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uquiz was right, i DID like this book
May. 29th, 2025 08:17 pmso, FOREVER ago, i took some uquiz on tumblr that was like "i'll tell you what book to read!" and the result i got was rita indiana's tentacle, a work in translation about yoruba religion, post-climate apocalypse dominican republic, gender transition, and time travel. i added it to my tbr, finally read it, and yeah. uquiz was right, i liked it.
the worldbuilding here is fascinating. people get stung by sea anemones and gain the ability to astral project back in time, with newly-created avatar bodies that they have to spend conscious thought controlling while also being in their home time. in 2027, the dominican republic accepts nuclear weapons from venezuela, which then accidentally detonate and completely ruin the caribbean. a secret cult of barely-santeria worshippers concoct a plan to send someone back in time to dissuade the to-be-president of the DR from accepting said weapons. and spoiler alert: uh, it doesn't work?? the time travelers involved are both kind of shitty people.
no seriously. argenis luna? fuck that guy. seriously fuck that guy. i hated reading his chapters because like, just, seriously what the fuck.
acilde, on the other hand, is more interesting. introduced as selfishly motivated, kills her employer and steals the anemone and runs away, uses the anemone as leverage to futuristically gender transition, hides out in jail for ten years controlling his past-avatar, and then at the end of it all he GIVES UP ON saving the ocean because doing so would set off a chain of events meaning he wouldn't get to live his life as a man. and he has, like, a wife now, and a life in the past-that's-actually-2010-or-something, that he doesn't want to give up, so he just... leaves it. and weirdly, it's satisfying, because i wasn't sure how indiana was going to execute the timeline fuckery that would have happened had acilde succeeded, so instead he gets to live out the rest of his life as menicucci. i enjoyed the subversion there or whatever.
and it was nice and short and held my attention the entire time. would recommend to anyone i deem weird enough to actually engage with what's going on and not just be put out.
the worldbuilding here is fascinating. people get stung by sea anemones and gain the ability to astral project back in time, with newly-created avatar bodies that they have to spend conscious thought controlling while also being in their home time. in 2027, the dominican republic accepts nuclear weapons from venezuela, which then accidentally detonate and completely ruin the caribbean. a secret cult of barely-santeria worshippers concoct a plan to send someone back in time to dissuade the to-be-president of the DR from accepting said weapons. and spoiler alert: uh, it doesn't work?? the time travelers involved are both kind of shitty people.
no seriously. argenis luna? fuck that guy. seriously fuck that guy. i hated reading his chapters because like, just, seriously what the fuck.
acilde, on the other hand, is more interesting. introduced as selfishly motivated, kills her employer and steals the anemone and runs away, uses the anemone as leverage to futuristically gender transition, hides out in jail for ten years controlling his past-avatar, and then at the end of it all he GIVES UP ON saving the ocean because doing so would set off a chain of events meaning he wouldn't get to live his life as a man. and he has, like, a wife now, and a life in the past-that's-actually-2010-or-something, that he doesn't want to give up, so he just... leaves it. and weirdly, it's satisfying, because i wasn't sure how indiana was going to execute the timeline fuckery that would have happened had acilde succeeded, so instead he gets to live out the rest of his life as menicucci. i enjoyed the subversion there or whatever.
and it was nice and short and held my attention the entire time. would recommend to anyone i deem weird enough to actually engage with what's going on and not just be put out.
