I really enjoyed this book. It was very nice to read a book about pre-colonial times. This one takes place in West Africa. I really enjoyed Ododo as a character. I loved the elephant Aja! This was a great story of resilience and the power of women. What a great debut by the author!

Not quite fantasy, not quite historical fiction, "Masquerade" by O.O. Sangoyomi will appeal to readers of both genres. The world comes alive on the page with sights, sounds, and smells of a reimagined 15th century West Africa.

Òdòdó is a blacksmith in Timbuktu where her guild is indispensable to those in power, but where the women who wield the hammer are outsiders viewed with suspicion as witches. Òdòdó has a chance meeting with a man she will later learn is the warrior king of Yorùbáland. She is soon kidnapped and brought to Ṣàngótẹ̀ to become the new queen. The myth of Hades and Persephone provides a loose structure for the story. Every reference to the myth is satisfying, but the story is not confined by the myth, and it is never predictable.

Òdòdó is a complex and interesting character who struggles to find her place and her power in situations where she is often made powerless by those around her. I was invested in her journey and THAT ENDING! Everything perfectly led up to that ending and the entire tapestry of this novel was woven beautifully.

The imagery on the cover is beautiful and powerful. Masquerade at its core is a retelling of Perspehone but set in West Africa and from a more feminist perspective. Some may find it confusing for the MC to be kidnapped and seemingly falling in love with her kidnapper, but again...it's a Persephone retelling for those not familiar with the myths of Perspehone and Eros. Also, I've read a number of books where the FMC falls for her captor in some way so it's not uncommon. All that aside I'll say stick with the book until the end and you won't be disappointed. It was a good story and I'd recommend it to someone else.

This was a ride! I don't know where I expected this story to go but in the end, I was shocked, cheering, and just happy to be where we ended up! It was so many ups and downs starting with Òdòdó's kidnapping... by a handsome king. Well how am I supposed to feel about this? I'm kinda here for it. LOL. This is only the mere beginning of our flower's tumultuous journey. I didn't know who she could trust. (Spoiler Alert: No One!) And after a certain point, what really matters? I must say I thoroughly enjoyed all of the twists and turns in this ancient mythological tale!

Rating: 4.25/5 stars

As a member of his former congregation, I know the ex-pastor of my church, who is recently semi-retired, would be captivated by Masquerade by O. O. Sangoyomi. (He was born to missionary parents in Kenya and is currently in that country seeking to reconnect with his past heritage.) He always tried to incorporate novels by East African writers into his sermons, hoping to inspire the congregation to explore such literature. Therefore, when Masquerade appeared on my book-reviewing radar, I jumped at the opportunity to read it. The book, while set in West Africa in the 15th-century pre-colonialism, is inspired by the myth of Persephone; this unique setting, with Africa as a pseudo-character, challenges the power dynamics that the northern hemisphere has over the mostly southern one. The setting allows author Sangoyomi to make some pointed observations about the similar power dynamics between women and men. This debut novel is impressive, even if it does take a while to get going.

The novel concerns a young woman named Òdòdó, who works as a blacksmith in the city of Timbuktu, which seemingly calls its female blacksmiths witches. One day, she is kidnapped and taken across the Sahara Desert to the capital city of Ṣàngótẹ̀ where she is to be wed as the second wife of the local warrior king. In a case of potential Stockholm Syndrome, Òdòdó falls in love with her captor. However, she comes to realize that the luxurious wife of the king is a better situation for her to be in rather than as a poor blacksmith. Still, she refuses to get married until her mother can be found and witness this elevation of position. The problem is that her mother is nowhere to be seen, seemingly inspiring other female blacksmiths to leave their jobs. Has Òdòdó gotten into a position that’s well over her head? Is she also being double-crossed by her husband and jealous first wife? Time will tell.

The book is interesting, particularly through the feminist themes it explores. For instance, women are painted as having to be wilier and more intellectual to get past the brute force favored by men. However, the heroine of this tale does get kidnapped. Some readers will find this will leave a bitter taste in their mouth. While Masquerade does have feminist leanings, particularly as the book nears its conclusion, it still might be hard to fathom why a woman would fall for someone who did her harm and injustice. However, I will concede that perhaps the situation was common then, and I can certainly see how Òdòdó may see the kidnapping as advantageous. Still, even though I might be carping about something that could be waved away as cultural relativism, the kidnapping aspect of the book initially soured me on the tale. If I hadn’t needed to read the book for review, I might have abandoned it — if not for that reason, then because the first half of the tale is relatively dry, with nothing too much happening. Things begin to get intriguing only when Òdòdó gains a seat at the general’s table.

