DNF @10%

The premise sounds compelling and the cover is beautiful. Written with lyrical prose, the vignettes felt too short to be emotionally engaged. The themes seem relevant (afro-futurism and politics), sadly this book didn't work for me. It might be a "it's me and not the book" case.

From a premise standpoint, I admire and love what Nisi Shawl has done in Everfair. It talks about this speculative alternate history in which the people of the Congo had steam technology against the Belgium colonization. I also love the foreward where it talks about not only looking at historical fiction in terms of what happened, but also in what could have happened if. The world building peppered throughout is intriguing. But I couldn't get behind the vignette style of multiple POV. Maybe it's just a testament to my brain at the end of the year, but they sped by so quickly I had a hard time figuring out who was who and where they were in this vivid world. I wasn't able to get a good sense of the characters or even the ways in which they saw the world because of the pacing. I've read books with many perspectives and there are cases where they work, but I wish Everfair had given more space to them and the world they were in. More time to allow readers to get a good sense, to sink into these character's viewpoints before we switched.