Ashamed of his past and overwhelmed by his future, Ronoah Genoveffa Elizzi-denna Pilanovani feels too small for his own name. After a graceless exit from his homeland in the Acharrioni desert, his anxiety has sabotaged every attempt at redemption. Asides from a fiery devotion to his godling, the one piece of home he brought with him, he has nothing.
That is, until he meets Reilin. Beguiling, bewildering Reilin, who whisks Ronoah up into a cross-continental pilgrimage to the most sacred place on the planet. The people they encounter on the way—children of the sea, a priestess and her band of storytellers, the lonely ghosts of monsters—are grim and whimsical in equal measure. Each has their part to play in rewriting Ronoah’s personal narrative.
Change requires work. Sienna Tristen's The Heretic's Guide to Homecoming - Theory is like a long hug, a thorough exploration of living life with a crippling anxiety disorder, and of the steps to take in order to get better. Disguised as a fantasy travelogue, this books takes its time delving into Ronoah's psyche and his struggles, picturing them with a language that is both compassionate and precise. The reader gets to truly experience the terrible vertigo of his self-destructive thoughts, but also his journey towards healing. The writing is phenomenal in this regard, pulling at heartstrings all the way.
Deciding to follow Reilin in his journey is only the first step for Ronoah, who begins experiencing new things and learning that he too has value, sometimes yanked in that direction by his travelling companion. Reilin might seem callous at first glance, but he's supportive in his own pushy way, helping Ronoah begin his journey towards healing. Along the way, Ronoah will meet different people and experience important lessons, and he'll learn to share a part of himself - slowly, painstakingly slowly, he'll put in the work.
The world is painted vividly, so rich with a staggering history and complex in its own right. Interwoven in the text are snippets of tales, perhaps true, tales of the gods who made this world, tales recounted by the characters. It is a book about the importance of stories, about how context and a change in perspective can change how a story is read. The middle part, taking place in a caravan of traveling storytellers, is delightful, and it shows well the variety of this world. But stories permeate the text, both in the beginning and at the end; stories upon stories.
A glance at the plot might make one think that this novel is going to feature a queer love story, but in this first book of the duology it hasn't been the case; one detects a certain attraction, certainly admiration, towards Reilin, but this doesn't seem to be that kind of story. This is not a flaw: the book works perfectly on its own, painting Ronoah's important journey with all the care it deserves. It's still, to an extent, a queer book, and thus I feel like it should have a place on this blog: Ronoah comes from a country where queer relationships aren't frowned upon, and he's surprised to learn that this is not the case in other countries, that he's travelling through a country where queer love is punished. There's a beautiful conversation with a queer minor character who discovers, through a story, that he's not alone, that queer people do exist other than him; and a character seems to be nonbinary, to the extent that a word like that can mean something to an all-powerful being.
The Heretic's Guide to Homecoming - Theory is a precious journey to experience.
✨ 4.5 stars
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