{"id":5217,"date":"2020-06-19T05:00:07","date_gmt":"2020-06-19T12:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=5217"},"modified":"2020-06-10T11:48:48","modified_gmt":"2020-06-10T18:48:48","slug":"mark-reads-the-fifth-season-chapter-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2020\/06\/mark-reads-the-fifth-season-chapter-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘The Fifth Season’: Chapter 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the fifth chapter of The Fifth Season<\/i>, Essun meets someone on the road. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read The Broken Earth<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For grief\/death, general anxiety about the apocalypse<\/b><\/p>\n

This world is genuinely ending, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it? I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really acknowledged that, so from a narrative structure standpoint, chapter five works as a necessary reminder that The Stillness is about to change once again, and in order for that change to happen, a lot<\/i> of people are going to die.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

(That is a deeply uncomfortable thing to write in 2020.)\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The chapter title warns us of what is to come: Essun is not alone. There are other survivors, each of them escaping the violence of the earthquakes that are tearing The Stillness apart. This chapter makes me aware that this is not over, that there is more suffering to come, that there may be more survivors to come. And how many will survive? Will the Stillness be able to rebuild itself?<\/p>\n

I learned a little bit more about orogenes, like how their use and transfer of energy affects their body:<\/p>\n

To keep the power in, though, to not<\/i> turn the valley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s aquifer into a geyser or shatter the ground into rubble, takes an effort that makes your teeth and the backs of your eyes ache. You walked a long time to try to burn off some of what you took in, but it still brims under your skin even as your body grows weary and your feet hurt. You are a weapon meant to move mountains. A mere walk can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take that out of you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a physical cost to the use of an orogene\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s power. Good to know. I now know that orogenes have an instinctual reaction, based on what Essun did in her last chapter. Actually, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not just instinctual; there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s this sense that the orogene power is right under the surface, ready to bubble over at a moment\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s notice. Essun reacted so quickly when she was attacked. Is that meant more as a sign of how hypervigilant she is? Is she used to having to be that vigilant all the time because of who she is? SOME FOOD FOR THOUGHT.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talk about the roadhouse. In the lead up to it, Jemisin paints a stark portrait of the world around Essun. That image of the glow in the wrong direction of the sun\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 oh, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so UNNERVING. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also a tiny threat laid at our feet, too: What if Essun runs out of food? What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s her endgame here? Once she finds Jija\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 what then<\/i>? I hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really thought of that, and\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 shit. Has Essun thought that far, either?<\/p>\n

But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the presence of the survivors at the roadhouse that is most disturbing:<\/p>\n

None of them looked like survival fetishists or would-be warlords. What you saw at the roadhouse were ordinary people, some still caked in filth after digging themselves out of mudslides or collapsed buildings, some still bleeding from wounds haphazardly bandaged, or untreated entirely.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The immediacy<\/i> communicated in this is so incredible. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear that this tragedy just<\/i> happened, that people have gathered specifically because they are survivors.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And what the fuck are they supposed to do now?<\/p>\n

I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what world awaits these people. The narrative is designed so that I remain ignorant, so yes, I feel personally attacked here. Are any<\/i> of these characters going to live? Is Jemisin going to fulfill the promise made at the beginning of the book, or is something else waiting for me?<\/p>\n

I JUST DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T KNOW.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talk about Hoa. Hoa is the being who crawled out of that object in the prologue, right??? He has to be. The fact that Essun felt<\/i> him before she saw him feels like the biggest confirmation of that, but I have to accept that I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m doing here. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s possible he is someone else entirely. Still: this part. THIS PART:<\/p>\n

He sits in a hunched way that would look odd in an adult and is perfectly normal for a child who hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been told to sit up straight.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

UGGGGH, THAT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S BECAUSE HOA ISN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T HUMAN, RIGHT??? And when Essun asks him where he come from, look how he just completely dodges answering it! NOPE, NO, WHO IS THIS BOY. Is he even a boy??? I mean that both in terms of being a human AND their gender.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I am on edge, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. This makes me so uncomfortable because there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clearly something else under the surface. Did Hoa seek out Essun specifically<\/i>? Or is this a meeting of chance?<\/p>\n

I know y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all are cackling. I KNOW IT.<\/p>\n

NOTES<\/b><\/p>\n