This is the Dominican Republic. Again, not the same as Dominica.
Here's the summary:
Plucked from her life on the streets of post-apocalyptic Santo Domingo, young maid Acilde Figueroa finds herself at the heart of a voodoo prophecy: only she can travel back in time and save the ocean – and humanity – from disaster. But first she must become the man she always was – with the help of a sacred anemone. Tentacle is an electric novel with a big appetite and a brave vision, plunging headfirst into questions of climate change, technology, Yoruba ritual, queer politics, poverty, sex, colonialism and contemporary art. Bursting with punk energy and lyricism, it’s a restless, addictive trip: The Tempest meets the telenovela.
This one was cool. It took a little bit for me to get into it, but then it got really exciting. With so many of these books I'm just baffled at how these authors weave these stories from their minds.
There were, I think, 3 different timelines. It confused me for a bit but they all came together towards the end. In each of the timelines, Acilde has a different identity. And one of those identities kind of directs the others. But then the main identity runs into the opportunity to change the future and save the sea. No brainer, right? Maybe. He starts to think: if he takes that chance, will that nullify his existence? And he has a REALLY good life.
So he chooses...I'm not telling! For once, no spoilers.
The beginning of the book was kind of hard to get into because there was a lot of sex work and rape. And the rape is kind of just glossed over by the characters, which I really didn't like.
Otherwise this was a good, engaging, relatively quick read.
And finally I'm onto the Es! I'm off to the library tomorrow to pick up the next one!
