Author: Sabaa Tahir
Themes: Freedom
Quotes:“There are two kinds of guilt. The kind that's a burden and the kind that gives you purpose. Let your guilt be your fuel. Let it remind you of who you want to be. Draw a line in your mind. Never cross it again.”
Reading/Listening Time: 15 hours, 22 minutes
Review:
I wanted to read some fantasy novels that weren't based on European myths. I started out reading one called "The Bone Witch" but I kinda lost enthusiasm for it and couldn't finish. Then I remembered reading a magazine article about this lady who wrote a fantasy novel based on the concept of, like, "Your brother got kidnapped by terrorists, what would you do to save him?" but in a middle-eastern fantasy setting. And that sounded really interesting to me (especially coming off from "The Bone Witch" because I would have LOVED for that one to explore the sister and brother relationship it had more).
This one has a dual protagonist set up, and it's not actually the brother and sister. It's these two young adults on opposite ends of the sociopolitical spectrum: Elias is the guy and he's from this quasi-romanesque culture and he's going to this gladiator school so he can be a killing machine when he grows up. Laia is from a kind of intellectual Persian/Iranian type-culture that lives in subjection to the not-romans. She wants to be a doctor, but her brother got involved with this underground rebellion and he got in big trouble. The rest of her family got killed, so she goes all clandestine to get help so he can escape before they decide to execute him.
One thing I really liked about this set up, is that it means there's always a lot going on with either one protagonist or the other. The whole time you're wondering how they're gonna finally meet up, and when they do it's interesting to see what they think of each other.
I guess it kind of is like a YA romance, but it didn't feel so forced because the author spent a lot of time developing both of the protagonists before they even meet, and the story doesn't progress their relationship unrealistically quickly. I kept thinking it would be totally stupid if Laia just fell for this guy who she thinks is gonna be a killing machine when he grows up, and I was so so glad when it didn't turn out that way and they were going to tackle the romance aspect a bit more tactfully and in a way that felt like it fit with the world it takes place in.
As far as the fantasy aspects, the story references a lot of things like Ifrits, Djinn and Ghouls (which makes my inner fangirl happy because I LOVE them!) They even have these monk-like guys/ladies who can see the future, and at one point they're described as almost reptilian in appearance (LIZARD PEOPLE YAAY!!!)
I will say it takes a while to figure out how all of these elements fit into the story, at some points they feel almost like they're gonna be used for asthetic but later on they become more relevant and there's an actual explanation for what happened to them.
SPOILER ALERT
Apparently a lot of them were killed by this Djinn called The Nightbringer some time in the past which is CLEARLY being established as set up for something significant later on END SPOILER
I think there's a lot in this book that is engaging, and quite a bit that is meaningful. I also really loved that you feel like, as seemingly intricate/detailed as this book is, we're only seeing a small piece of the whole puzzle of this world and how it works and it could get a whole lot bigger in the next one in the series.
Rating 4/5 Stars.
No comments:
Post a Comment