Review: Black Sun

Hi everyone! Welcome back to the reading world!

Today I’m going to be talking about a book that is, admittedly, my favorite read of 2020. So I thought it was only appropriate to close out the year talking about my favorite read.

Black Sun is a fantasy set in a pre-Columbian inspired world. It focuses on the lives of several characters leading up to a celestial event called the Convergence, and the significance this event holds for everyone. 

There are a lot of amazing things I enjoyed about this book. Xiala is an incredible character- she’s fierce and funny, owns who she is while recognizing her insecurities and fears, and takes the reader on an adventure. By far, hers were my favorite chapters to read. This also leads in to talking about Serapio, who is a character that Rebecca Roanhorse masterfully created depth and backstory to. 

The wonderful characters fit seamlessly into a world with excellent narration. While there is world building and back story necessary for introducing us into the story and the fantastical elements, it’s done so in a way that keeps the reader engaged. And when there were moments of action and the plot would suddenly pick up, I was on the edge of my seat. There’s so much tension and intrigue of “what happens next” integrated into the story that not only creates a strong story within Black Sun itself, but it sets the series up to be equally compelling and exciting.

For me, the character I struggled with reading sometimes was Naranpa. There are a lot of readers who really enjoyed her, but in the beginning especially I did not enjoy reading Naranpa’s narration and found it sometimes dragged for me. However, by the middle of the book, I was still invested in this character and thought Naranpa showed some of the most character development and growth in the book. So even this became an example of how characters I was less interested in became more engaging and interesting and highlighted the dynamic aspects of the book.

One other small note I had was that it’s important to pay attention to the timelines introduced at the beginning of each chapter. The book timeline isn’t necessarily linear at times in order to help each storyline’s natural progression and that was something that I personally found important to consider. This was something that in no way dampened my reading experience, but was especially important as I followed along with the different perspectives and stories.

Overall, Black Sun is my favorite read of the year. It’s got compelling characters, dynamic growth and development, excellent world building, and a plot that creates an engaging story and introduces a series I’m thrilled to continue on with. I definitely recommend picking this one up if you’re interested!

What was your favorite read of 2020? 

Thank you so much for stopping by!

-Rae