Review: Buried Heart

Buried Heart by Kate Elliott
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Court of Fives trilogy concludes in this long but tense and terrific novel, bringing the whole series full circle, especially where its ongoing themes of colonialism and racism are concerned. Truly, Efea will rise, but it'll be a long and difficult road for Jes and her people to get there, and they'll need a few allies among the Saroese first. Kal, perhaps? Of course, first he has to make himself overcome his natural inclination to uphold the corrupt institutions of his people, purely to keep his own power and social standing, tenuous though it may be. A little heavy these themes get at times, but like most examples of literary allegories for social justice, it's not exactly meant to be a comfortable read. Best of all, though, the series makes it clear that mercy is a better route than vengeance and blood (I'm paraphrasing here, but at least it makes for a better ending than the - also paraphrased - line about a tree being too diseased at the root to cure implied for the future of Efeans and Saroese alike.) I'm actually more than a bit surprised that this series hasn't been called out all over the place for Kate Elliott writing outside her lane in terms of race, but I'm very glad that there's at least one other case (like, say, the works of Corinne Duyvis) to serve as proof that it's perfectly okay to do so, provided it's done with sensitivity of course, and that maybe people shouldn't be asking writers of color these kinds of unnecessary questions? I'm thinking Elliott did write pretty sensitively, especially given that Justina Ireland gets herself a space in the acknowledgments as a beta reader.

To the Court of Fives, I now say vas ir...anoshe, and now I find myself needing to read a few more of Kate Elliott's books.

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