The book’s big turning point is when Òdòdó begins to see physical battles and warfare with her own eyes. That’s where Masquerade truly begins to pick up steam. Until then, the novel spends a great deal of time detailing Òdòdó’s education and the comings and goings of big city life. The result might put most modern readers to sleep, given that this meticulous detail is a bit like reading about the speed of molasses. Thus, it could be argued that Masquerade could use some pruning. However, I would encourage readers to keep attacking the book as it does get much better in its second half. The big question is whether readers will care that much to see this tome through to its conclusion. Their patience will be rewarded if they do because this novel yields impressive returns. There’s court intrigue and some political maneuvering as Òdòdó captures her to-be husband’s ear with a relatively successful military strategy. Even though some twists towards the novel’s end are a tad bit predictable, there suddenly is enough excitement in the text that even formulaic plot points become suspenseful.

Ultimately, Masquerade is worth reading, even if it takes some time for the reader to warm up to it. It doesn’t help that Òdòdó’s warrior king treats her like a cad, which is only resolved at the end of the novel, and that whole kidnapping plot point is one that modern readers may feel a little uncomfortable in their skin reading about. Still, despite its flaws (and many major ones), Masquerade is a recommended read. We need stories like this told of precolonial times in African nations to come to learn and understand these cultures. To that end, Masquerade was an instructive read for me; it was a true eye-opener. This book is about the powerless working their way into powerful situations and the cost they must take to get there. It’s not always an easy book, and it may leave some readers squirming, but Masquerade gets to the truths behind people’s masks. If you’re looking for something different and startling, I recommend starting here, particularly if you’re a particular pastor who has sadly left a grieving congregation of churchgoers mourning their loss. Once you get past the book’s lumpy beginning and early mid-section, it turns into something compelling. In other words, this one’s for you if you’re into that sort of thing.

Mix West African Mythology with Persephone and Hades inspired retelling and you have Masquerade. This book was EXCELLENT. As a huge fan of retellings, and non European mythology I found this book to be well done well written and the characters are well fleshed out. it is an immersive tale about a woman who fights for her freedom after being forced into a marriage.

~ I received a copy of Masquerade by O.O Sangoyomi from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review ~

Ododo is an ambitious young woman who grows up against a women's clan of blacksmiths. She is taken to the gilded city of the Alaafin, an ambitious emperor who wants to keep expanding his empire. Throughout the story Ododo grows and learns to use her talents and place to gain knowledge, and goes through challenges along the way. The world building was interesting and the main character develops over time in this tale. Masquerade doesn't focus much on the romance, which gives a lot of space for the main character to grow as an individual, although the reader at times has to guess what her actual goal is. The final third of the book is where the book is most interesting, and the ending was satisfying conclusion to the tale, but also open ended enough for future development.

3.75, rounded up to 4

My feelings about this book are not so easy to distill into "I liked it" or "I didn't like it" but....I'm okay with this!!

This character-driven story was truly unpredictable in the best ways. I could guess PARTS of what a character would do, but never how it would unfold or the far-reaching consequences. I saw the parallels between this story and the Persephone myth that the story is "loosely based on" and let me tell you it is LOOSE. Don't go into this expecting another Hades and Persephone retelling (notice how Hades was left out of the comp?) but DO go in expecting the same level of messy court politics and manipulations that the Greek Pantheon has given us in the original myths.

I was really torn on giving this the full 4 stars, but in the end I didn't connect with the main character enough. That's not so much the fault of the writing though, I think it's more on me. Some plot developments felt a little TOO out-of-nowhere as well, but when included in the larger picture still made sense. Overall I would recommend this to people who like myth retellings from Female POVs, messy but real court drama, and those who are interested in a story set in pre-colonial West Africa!

Masquerade was one my most anticipated releases of the year, I’ve been so excited for it ever since I first heard it pitched as “loosely based on the myth of Persephone but set in reimagined 15th century West Africa”. That was all I needed, and it did not disappoint.

To be clear, this isn’t a romance. It’s a book about women and power, and how our main character Òdòdó learns to wield it. There’s adventure, drama, political intrigue as we watch Òdòdó go from a naive village girl to a powerful woman in her own right and not just as the wife of the king. The writing was incredibly strong, I was amazed that this was a debut novel.

