Esmay Rosalyne's Reviews > The Truth of the Aleke

4.5 stars

In The Truth of the Aleke, Utomi returns to the brutal Forever Desert and once again crafts an unforgettable modern fable that will crush your soul in just a few pages.

Taking place 500 years after the first novella, The Lies of the Ajungo, this story follows the young Osi as his relatively quiet life is turned brutally upside down by a brutal attack from the Cult of Tutu on his city. Through a series of miraculously unfortunate events, he finds himself launched into a quest to bring down the leader of the Cult, but the truth of the Aleke is nothing like he ever could have imagined.

Now, I’ll have to admit I was nervous to see if Utomi would be able to recapture the same magic from the first novella, but that concern flew straight out the window the moment I read the first page. Though this sequel maintains most of its fable-like quality that made its predecessor so unique, I actually think the more intimate and character-driven storytelling in The Truth of the Aleke increased the brilliance and impact of the narrative.

Osi is a much more emotionally complex protagonist than Tutu was, but that only endeared him more to me. All his virtues and vices are on full display, and I loved how Utomi played around with the idea of heroism and the typical hero’s journey through his quest. Osi is allowed to be flawed and messy, and his actions are shown to have dire and devastating consequences, which I absolutely loved (even though it broke my heart).

Moreover, by creating such a large time-gap between the first and second novella, Utomi was able to really hit home the themes and messages that lie at the core of this narrative. Especially the themes of corruption, the vicious cycles of war, and of history being just another fantastical story written by the people with the most power shine bright in this novella, which makes this both a very timely and (unfortunately) timeless story that will resonate with any and all humans who have witnessed these atrocities in the real world over and over again.

Even though this technically works as a self-contained story, I really think you would do yourself a disservice by not reading the series in release order. The way that the legacy of characters in The Lies of the Ajungo has been twisted over time was both very fascinating and disheartening to see, and I already can’t wait to see how the events of this novella are going to influence the future of the Forever Desert in the upcoming finale of this series.

I can't truly say I enjoyed reading this novella considering how harrowing its events are, but that is exactly why I love it so much. If you like the idea of being transported into a lush desert fantasy setting that will fill you with wonder, while also being taken on a difficult journey that confronts and challenges you with some of the most uncomfortable moral and ethical quandaries, then I can't recommend The Truth of the Aleke highly enough. Utomi is a master at his craft, and I absolutely want to read anything and everything he ever writes, thank you very much!