Reviews with content warning for Physical abuse - The Daughters of Izdihar

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The Daughters of Izdihar by Hadeer Elsbai

9 reviews

ems_book_shelf's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

3.5

i wish i did not find Nehal as selfish as i did, but nonetheless this book was a really fun read. the politics were written well, the feminine movement was exciting to read, the SLIGHT character growth in Nico was fine but i neeeed more from him. excited to continue with the next book!

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stardust_heidi's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Holy shit. Destroy the patriarchy.

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bobbyeight's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

March 15th, 2024

In light of recent events, I feel the need to specify that this is not going to be a glowing review, but it is an honest one. The star rating reflects my thoughts on the books but I'm providing a little bit (lol, feel the wall of text coming) of context to this rating, since it is quite harsh and I do not wish for people to think it is a fake review. Keep in mind that this is my personal perspective, and you are free to agree or disagree.

Here are my main points of criticism, each of which I am going to detail afterwards:

The promise of the book does not deliver.
The characters are unlikeable and extremely unidimensional.
The writing is so grating, repetitive and overly descriptive. It has no finesse and frankly needed a lot more editing.
It's supposed to be an adult novel, but it reads like a middle grade novel and frankly I've read better middle grades than this....
The themes were promising, except they were treated in a way that left no room for nuance.

What I was expecting from the blurb and the online presence of this book: suffragettes, a complex political intrigue (maybe going into details on how the patriarchal society stands its ground through dismissal, violence, etc?), LGBTQ+ inclusion, elemental magic/an interesting magic system, and as advertised by the author herself, Egyptian vibes!

Coming off the high of having just read the Daevabad trilogy, I was looking for similar vibes and oh boy, was I disappointed. The Egyptian vibes are just "this is set in a fake country copy pasted on Egyptian land but is lacking in cultural depth". The elemental magic system was underdeveloped and its role in the story felt extremely superfluous, so much that it would have greatly benefited to be scrapped for a more meaningful approach to the "plot" events. It wasn't weaved in (see what I did there) as intrinsically as it could've been to make it a pillar for the plot and the characters. The LGBTQ+ inclusion was emphasised by the author herself on social media, and I'm sorry to say that apart from a rushed sapphic romance and one other character who is queer, there is nothing LGBTQ+ in this novel; additionally, there is a specific scene in which the main character calls her husband a “coward” for not stepping up to defend their queer friend, reading that (and how the narrative justified her calling him a coward) made my heart break for all the closeted people or people who can't come out for safety reasons. About the complex political intrigue.. well there's a parliament and women can't vote. Does it get more into political stuff? Nope, other than the fact that the characters in this book cycle between "screaming 'vote for women'" > "organising a riot" > "getting thrown into prison" over and over again.

Now about the characters. Not only does the poor writing give nothing for the reader to like the characters at all, they are so extremely unidimensional it is simply impossible to find any depth in them. They are either really bland and boring or really irritating.

The main character, Nehal, is selfish to a degree that's actually baffling, but the narrative doesn't take this stance until the very last chapter of hers. She never once listens to what the other people around her have to say, and yet spends her time crying that nobody listens to her. She doesn't respect other people and honestly, there were a whole bunch of times during which she was extremely disrespectful to Nico over nothing except the fact that she didn't want to be married to him (which was reciprocal, yet he didn’t treat her with any disdain). Her complete lack of empathy did not help either. As for Nico, he was maybe the only male character that wasn't evil. Except he was completely boring, without any personality. Giorgina was interesting at first but it quickly spinned into circles of her doing the exact same thing. For the whole book she had no grasp on her powers, and yet suddenly she did when the plot required it? That felt like it missed quite a few steps in character development..

About the writing, it's always sad when a book has so many structural issues that it pulls you completely out of the story. I don't expect much when I read but a few things I think are essential to any storyteller and lover of words: show don't tell, synonym.com and the use of personal pronouns. The writing lacked the polish expected in a published work.

Show don't tell: as mentioned earlier, this book felt overly descriptive a lot of the time. Everything was visually described, even minor characters appearing only for one scene, which burdens the text with superfluous decor. On the other hand, it would have been interesting if a little bit of craft went into the writing to give more dimension to the feelings of the characters, explore contradictions, dreams and aspirations, internal conflicts and regrets, hopes.. that was mostly said quite textually to us. Words with no room for breathing or interpreting or questioning.

Synonym.com: a lot of the text felt redundant because it was saying the same thing over and over again. For example, every single time Nico was described physically, he was "stout". No synonyms, no nothing, just stout and it was used every single time (I didn't keep track of the page numbers for this).

Other examples about the repetitive use of words, sometimes even in the same sentence when in my opinion, a little bit of editing would have greatly improved the flow of the text.

P.238 → "Her eyes were bloodshot, the bags under her eyes prominent."
P.251 → "Near the bed, a broad-shouldered older woman was hovering, a satchel in her hands. She had wide shoulders and a square jaw."
P.322-324 → In the span of two pages, the same character was described 3 times, every single time the only thing that was said was that he was "fidgeting".
P.330 → "She struggled to her feet and ran to the ambassador, struggling to stay upright."

Other than that, a character can only snap and sneer and snarl so many times before it becomes utterly boring and caricatural..