Definition of I support women’s rights and women’s wrongs 😌

This was a beautifully written story set in a time and place that does not get much exposure in modern Western Literature. When we think of historical fiction we usually tend towards Europe and visions of knights, castles, and princely romance. This, however, was an amazingly brilliant book set in 15th century Africa. It shed light on how women of a specific class were viewed by society and how little they could do to change it. It did much to make me rethink how someone of this time and place could have lived and what that might have looked like before European colonization took hold of the continent with Christianity and the slave trade.

I enjoyed this one but I feel as if Tor mismarketed this book quite a bit. It's comped to The Woman King and marketed as a fantasy and didn't fully have the vibes of historical fiction often using words that wouldn't fit the time period. I would say Ododo is less badass woman and more a naive girl who wants power but just believes it will be handed to her. Which causes her to be duped by the people around her constantly. So the ending when she does finally claim her power is hard to swallow. It's more of a court intrigue story and that along with the audiobook and constant twists is what kept me invested.

BOOK: MASQUERADE
AUTHOR: O.O SANGOYOMI
PUB DATE: JULY 2024
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REVIEW: 4.5 stars
Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for this ARC. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
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First of all, I want to appreciate the author for this wonderful history lesson I got from this book. I loved loved learning about the rich history because it's something I've been lacking. This historical aspect was the favorite part of the bookm Technically, this is my history, yet I know very little about it. So, I appreciate this golden opportunity. I hope this author writes more books like this, I'll definitely read it.
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Now, the book. The story of how Alale Ododo became a Queen from a blacksmith. In Yorubaland, women of the lowest order were blacksmiths and called witches. They do a lot of work but they are treated like scum. Ododo caught the eye of the Alaafin and she was able to escape that life.
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Throughout the book, I read how Ododo grew from the naive blacksmith to the strategic queen that led battles. There was a hint of romance, but it was realistic
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I liked this book, the author's writing style, the rich culture, but I didn't really like the characters, although I give kudos to the author for how realistic they were. The characters were ruthless and ambitious, and they didn't really care about the innocent ones. I didn't like them, but they were realistic, especially for that precarious time.
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This book was amazing, and I can't wait for the author's next works. This book is phenomenal
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3.5 rounded up. At first, I found this book hard to gather my thoughts on. By the end of it, I definitely enjoyed it, so let’s start with the good. This is definitely a celebration of Yoruba culture and West African history. I would consider this more a book of historic fiction rather than mythos or Greek retelling. The author has a strong, clear, and passionate prose when it comes to transporting you to this time. Everything feels so vivid and lively. By far, my favorite part of this read was the setting.

Now, just reading it by itself without the audiobook, I initially found it really hard to connect with the characters. I felt that Òdòdó represented so many parts of women that we love to see in main characters. She has a past that’s tricky. She has a love story that is seemingly misunderstood. She is a woman who also craves power and is often put in impossible situations. I think most people will love this main character’s rootedness in herself and her purpose, no matter the sacrifice, choice, or consequence. This book is definitely a long game, but again, 1000% the audiobook made this experience for me. I have to give so much praise to Macmillan Audio and the care they took into the delivery of this narrative. Ariel Blake was vibrant and captivating in a way that I just didn’t necessarily feel just having the book in hand.

Separate from just the story, I think this book is a case of marketing taking a chance and being willing to face the consequences. The marketing for this book is essentially saying it’s a loosely based retelling of a Nigerian retelling for the Greek myth of Persephone and Hades. This just seemed like a way to widen the audience to those who would not normally read books focusing on Black characters in this space. As well as labeling it as fantasy or mythology. I think you will have readers who are either completely swept into the story with the comparison to the mythological retelling, or you’ll have people who recognize that this book could’ve stood on its own without that comparison being made. The same way, you will have people who were hoping for more fantastical elements and recognize that there weren’t many there, or any at all, to be honest. So, I think this is also a case of the marketing team behind this book willing to take that chance because they knew they had a very strong FMC. And who doesn’t love reading about a strong woman standing by her decisions and existing in the morally gray?

Now onto not necessarily the bad, but the things that left me kind of questioning. I found myself wondering what the point was. I also felt more connected to the setting and all the emphasis put into everything else going on politically than what was happening with the character herself. At first, I was like, OK, I get it. She is hoping to see her mom. She’s holding out to be connected to her mom, but then I was also thinking, what happens when she does get her mom back? It’s obvious the mom’s not just gonna live there. Well, I guess it’s obvious to everyone but her. And so when that happened and her mom just pops up at the hut and she quickly ran out after her mom wasn’t ready to settle into this new life with her, it just kind of shined a light on how passive Òdòdó was. She approached other situations with more grace and patience. So then I said, OK, was she motivated by this power, this want to have a better life for herself, as we see in the conversation she has with her mother. But we also acknowledge that she would not have this position had she not been kidnapped. This is where I felt some of the ideas were clashing.

