Freshwater, by Akwaeke Emezi (fiction/memoir prose, 2018)

[lb_lee]

“We’re gods,” he reminded her. “I don’t have to be fair.”

Blurb: the semi-autobiographical story of Ada, who is an ọgbanje. Emezi explores their Igbo heritage's spirituality and gender alongside those of Western construction and invites their audience to think critically about this spirit/body binary. (from Wikipedia)

Why is it worth your time? It's good. It's also the first book I've really seen engaging with metaphysical manyness and how ROUGH gods can be to deal with. This is the first book I've seen dealing with how gender and plurality interact, and the compromises therein. It's an intense read, but it is a much-needed taboo breaker.

Plural Tags: switching, metaphysical plurality, nonhumans, abuse intermediate-focus

Content Warnings: In comments below; contains spoilers.

Accessibility Notes: available in paper, ebook, and audio formats.

Misc Notes: Emezi has said on Twitter that Freshwater is memoir. "It’s like ~5% fiction in the childhood parts of the book, and the rest is straight memoir from a spirit first perspective. The conversations between the selves were literally copy pasted from my journals. I let it move as fiction because it needed that mask as my debut, you know? I don’t believe it would have been published as nonfiction because it would have required acknowledging that indigenous realities aren’t myths."

Comments

Content warnings

[lb_lee]

This book is a ROUGH read. Part of the theme of the book is living in pain.

So, heads up for: starve-style eating disorders, self-harm (cutting), rape, trying to kill your headmates (mercifully brief), suicide attempts, hospitalization, really shitty relationships, violence (a childhood car accident, getting smacked around by partners), homo and transphobia, and gods refusing to leave you the fuck alone.

[acorn_squash]

I loved Akwaeke Emezi's Pet (not a plural story), but all of their other books are too rough for me :(

[lb_lee]

Oh man, I hear that. I kinda staggered through Freshwater and Vivek Oji, and I haven't yet summoned the fortitude to take on Dear Senthuran or Bitter yet. It's so frustrating! They're a good writer! But unfortunately, a bunch of plural writers (myself included) make really intense work that's hard for me to read.

--Rogan

[acorn_squash]

Update: I gave in and read Freshwater :) It was excellent, & not quite as rough as I'd thought. I should note that it's mostly the story of the gods living in Ada's body, not of Ada herself, which helped. Also, all of the headmates care about each other, even if they have funny ways of showing it sometimes. I really liked the stuff about gender.

[lb_lee]

It is very good! And while there are books on this list way more gruesome than Freshwater, the emotional intensity and realness of it makes this book feel like a lightning bolt to the heart for me. The Book of Autonomancy, for instance, has a lot more violence, but at least it's fiction, so it's not real.