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ladybeldaran's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
The world is well rooted in SWANA (South West Asia, North Africa) elements, which gives it a great deal of life and authenticity. The magic system is fun and will appeal to anyone who enjoys "elemental" magic.
The characters were perfectly selected as a lens to view the Daughters of Izdihar (the suffrage organization) through. I also particularly enjoyed the way the author wrote the responses of the various men in the story to the Daughters.
I look forward to the second book in the planned duology!
More details about content warnings: this book goes over a host of issues that women face, many of which can be traumatic for women who have experienced them. Among these are abortion, purity tests (and the sexual violation associated with them), sex shaming, and homophobia. The book does not treat them flippantly, but nor does it linger on them in graphic detail. At all times, the book condemns these things. The book deals honestly with very heavy topics, but it isn't interested in holding them up as entertainment.
Graphic: Misogyny and Sexism
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Abortion, and Murder
Minor: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Fire/Fire injury
sammy_nor's review against another edition
3.5
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, and Police brutality
Moderate: Grief and Classism
Minor: Homophobia
quinnyquinnquinn's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Police brutality, and Classism
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Medical trauma, Murder, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Child abuse, Confinement, Grief, Abortion, and Alcohol
ellieanor's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Sexism, Sexual assault, and Police brutality
Moderate: Violence and Sexual harassment
fromjuliereads's review against another edition
- 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
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...
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Police brutality, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Violence, Grief, Stalking, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
internationalreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Infidelity, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Abortion
cacole's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Sexism
Moderate: Death, Police brutality, Abortion, Murder, and Classism
Minor: Homophobia
kefeshe's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, and Police brutality
Minor: Homophobia and Abortion
ender24's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
tigger89's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
I'll start with what I liked. The setting was gorgeous, and I loved how familiar locations(the map is basically northern Africa and the Mediterranean rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise) and cultures were re-imagined into this fantasy world. This is the second fantasy version of Egypt I've read about recently(the first being P. Djèlí Clark's A Master of Djinn), and of the two it's my favorite setting. I did have to read with google up on my phone to check terminology frequently, but it wasn't any more bother than flipping back to a glossary, which is a familiar exercise for any fantasy reader. I also loved the examination of how social standing grants privilege, particularly in regard to putting yourself and others at risk in the context of protest and activism.
I liked the magic system — divided by element into Earthweaving, Waterweaving, Airweaving, and Fireweaving — well enough, but as a long-time fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender I couldn't help but notice that Weaving was almost exactly Bending. Seriously. You could do a find-replace, that's how close it is. So no wonder I thought it was cool, because I really like A:TLA's magic system. I did appreciate how in Daughters of Izdihar the type of powers weren't determined by character origin, so you weren't constrained to weaving a certain element just because of who your parents were.
Moving on to what I was less fond of, right off the bat I felt that the writing style was a bit odd. I felt like things were moving along at a fast clip, but like I was being told about them rather than getting a chance to truly appreciate them alongside the characters. I noticed this strongly for the first several chapters, but I can't tell if this dropped off as the story got into full swing or if I just got used to it. I also felt that some of the dialogue was anachronistic. The story had a period fantasy feel to it, not medieval but not modern either, but every so often a character would swear like they were in the 21st century. It knocked me out of my immersion every time that happened.
And now we get to the thing I really didn't like. I love a good shades of gray story, where the morals aren't clear and sometimes the ends have to justify the means, but in order to pull this off the shades of gray have to be explored in the story. In this book, the protagonists would do questionable things in the pursuit of good over and over again, and essentially shrug off any criticism. It seemed as if the audience was meant to nod along with them as the objecting characters were dismissed. Particularly inexcusable was the treatment of Nico. After how Nehal treated him in the first half of the book, particularly her dismissal of his obvious distress, I found it next to impossible to like her as a character. And then he just got over it, like it had never happened, and the story didn't bother to examine this at all or act like it was anything less than entirely appropriate.
I grew up around a particularly toxic type of feminism that, frankly, treated it as amusing when women hurt men, like it was some kind of karmic payback. It took me longer than I care to admit to realize how horrible this was, and to distance myself from it. The feminism elements of this story remind me very strongly of something I would've thought was cool back when I still thought that was positive empowerment for women. As I said at the beginning of this(long, sorry) review, it's entirely possible that the author is aware of all these things and intends to wrap them up in the second book. But all I have in front of me is the first book, and given the lack of any kind of reflection on or complex consideration of these themes(in contrast to the themes of class and privilege, which were handled very well), I'm not holding out much hope that they'll be treated any better in the second half of the story.
Graphic: Death and Police brutality
Moderate: Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, and Alcohol
Minor: Abortion and Classism
There's a somewhat explicit scene where the point of view character undergoes a virginity check. This is depicted as violating.