A Song of Wraiths and Ruin: A Review
My review of the book about deals that deal in death and how it saved my love of reading
I am going to apologize in advance, as this could cause you frustration if you’re someone who hates when you have to read a person’s life story when you’re just searching for a recipe online. But I think it is only fair (to myself, I suppose?) that my first book review is a highly informal, fairly vulnerable coverage of my thoughts on the book that saved reading for me. No, seriously. I hadn’t read fiction in an extremely long time!
I was in undergrad, where I had been reading an absurd amount of nonfiction scholarly articles and books, and I was exhausted. I had just deferred my PhD program (which I would later have to drop out of) due to disability, and I felt like garbage and was grieving. I was depressed in general, very unmotivated, and lacking in executive functioning.
And, I was so fucking snooty. I had always been an avid reader. As a kid, I read fiction all of the time! And I reached a point where I was struggling to find books I enjoyed, because my standards were so high and I expected everything to perfectly fit my interests. If a book didn’t capture me within the first three pages, I was out of there!
So, this was the summer that I was working on my thesis (yes, I crammed my Honors thesis into one summer instead of an entire academic year, because my circumstances due to illness limited my options and I decided to take the hardest route of said limited options!) after deciding to defer my PhD program and add one additional year of undergrad to my academic career. This was a summer that was still peak COVID, even if others wanted to pretend it was over. This was a summer that I was dealing with a lot of mental and physical health issues—and I was seemingly doing everything in my power to make all of that worse. I was pushing myself to a point of break, and I had no enjoyment in my life at the time.
In a very not-like-me move, I decided to actually try to have a hobby again, and pick up something I used to love, something that might be good for me. So, one day after working on my thesis at the library, I made the choice to check out a book. I picked A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown. And when I tell you that this book saved reading for me, I am not exaggerating.
This book is easily one of my all-time favorites. It was everything I needed at the time. I connected to it. So, if you’ve stuck around this long, you must be curious, right? Let’s get into it!
A Song of Wraiths and Ruin is set in the magical world of Sonande, inspired by West African folklore and history. The world building itself is incredible; one feels as though they are actually dropped in that place, and can truly see what the author is describing. The words stop feeling like something you are reading, and instead you are viewing what Brown sees in her own mind.
The story follows Malik, a teenager with past trauma and plenty of anxiety—really, a highly relatable character for anyone who has struggled with mental health issues—and Karina, a princess who wants to be anything but—also easy to connect to if you’ve ever wanted to run away from responsibilities but experienced true growth and development as a person instead.
Malik and his two sisters are on their way to Ziran, the kingdom where Karina is royalty. But of course, in a novel full of action and plot twists, things must go wrong, and Malik’s little sister is taken away. At the same time, Karina is suddenly faced with the death of a loved one, and more of that responsibility she so desperately wants to avoid. Both characters decide to make magical deals—deals that deal in death.
From here on out, we watch our two main characters on their journeys to carry out their ends of these paranormal arrangements, and stumble through life as young people tend to do; except, there is quite a bit more at stake for them. And as a reader, you are ready to follow right along with them on their journeys, because it is so easy to connect to them. They are relatable, they are wonderfully imperfect and layered, they are unique and interesting. And every time they meet? Magic.
The mystical journey that these characters embark on winds up being so much bigger than them; their actions for their own personal reasons impact the greater world, and the tale that follows explores how these two young adults must suddenly grow in character and decide between their selfish desires and the greater good. Their stories are suspenseful, exhilarating, compelling, and powerful. Malik and Karina may exist in a world full of magic, but their narratives also explore heavy topics and what it means to be human, as they deal with love and loss, big decisions, intense emotions, and learning about themselves.
For me, at that time in my life where I felt lost and was struggling with my mental health, my own big decisions, and intense emotions, it was so important for me to have characters that I could relate to, and genuinely feel as though I was growing as a person right along with them. An author who can write characters and tales with that much nuance, with such realness, is truly someone you must read.
In this book, you are immersed in a world you feel as though you can fall into, following along with characters who feel so real to you. But on top of that, the plot itself is unquestionably original and worth the read. If you enjoy folklore, magic, and genuine fantasy, with excitement and a unique story, pick this book up. I made it past the first three pages with this book, and could not put it down. For the first time in a long time, I loved reading again. And it is all thanks to A Song of Wraiths and Ruin.