the traitor masquerade book 1 seth dickinson

At first, the young Baru simply wants to find a way to leverage her new position to make her parents' lives happier, in a general sense, than they were before the Masquerade came. She is taken in by an Empire merchant (who later turns out to be much more than that), who recruits her for the Empire's elite school. Baru comes from the island country of Taranoke, raised by her mother Pinion and her fathers Salm and Solit, and she watches the sinister Empire of Masks colonize it-slowly at first, and from far away, but then, all of a sudden, from right in the middle.

Everything we learn about Baru's world is filtered, in one way or another, through her, what she knows, and what she is and isn't able to learn. These are topics that others have written about extensively and with far more authority than I might, but, in my opinion, the book makes an earnest effort to address both with complexity and grace.Īt the book's heart is Baru Cormorant herself, who gives up everything she loves in order to try to save it. It is also a book about empire (and about colonialism, too), and a book about queerness. You will know because it hurts.”) The gut punch it duly delivers at the end was truly painful, even though I knew to anticipate something awful. The plot is knotty and snares you into caring, even when you try to maintain a level of emotional detachment in order to protect yourself from the fallout that the book promises you on its very first page.

This is true for many reasons: it's beautifully written, first of all, without ever feeling overwrought. I want to begin by saying, flat out, that The Traitor Baru Cormorant is a wonderful book.

The traitor masquerade book 1 seth dickinson