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Today’s pick is historical speculative fiction set in the Caribbean.
Queen of the Conquered by Kacen Callender
This book specifically takes place on the Virgin Islands when they were occupied by Denmark and the islanders were enslaved. It’s told through not only the present time of the book, but also through flashbacks and dreams and hallucinations.
It begins when our main character, Sigourney Rose, was a child. She is an islander and her family is the only, or one of the only, Black families that owns a plantation and has enslaved people. Her mother has promised that she will free people and many of the islanders held her in some kind of esteem. Since she was Black, of course, all the other kongelieg (which translates to “royalty” and basically means the slave-holders) hate her. In fact, the very beginning of this book is a flashback. As I mentioned, Sigourney is a child. Her mother, brother, and sister are ambushed at their own home during a party and murdered. Sigourney manages to escape, as all the enslaved and even other kongelieg at the party were also murdered.
After her escape, Sigourney was rescued by a servant who was basically on standby and waiting for something like this. Sigourney falls under the care of a relative who is also kongelieg. She changes her last name to her relative’s, and is no longer Sigourney Rose but Sigourney Lund. She spends the next many years planning her revenge on her fellow kongelieg and she finally gets an invitation to the King’s island to spend the storm season with the other kongelieg. The king is supposed to choose his successor at the end of this storm season and the kongelieg are not above killing each other. There is a lot of murder that happens in this book. At first I thought it was going to be a bit of a Hunger Games vibe but it is well beyond that.
The other very important thing you have to know about this world is that some people have supernatural powers, referred to as having craft or possessing craft. If an islander is found to have craft, they are executed. If the fjern, that is, any white people, have craft, they say it is a divine gift. Sigourney, an islander but also kongelieg, is not executed for her craft and she most definitely has craft. She can read minds and not only that, but she can control minds as well.
This book was such a wild ride and is the first in a complete duology. Content warnings for anti-Black racism and many types of violence.
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That’s it for now, book-lovers!
Patricia
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