Personal pronouns: regarding the use of personal pronouns, you will find a great many chunks of text in which the names are repeated over and over when replacing them by "he/she/they/his/her/their" once in a while would greatly improve the flow of the sentences.

Also, on the topics of names and the lack of editing: halfway through the books, the characters go to a place named “Zubaida’s” because of someone specific living there. In the last chapter, when they mention going to that same place again (and there is no mistaking it is the same place), the name is suddenly changed to “Zanuba’s” for no reason. This isn’t even a typo and in both parts of the book, the names are used repeatedly.

I really tried to like this book, but the structural issues were just too much. There is a direction but there is no plot. There are characters but no character arcs or evolution. The themes are treated with such a lack of any nuance it deprives them of their inherent complexity, giving space to a story in which everything is black and white, when it could've been so much more interesting to bring in a little bit of variety (specifically when the reality of these themes cannot be washed of this variety).

Also, both POV characters end up using their powers with extreme malicious intent?

P.336 "His limbs were at her mercy; all of him was at her mercy, and Nehal relished it."
P.340 "Perhaps she hadn't meant to kill the ambassador, or to cause the destruction of the courthouse, but she had certainly intended to cause harm, to hurt, to inspire fear in Naji. She had been reckless and malicious and now a man was dead at her hands, and so many people were injured." (Also for Giorgina it really came out of nowhere, just like her powers, when the plot needed it. It could've been a festering thing during the whole book, instead she was bland for 90% of it and then suddenly overly powerful with no training).

In conclusion, this book fell short of expectations on multiple fronts. While it may appeal to some, especially those not seeking depth or complexity, I cannot recommend it and most likely won’t be reading book 2. There are better-written books by POC authors dealing with similar themes.

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mamaowlbear's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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alicelalicon's review against another edition

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challenging emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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fromjuliereads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I have too many thoughts so will update with a review later.

My biggest thought right now: not sure why the magic system was literally lifted out of Avatar the Last Airbender with the only change being "bending" called "weaving" instead...

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ender24's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional informative mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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teatowel's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I just couldn't help comparing this book to Avatar the Last Airbender. The setting, so oppressive towards women and LGBTQ+, made it hard for me to get into this book. It just made me sad whenever I read, but towards the last hundred pages the pace picked up.

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incipientdreamer's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Buckle up everyone, because this is going to be a loong review. This book fueled my feminist rage and I was in a constantly ranty mode while reading this. A phenomenal debut; I cannot wait to read the sequel after that cliffhanger of an ending!

The Daughters of Izdihar was everything I wanted by a novel marketed as "two women's quest to fight for women's rights in an Egypt-inspired world with elemental magic". I have read a couple of fantasy books that tackle sexism on a large scale, centring on a group of women fighting for their basic human rights, and while I usually enjoy most of them, The Daughters of Izdihar hits home more than those other books. Part of the reason might be because the world feels so real and close to me. I grew up in a conservative South Asian Muslim country where religious dogma and extremism meant that women were treated as sub-human creatures. A lot of the struggles depicted in Elsbai's book are still rampant/normalized in countries such as my own. Not to mention the feminist revolution taking place in Iran is eerily similar to how the Daughters are treated in this book. Elsbai shows us the ugly truth of the patriarchal society we live in, a place where women are denied the right to vote, go out on their own, sign legal documents, and not be allowed to pursue education. This is the reality faced by women and young girls in Afghanistan and Saudia Arabia. Women who dare to speak out are jailed and beaten and abused.

Both of Elsbai's leading characters are unique perspectives on how sexism affects women differently depending on their social class. Nehal, a wealthy sheltered woman, who doesn't really care about the consequences of her actions because she has her wealth and privilege to fall back on is a study of how most rich women might not care about misogyny in society because they are so sheltered. Meanwhile, Giorgina coming from a poor household, and having no security in life has a more muted or hesitant perspective in fighting for her rights. Not to mention the numerous other members of the Daughters who each have their own circumstances and choose to fight their battles accordingly. I feel like depictions like this, show that there is no such thing as a bad feminist.

I loved the character development of both characters, how Nehal eventually opens her eyes to injustice, and how Giorgina finally gains the courage to live her own life, by stepping out of the shadow cast by her controlling father. Another thing I found interesting was how Nico, Giorgina's love interest was shown to be a very passive person when it came to matters that did not affect him that deeply. It showed the lack of initiative by many men who claim to be "allies".

This book is also unapologetically queer which given the community it's set in, hits painfully home for me. The writing is nothing extraordinary but for a debut book, I would say it's still pretty good given other recent debuts. The worldbuilding is lush and you can see the author's love for her culture in the way she describes the foods and architecture. The magic system is very Avatar-style elemental magic, and I'm excited to learn more about Nehal and Giorgina's growing powers in book two.

The Daughters of Izdihar takes the patriarchy and rips it to shreds. We desperately need more WOC writing books about feminism because they shed light on how underprivileged women in underdeveloped countries are still suffering. Unfortunately, the racist bias in the publishing industry is obvious, given the lack of marketing this book had. Seems like people only care about domestic violence when Collen Hoover rights about it...

Thank you to Netgalley and Little Brown Book Group for sending me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own

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