Wednesday, March 22, 2023

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Wildblood by Lauren Blackwood

 


Full Disclosure: This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on February 7, 2023 in exchange for a potential review. I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book. 


Wildblood is a new Historical Young Adult Fantasy novel written by author Lauren Blackwood (who previously wrote Within These Wicked Walls). The novel takes place in a jungle reserve in 1893 Jamaica, but not just any jungle: a jungle filled with supernatural creatures and spirits, led by a river spirit/goddess that isn't happy about human intrusion. But a tour company opens up and offers adventure into the jungle anyway, with trips guided by indentured young black men and women known as "Wildbloods", who have the magical "Science" to manipulate blood - their own and others - into weapons (or just to manipulate it in general. Naturally like in our world, the fact that Wildbloods have this power makes them "different" and not human, leading to them being treated horribly, and protagonist Victoria is desperate to prove herself, grab a leadership role in the company and make things better for her fellow Wildbloods, especially the 14 year old boy she thinks of as a little brother who can barely control himself and his own powers.

The result is a story dealing strongly with prejudice, with human greed, and with the impacts of abuse and trauma as it follows Victoria guiding a group of miners into the jungle, led in part by an alluring black man, along with the former best friend who betrayed her and now helps her boss oppress her and the other Wildbloods. It's a story that is dark, but not for darkness sakes, and hits its themes really well, thanks largely to a very strong lead character and a narrative that doesn't hold back. At the same time, the book's core romance doesn't really work for me, and the book's setting is very unexplored and underexplained, to the point where it's almost a little distracting when things in the plot possibly reach the outside world. Overall though this is a pretty solid young adult novel dealing well with some really strong and important themes, making this a worthy recommend.

TRIGGER WARNING: RAPE, Sexual Abuse, Physical and Mental Abuse by a Boss, Racial Discrimination and more. None of this is superfluous and it all works in context, so these triggering events are used properly and appropriately in furtherance of the book's themes.


----------------------------------Plot Summary-----------------------------------
Having just turned 18, Victoria is determined to get what the Boss promised her: a promotion to a leadership position in the Exotic Lands Touring Company, one in which she can ensure that her fellow Wildbloods, most notably the older loving Samson (sort of an older brother/protector) and her adopted younger bother, 14 year old Bunny, are better protected. Victoria is the most powerful wildblood in the group, but that doesn't matter because she can't use that power or try to escape (a doomed prospect if there was one) without those she cares about getting hurt. Especially Bunny, a boy who wasn't meant for this life and who can barely control his own Blood Science from hurting himself and others.

But when Victoria tries to demand her right to the promotion, she is not only rejected, but finds the tour leadership position going to Dean instead - Dean, the wildblood who used to be her best friend and rival until he betrayed her to a horrible fate at the Boss' hands and has since then sucked up to the Boss as he continues to oppress Victoria and the others. Even worse, the Boss demands that she help Dean look good as a leader on a dangerous trip through the Jungle with a group of outsiders - miners - who want to mine the legendary gold hidden deep within the Jungle. But Victoria knows full well that no one has managed to make it through the Jungle alive to find that gold, for the Jungle is full of dangerous spirits, creatures, and other beings following the will of the River Mumma, who has little patience for human outsiders.

Left with no choice, Victoria tries to help the team of outsiders and Wildbloods make it as far as possible. But the infuriatingly handsome co-leader of the miners, the alluring black man Thorn, keeps refusing to heed her warnings about the dangers of going forward...not that Dean will let her fully explain those dangers. And even if Thorn is really genuine in how he is both attractive and actually treats her human like no one ever has before, his actions are clearly going to get him, and everyone Victoria loves among the Wildbloods, killed for disobeying the spirits of the Jungle....
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Wildblood is a novel that only does the barebones of explaining its setting. Why do the wildbloods like Victoria have blood science and what are the limits of their powers? Never explained. Are wildbloods unique to Jamaica? Never explained. How are kids discovered to have wildblood powers and then taken/kidnapped to the Touring Company? Not explained. These lack of explanations could be annoying for some readers, as the book isn't truly interested in exploring what these concepts might mean for the larger world, but the book's central plotting and characters are done well enough that its a minor annoyance at best.

This central plotting is centered around its main character Victoria, who is a really strong and well developed character, as she deals with a number of problems all at once. Victoria is a young woman who has a great heart and cares for those close to her immensely, especially Bunny who she feels determined to try to save, and Samson, the man who is basically her elder brother figure (and who kinda tries to be her father figure). In terms of magical power, she's incredibly strong, the strongest of any Wildblood, and she has a connection to the Jungle that is something that none of the others show a hint of having on their own.

But Victoria suffers from abuse and oppression - oppression like the racism of others for her being a wildblood or being light-skinned black to being looked at as eye candy essentially as an advertised "rare beauty" and abuse that is far worse than words - it is stated outright that she was not only physically abused by the Boss, but sexually abused and raped as well. Even worse, that rape happened when she was led into it by the boy she cared about the most at the time, Dean, who was her rival and closest compatriot but who has followed that rape by sucking up further to the boss and acting as his right hand man, a position she was clearly better suited for in terms of capabilities. And so Victoria struggles when not among her compatriots to assert herself, with an occasional stutter that shows up when talking to her supposed superiors.

These traits of Victoria come to a head when she makes the trip into the jungle with the miners led in part by Thorn, another black man and one who makes overtures to her that seem like he sees her - unthinkably to her - not as property or a dangerous Wildblood, but as a human like him. And so Victoria finds herself at war with herself - and in conflict with Dean - over a confluence of emotions...emotions that tell her she should stop them from going further into the jungle, emotions that tell her that she might want to try something with Thorn, emotions that tell her that she needs to somehow help Dean with this mission in order to get the promotion that the Boss surely won't back down on promising her again, right? And then of course there are the lingering feelings she has towards Dean and anger at his betrayal that makes even the idea of helping him more difficult to stomach...especially when he won't listen to her and keeps taking steps that she knows will get them all killed.

This results in a really strong character study through Victoria - and through the others like Dean - of people from a place that has been colonized, abused, and raped, and forced into various subservient roles. For Victoria, that's as what is essentially little more than a slave, but for Dean, who is hinted and of course is abused himself, that is that of an overseer type role, where oppresses those that really are kin to him and that he might otherwise have loved like Victoria. This is helped along by the supernatural spirits and creatures in the Jamaican jungle, drawn from Jamaican and African myth and cultures, which menace and encounter the protagonists along the way and require adaptation to...or death. And the contrast is clearly drawn with the miners the team is trying to protect - from Thorn, who is in fact good hearted but just sees no way other than to mine the jungle's resources to his far more greedy and vicious (and not Black) compatriots.

Besides the setting however, one thing that doesn't really work and kind of becomes a problem for this book is the romance between Victoria and Thorn. Victoria basically falls for him instantly based upon his looks and his optimism, but he comes across in dialogue as kind of smarmy and sleazy, with his treating her as a human feeling less like that and more like a guy trying to get into her pants. It's nice that the book doesn't try to make Thorn actually that sleazy jerk, so that there can be some contrast to all the people who have betrayed Victoria, but the chemistry just feels really forced, which makes it very distracting. Still, the way it all resolves in the end works very well as it contrasts Thorn's need to return to the outside world with Victoria's need to both be free and a part of the Jungle she loves, resulting in an effective ending.

Overall, Wildblood is a YA fantasy novel well worth your time, even with its warts, and I do look forward to see how Blackwood's next book will turn out.

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