. Especially when it comes to forced intercourse. More than once I wanted to scream "Stop!" and wish I could have interrupted what was going on in the book. It makes me feel even worse knowing, that those things are still happening now. (hide spoiler)]

I started this and got distracted by other books, but will be picking back up soon. First impressions - the lack of punctuation takes getting used to but not a big issue for me. I like the writing style so far and makes me want to do more research on Ethiopia.

Finished!

I really enjoyed this one. Am glad I read it. It's a well written narrative, with compelling characters, about a horrible time in history.

I'm also done with the book, and agree to Sunnys review. I was astonished to learn, that it is, in some parts, based on the authors grandmother.