We Unleash the Merciless Storm: 03/14/20

We Unleash the Merciless Storm by Tehlor Kay Mejia is the sequel to We Set the Dark on Fire (2019). While the first book was from Dani's point of view, this one is from Carmen's point of view.

Dani and Carmen had gone to school together to learn how to be wives to the elite men, the leaders, of Medio. Dani had garnered the top spot as the Primera. Carmen was the Segunda. As the wives of Mateo they had specific, divided duties and roles, but very little in the way of personal freedom.

Over the course of the book the two wives fall in love. Carmen, a soldier for the resistance gets Dani to join. But at the opening of We Unleash the Merciless Storm, Carmen and Dani are separated. Carmen is back with La Voz and Dani is still with Mateo.

Much of this second volume is Carmen's attempt, against orders, to reunite with Dani. She wants to get back over the wall and rescue Dani. In the meantime, though, she has to lie about her feelings. She also begins to doubt herself as person after person tells her that Dani will be loyal to Mateo.

Carmen's flight and fight to get back to Dani and to bring her to safety places the novel into the road narrative spectrum, just as the first book was. Let's compare.

The first book sits at the realistic end of the spectrum. Their status as wives and then a couple sets the placement (33). Their destination is also realistic — the city (00). But their route is the maze (CC) as the city is complex and the rules for wives in society and home are complicated. Thus the first book is 3300CC.

The sequel, though, swings to the other end of the spectrum by separating the two. Carmen is separated from the woman she loves and choses to separate herself from La Voz. Effectively, she becomes an orphan traveler (FF). Her destination is home (66) — meaning literally her ex-home with Mateo and Dani. And it's figurative, meaning the home she wants to create just with Dani. Her route is offroad (66). She goes into the ocean, through a tunnel, through a forest, and all manner of other offroad routes. All together, this conclusion is the tale of an orphan going home via an offroad route (FF6666).

Five stars

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