The Obelisk Gate Book Review

Major Spoilers are included in this book review. Please read with caution.

If you’re interested in The Fifth Season Book Review, the link is here.

The Obelisk Gate is the second book in the Broken Earths trilogy, written by N.K. Jemisin. While most middle books are sluggish or “spinning the wheels”, this second novel had more of my attention mostly because of… Nassun, Essun’s daughter. While Essun’s role was crucial to the book’s plot, Nassun’s POV had more heart and intrigue involved, but more on that later… we have to talk about Essun first because she’s the main character.

The Obelisk Gate picks up where we left off with Essun, her reunion with Alabaster (former lover) and what she has to do in his place: control the Obelisks in the sky. Alabaster is the cause of the current Season and is slowly turning to stone as a result. This is where I had a problem: I understood Essun’s role in Castrima, but I wanted her to ditch the place and go look for her daughter Nassun. However, I respect the author’s story enough to know what she accomplishes in this novel is astounding.

Nassun and Scaffa’s toxic father-daughter relationship is explored in this novel as well. Scaffa’s characterization was interesting, considering what he did to Damaya and how the cycle continues with Nassun, who had experienced the hand-breaking. In Writers’ Group, all we talked about was this dynamic that was horrible and traumatic. Reading Broken Earths has helped us in many ways these last few weeks. Jemisin definitely had drawn on personal experience to some extent in order to bring this story to life.

Overall, I enjoyed this novel more than The Fifth Season… FOR NASSUN!

Onto the final book!