There were also some points where the pacing felt weird and the book would drag more than others. I fell asleep and would have to pick back up and rewind or flip back pages. But I’m very glad to have finished and heard Òdòdó’s story told so well via audiobook and written so eloquently. I wondered if this could’ve been marketed as a YA read, but again, I think marketing made the choices they made for broader audience purposes. Regardless, I know this will be a compelling read for many. As we see Òdòdó finding her sense of self and purpose, the way in which it highlights different female relationships and aspects of the feminine form, it’s beautiful in prose and detailed portrayal of 15th-century West Africa. Along with the journey of Òdòdó not only stepping into the light of her own path but the meaning of her stepping from behind the shadow of a man.

Thank you to Forge Books, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for this digital ARC and listen.

This was very good! I really enjoyed the author’s writing style. The prose was lyrical and it kept me engaged with the story. I did feel that this read more YA than adult and I found some parts of the story to be repetitive.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for providing the ARC.

This was a great debut novel!

I love reading about history and other cultures, and this story provided me with a lot of amazing insight into pre-colonized Africa. This story was lush and immersive, and I found myself feeling like I was right in the middle of it all.

Pacing could use a bit of work - there were some time jumps that made it feel like a lot of time had passed when it hadn't. I love good political intrigue and this book has that in spades. I also love when women take their crappy situations and use them to turn into a veritable badass.

Amazing book. I'm excited for more from this author.

I really enjoyed the setting of this book. The different tribes and their various customs, the discussion of the expansion of the central kingdom and nuanced thoughts on that, as well as the varied political manuvering was really interesting and well done.

However, I struggled to root for the main character. She was very naive, which made sense since she was an illiterate teenager kidnapped by a king, but the speed with which she just shrugged and accepted her captivity, even falling in love with her captor no matter how many truly heinous things he did to her and others, really felt super frustrating and was hard to connect with. The plot felt fairly predictable which made it all the worse when the main character is just sipping poisoned offerings from her enemies, hanging out alone with people she knows want to harm her over and over, and absolutely fawning over the world’s worst dude. I didn’t really even see anything redeeming in him at all. And maybe that’s the point? But if so, why was so much of the text and also the main character character’s thoughts consumed with pleasing this guy?? I wish she had been more strategic all along.

I did, however, enjoy the ending.

