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3.5/5
Non-Fiction
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Literary Society of Berkeley
Rating: 4.5/5
Pages: 272
Started: 9 April 2023
Finished: 10 April 2023
Summary:
When young, energetic, orange-haired Nimona shows up in Ballister Blackheart's secret lair asking to be his sidekick, he has no idea what he's agreeing to. Blackheart isn't a villain by choice; when his arm was "accidentally" chopped off in a duel with his boyfriend at the end of his time at the Academy, he was ejected from the institute with no choice but to pursue villainy, although he usually tries to avoid murder. Nimona, on the other hand, is a shapeshifter with a vendetta against the Institute and no problem killing people. Determined to avenge Blackheart and take down the Institute, Nimona pushes for more and more extreme plans--until the Institute decides to strike back, forcing Ballister to come to terms with just who--or what--Nimona really is.
Thoughts:
I was not expecting to like this book as much as I did, but it was honestly quite brilliant. Nimona was a fun character; her shapeshifting and violence were very enticing to read. The art was also great, a little crude but very effective. Blackheart was a fun character too. Although I liked Nimona's violence and immorality, a villain fighting by strict moral rules was interesting to read.
The social commentary in the book was also whip smart. Although it was tamed in the movie, with the evil being packed into one corrupt person instead of a corrupt system, the corruptness of the system, the violence Nimona acts upon them, and their response was so interesting. It sparked a very heated debate in my book club on the morality of violence used to dismantle an institution. The way ND Stevenson played with gender was also really interesting. Nimona, the female protagonist, was a shape-shifting person who primarily occupied a female body but who expressed practically no gender aside from anatomy. Blackheart's boyfriend, by comparison--Ambrosius Goldenloin--was a really interesting nexus of femininity (skinny and curvy and pretty with long golden hair) and masculinity (goldenloin). It's really interesting to think that the author wrote this book before he transitioned, and I'd be super curious to hear about how the author saw gender when they wrote the book, versus now.
This book was so cool on so many levels, I'd honestly recommend it to anyone.