Hello everyone!
Isabel Allende really did a magnificent job with her trilogy, and I, for one, am definitely here for it.
Besides, this is the last "normal" book, shall we say, before the Christmas countdown begins on this blog.
Yes, just like every year, I'll be reviewing all things Christmas, with any and all influences coming my way! So for the time being, say goodbye to anything that DOESN'T have those gingerbread cookies and candy canes in it.
Meanwhile, however, hit pause on it just long enough to read through this blog post, won't you?
Because this journey to Africa is kind of important.
Especially because it's the last book in the trilogy.
Without further ado, let's dive right into Forest of the Pygmies.
In this last book, Nadia and Alex are on an African safari with Alex's grandmother Kate, the first safari in which you can ride African elephants - which doesn't usually happen. See, these elephants? Unlike in India, the African ones really don't like puny humans.
After a couple of back-and-forths, between a crazy ostrich in a town square and a visit from a shaman woman, it all seems relatively on the straight and narrow - until a Catholic missionary approaches the group, more specifically, their pilot, Angie, asking to be taken to a specific part of the African jungle hereabout, where two of his missionary friends went missing.
Alex and Nadia, both sensing this is important, convince Kate that it's something National Geographic should investigate, so they all tag along, crash-land the plane in the middle of nowhere, and almost get eaten by crocodiles in the process.
Angie's definitely NOT a fan, mind, because a seer prophesized she'd die by crocodiles someday.
When they finally encounter locals paddling down the river in canoes, our group convince them to take them up to the village where the missionaries were last seen - despite objections to the contrary, and the fact that this village is under the tyrannical rule of a king who no one can look in the eye and whose steps shake the very ground he walks on.
Their guides yeet them at an ancient burial site, after which the group gets picked up by Pygmies in the forest, and led the rest of the way.
See, the Pygmies? They're sort of slaves to the king and his ten companions who, as we later learn, belong to the Brotherhood of the Leopard, not something that anyone wants to really dig into.
But anyway, point being: our group is sort of welcomed, then closed up in one of the village huts. Nadia, being Nadia, slips away by turning invisible (a skill she's developed like a pro) and pays a visit to the village women, who explain that the king trades in ivory, which is basically forbidden elsewhere but, ya know, middle of nowhere and all that.
Their husbands are out there hunting elephants, and they take care of the village; their children, watched over by two nannies, are the king's insurance policy that they'll stick to the rules.
Oh, and the fact that he's taken their sacred totem bone, known for its healing properties. That, too.
Deciding to tackle the problem at the root, Nadia and Alex steal the totem and disappear into the jungle (much to the dismay and eventual resignation of grandma Kate, who once swore she'd never travel with the kids AGAIN), looking for the Pygmies to rally them and return their treasure.
Equally, they want them to overthrow the king, whose barbaric ways (fights to the death, for example) really aren't doing anyone any favours.
By visiting the ancient gravesite where the group first came to shore, Alex and Nadia find the old queen who'd sought refuge in the forest when the tyrant showed up. It's here that the youngsters achieve a revelation, allowing their inner sight to expand and to understand that each being on this planet has a soul, and each soul is part of the same universal spirit. No one really leaves, everything and everyone are forever connected.
Achieving this, the kids return to the village and hatch a plan of how this uprising is going to go; they have a little help from the adults too, because the king REALLY wants to add the pilot, Angie, to his harem, and she's decided to play along to ensure the rest of it can go smoothly.
Seeing as the military commander's overseeing everything and is challenged to a duel by the Pygmy leader, it's a good thing she keeps her wits about her.
Defeated and ashamed, the leader vanishes, only to call upon the terrifying sorcerer-shaman who keeps everyone under his thrall whenever he appears.
Only, Nadia expected something of the sort, and in a finale worthy of finales, she calls upon the spirits of others who've helped them along their way before, like the Amazon shaman, Temzin from the Himalayas, the yetis, the works.
The truth is finally revealed: the king, the commander, and the sorcerer are all the same person (and if you read carefully, you notice fairly early on that, for a troika that's so important in the leadership establishment, they never appear in the same place at the same time), and he gets chucked to the hungry crocodiles as a midnight snack.
The old queen takes back her rightful place and re-establishes peace between the people; the Catholic missionary remains behind to continue the work of his fallen brothers (also victims of the crocs), while our team returns home to civilisation.
Two years later, Alex arrives to New York from California, where he's studying medicine, and where Nadia's going to be joining him, to attend her graduation. The two friends, who grow closer and closer throughout the three books, know they're eventually going to get married, their love is deeper than anything anyone can comprehend, and Alex will be a world renown doctor, while Nadia establishes a linguistic school like no one has ever seen.
Kate, grumbly about, well, a lot of things LOL, shows Alex the three published books: Memories of the Eagle and the Jaguar, which she wrote using the notes he'd made.
And that's where we leave them, happy in reminiscence, and strong in the lessons they've learned along the way.
Powerful, symbolic, and a sign of growing up, but through a very colourful and tasteful lens, Forest of the Pygmies is a wonderful conclusion to the series. Alex and Nadia are two protagonists that I'd love to read more about, in contrast to how it usually goes for me when I want the originals to be left alone. But it would be fun to catch up with them in adulthood sometime!
All in all, these are books worth giving a read at least once. You won't regret it.
xx
*image not mine
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