O.O. Sangoyomi’s debut novel Masquerade is “loosely based on the myth of Persephone” according to the publisher, but that’s slightly misleading; although some plot elements echo the legend, and the protagonist believes in divine spirits (òrisàs) and has a few significant dreams, this book really isn’t what I’d call fantasy. It’s an interesting work of alternate history in which a naive young girl has to grow up fast when she is abducted and installed in a foreign court as the intended bride of a warrior king. Ignorant at first, Òdòdó learns fast that kindness can conceal cruelty, and tenderness can be a distraction from tyranny; eventually, she learns how to make allies and take control of her own life, and more.
The book opens in Timbuktu with the execution of a Songhai general after the city’s takeover by Yorùbáland. Òdòdó witnesses this, then returns to the blacksmith compound where she and her mother work; in this reimagined West Africa, all forge work is done by women, but these smiths are shunned as witches, a necessary and thus barely tolerated evil. Òdòdó crafts a daffodil from silver and gives it to an engaging tramp, but her mother drives away the beggar and slaps and scolds Òdòdó for talking to a strange man. Later, when she visits the market to sell more metal flowers, she is tricked, drugged, and kidnapped. She expects to be sold as a slave to work in a mine, but instead, she is transported to a life of luxury, for the stranger she’d been kind to turns out to have been the Yorùbá warrior king, Àrèmo the Alǻàfin. (Alǻàfin is a title that every Yorùbá king takes, like Pharaoh in Egypt.)
Initially, I was very puzzled as to why the king wouldn’t have just married Òdòdó through normal means, like offering a dowry. Did he literally “sweep her off her feet” as a grand gesture? He does like making those, but it turns out to be a lot simpler: The Alǻàfin just takes what he wants, whether it’s a person, slaves, or territory. But he is magnificent, and Òdòdó is dazzled by her new lush life, and she agrees that she’ll marry him as soon as he rescues her mama from poverty, too. That reunion is postponed for much of the book, though, because most blacksmiths disappear from the land, apparently in a sort of strike, soon after Òdòdó’s abduction.
Not having been raised to understand subtlety, Òdòdó gets tricked fairly frequently, at least in the beginning. She has many enemies at court, from a general who thinks she must have bewitched his ruler, to the king’s mother who thinks nobody is good enough for her son, to a complicated relationship with her husband’s first wife (a purely political marriage). But she quickly learns the value of information after her suitor is impressed by the utility of some gossip she repeats to him, and later she deliberately creates an information network.
Despite her quickness in learning, and the intelligently creative solutions she offers at the advisory council meetings, most people dismiss her, and she constantly has to strive, submit, and scheme to keep her place in the court and in her suitor’s heart. It’s repeatedly driven home to her that despite her high status, she has very little power … until she finally learns from Àrèmo how to take what she wants for herself.
Òdòdó turns out to be fairly ruthless, having scrabbled for survival, making some very hard choices, and eventually deciding to stop at nothing to achieve her goals. She does try kindness at first, but this brings her few rewards. However, when she finally finds her footing, it looks like she’ll be making good long-term decisions, helping the blacksmiths find fairer treatment and working to develop trade relationships instead of warring for more territory.
You don’t have to know anything about the Persephone myth to enjoy this book, but it’s interesting to pick up on the resonances: Abduction, mystically significant cowpeas instead of pomegranate seeds, the blacksmith strike/disappearance being like Demeter’s withholding of crops. Some things end up very differently from the myth, though, so be prepared for that.
I’ll admit I’m still a bit puzzled by the title of Masquerade. Does it refer to the king’s initial disguise as a pauper? The false faces some people wear at court? Òdòdó’s pretence of being submissive while she bides her time and builds her own power base?
I did suspect for a while that since the Alǻàfin always wears a mask and elaborate layers of clothing in public and at council meetings, Òdòdó might actually be planning to masquerade as him, but that didn’t happen after all. So readers, if any of you figure out the title, please let me know!

Content warnings: Violence, brutality, many deaths, including of an animal; negatively portrayed sexism, discrimination, and oppression.
Disclaimers: I received a free ebook for review.

I really enjoyed this debut novel! I appreciated this story of precolonized west Africa. The journey of the main character was powerful and believable, both figuratively and literally. This history fiction transported me to the 25th century and gave me a glimpse of life during that time. The dynamics between her and the king were reminiscent of Hades and Persephone and I was throughly entertained. Would definitely recommend.

eARC Review: Masquerade by O. O. Sangoyomi 🐘

This was a wonderful merging of the Greek myth of Hades and Persephone with Nigerian mythology in an alternative medieval West Africa! The setting was atmospheric and the court politics all encompassing to the point where even I was left scratching my head as to how I missed it all. 🤔

The story follows Òdòdó, a blacksmith in Timbuktu who finds herself whisked away to the glittering Yorùbá court. I enjoyed her rise to power as the Àlaafín’s bride and her descent into darkness. Her love of Àremo (can’t get the special accent marks on my phone) was an interesting show of how obsessive love can start out on the best of terms (if not incredibly questionable ones), but soon descend into utter chaos. At times, I was rather confused by her decisions and why she made them, but man did I love her last one! 😳

One other thing that made me scratch my head a bit were the time jumps that made me feel like larger periods of time passed when they didn’t. That and I do wish we had a deeper look into the gods of Nigerian mythology/the Yorùbá people; I just felt like they had too small of a scene in the book and would’ve liked a more clear reason as to why they showed up when they did. 🙁

Other than that, I had a great time with this wonderful reimagined historical retelling with a sprinkling of fantasy. Big thank you goes out to Forge Books and NetGalley for accepting my request to read this stunning debut in exchange for an honest review; and to the author, Sangoyomi, for crafting such a beautifully dark depiction of the Persephone myth set in medieval West Africa. ❤️

Publication date: July 2!

Overall: 4.5/5 ⭐️

A blacksmith from Timbuktu, Òdòdó faces hardship under the oppressive rule of the Yorùbá king. Abducted and taken to the capital, she discovers her captor is the king himself, who desires her as his wife. Suddenly thrust into a world of power and intrigue, she navigates the treacherous court, forced to choose between her own survival and the fate of her people.

I loved this! The writing style is beautiful and immersive. Òdòdó is strong, resourceful, and resilient. Despite the dangers she faces, she never loses her humanity.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.