[Book Context]

• The continent is ironically called the “Stillness”, despite being very prone to earthquakes

• The world occasionally falls into “seasons” where basically the world becomes apocalyptic cuz of earthquakes and eruptions and such

• Oh yeah, there’s stonelore which explains how we got here 

• There are ancient artifacts everywhere (ruins, obelisks) 

• MOST people live in communities or “comms” 

• Each comm has a “use-caste” which is basically a function/class of person [Strongback, Leadership, Innovator, Orogene]

• Orogenes are really connected to Father Earth and can sense and prevent (and also cause) earthquakes

  • To use their powers, orogenes harness energy around them which means the temperature drops and sometimes they freeze things around them, including people

  • Orogenes are hated by society, but are also VERY valuable to society

  • Most orogenes are either killed or taken to this place called the “Fulcrum” in the capital city of Yemenes. OR they live in secrecy—they are often referred to as “roggas” as a slur

[Book Plot Summary]

[Essun]

• Essun is an Orogene who lives in secrecy in the city of Tirimo

• She’s not from there, but we don’t know where she’s actually from (she’s narrated in the second person and is supposed to be you)

• Her son Uche is dead, we suspect that her husband Jija killed him after the little boy displayed orogene powers

• Her husband has left with their daughter (Nassun), who has orogene powers and Essun wants to find them

• Also, Essun stopped an earthquake from destroying her community, of course it doesn’t matter because she later ends up destroying the same community when she leaves 

• So this scene was intense—Essun’s friend, Rask, who once had a sister who was Orogene and was killed by his town, tries to help Essun escape the city. But the city becomes hostile to her as she’s about to leave, to the point where one guard tries to kill her as she's walking away, so she creates an earthquake by taking the energy from everyone in town, freezing everyone, and destroying the city. Then, she leaves the town and strangely runs into a stone eater (which we don’t quite know what that is at this point) named Hoa, who, despite appearing as a little boy, seems to know more and be more powerful than he first lets on

• By the way, the world has plunged into an apocalyptic season, so Essun and Hoa have to team up and fend for themselves

• Hoa implies he knows where Jija is and is also just precocious, strange, and overly cheerful

• One day, Essun runs away from a camp of other travelers with Hoa. But they have no water so they go back, find a commless (basically homeless) woman, and fill their canteens. Outside, there’s a kirkhusa (think a weasel) which are usually bae creatures, but after tasting ash, they become awful and bloodthirsty. So Hoa crystallizes that shit lol

[Damaya]

• From a small ass town called Palela, we first discover Damaya hiding in a barn from her mom and a man named Schaffa, who btw is something referred to as a “Guardian”

• Schaffa finds her and tells her that he’s taking her to the Fulcrum to learn how to use her curse

  • The girls found out she was an orogene cuz of a bitch named Zab

• Damaya and Schaffa leave the family on horseback towards the Fulcrum with Muh Dear’s blanket...we don’t know who tf Muh Dear is lmao 

• On the road, Schaffa chastises Damaya for listening to the Earth and tells her the story of an orogene named Misalem who killed HELLA people and tried to take down Yemenes. Buttttt he was stopped by the emperor’s bodyguard whose name is Shemshena

• Damaya thinks of herself as Shemshena at first, but is horrified when Schaffa compares her to Misalem, a rogga

• Damaya complains that she’s not Misalem, that she isn’t some beast that needs to be contained, that she can take care of and control herself. So Schaffa breaks her hand—to have her demonstrate that control and not rely on the earth to heal it…? He then says he loves her and relishes that she’s afraid of him. Then they go to sleep and it’s weird and terrible and abusive 

• She’s then in the Fulcrum that’s basically military school - hoes got inspections, orogen control class, exams, etc. Underperformers are iced by the Guardians so the pressure is THICC

• Damaya meets a kid named Maxixe who’s charming, but after meeting him weird things start to happen—someone bumps into her in the showers, steals her shoes, AND someone gets her drunk which is a SERIOUS no-go in the fulcrum. Like that shit will get you KILLT 

• Damaya gets revenge on these hoes with a girl named Crack. She hides her own shoes in Maxixe’s trunk and blames it a bitch named Jasper. Carnelian (senior orogene) comes in and checks everyone’s trunk and finds her shoes in Maxixe’s trunk. Maxixe admits Jasper stole them last time, but then Jasper pipes in and says that Crack actually sold the aforementioned shoes for liquor, then Crack says that Jasper got felt up by this old man and gave the man liquor in order to get a letter from and respond to his mom. 

• Girl it was A LOT 

• So, boom--Crack, Maxixe, and Jasper are asked to leave and we later find out that Jasper transfers schools (code for “was exiled”), Maxixe’s hands are broken, and Crack is never seen or heard from again 

[Syenite]

• So Syenite is an Orogene who works in the Fulcrum 

• She introduces us to hierarchy in the Fulcrum via the ring system. Syenite is a fourth ring (of 10), and she is assigned to missions with a 10th ringer named Alabaster. 10th ringers from what we have read so far are the highest level of Orogene in the Fulcrum, but this book is a slow reveal, so its not 100% clear 

• Syenite has been given two jobs; 1. (unofficially) to have a child with Alabaster and 2. to go on this mission to a town called Allia where the main harbor is being blocked by coral 

• Alabaster and Syenite do not really fuxs with each other 

  • Like, at all

• Alabaster is perpetually tired and preoccupied quelling small earthquakes to give relief to the “nodes”—who, on the surface, are orogenes who live in towers throughout the more developed parts of the Stillness whose job it is to quell small earthquakes

• Also, this whole time, Alabaster and Syenite are having VERY shitty sex

• He’s mostly tired and cynical about the world while Syenite is really annoyed with him, so the two of them are on their way to Allia when suddenly a massive earthquake happens and Alabaster uses Syenite to stop the earthquake

• They visit the node station after the earthquake and discover that everyone inside is dead. Turns out that the node was being operated by the sedated body of a little boy and that ALSO there was a pedophile there praying on the boy before everyone died. Essentially, the distress of the assault made the boy’s body start the earthquake that killed everyone. Here you see Syen’s allegiance to the Fulcrum start to decrease

• Syenite and Alabaster get to Allia, where the citizens are very “racist” (Like anti-orogene)—which Alabaster quickly is not here for. Then, someone tries to poison Alabaster 

• Syenite gets around to checking out the harbor and finds out that the structure that is blocking the harbor is huge and unclear. So if Allia wants it moved they probably have to do some recon on what it is orrrrrr maybe they should just leave and start a new town. The town’s people are pretty strongly against this, because 1. hiring the Fulcrum is expense AF so they won’t be able to research and rehire them and 2. moving is difficult 

• So Syenite says she’ll lift whatever is causing the blockage out of the water only to find out that its a fallen obelisk with a dead stone eater inside 

[Book Thoughts and Feelings]

• This story went from zero to a hundred real quick lmao! It’s violent and serious boots