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apollinares 's review for:

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
4.5
adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

This book, oh my god.

I tried to read it earlier this year in audiobook format and couldn't get into it, but I decided to give it another shot as an Epub and was not disappointed. 

I love the thought put into the Teixcalaanli empire - from cultural differences to history to literature - as an immigrant myself, it's easy to make the parallel between Teixcalaan and America, which I felt on a deeply personal level. 

this book was tough to fully grasp, so the text copy helped; often I had to reread passages to grasp their multilayered meaning, but my fascination with the premise and love for court intrigue kept me going. It's an intense, thought provoking work, one that's going to stay with me for a while.