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michellemaas's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I wanted to love this book more than I did. On paper (excuse the pun) it had everything most fantasy readers would want: an enemies-to-lovers plotline, knife to the thought trope, found family trope, diversity, strong female leads, etc. Even with all that, while still a good book, it just didn't live up to my expectations.
I will start with the most off-putting thing: the Arabic. I would venture as far as to say that there was at least 1 Arabic word per paragraph (though it felt more like 1 per sentence). I'm not claiming to speak 8 languages or read the dictionary for fun, but I am not often stunted by unknown words but I spent this entire book playing the game of "guess that word". I even tried Google Translating some of the words whose definitions I couldn't decipher from the context, but not even Google knew (likely some fantasy made-up word, though I wouldn't know) and it just became too much. I want to put a disclaimer here that the version I read did not have the glossary that the printed books have. I don't know if any of the ebooks have the glossary but mine didn't and I didn't realize that Hafsah Faizal put the glossary on her website as well until I was 90% done with the book already. I love that the author drew from her culture and language to accurately express her thoughts (and as a bilingual person myself, I know that it is all too easy to think/speak in a combination of languages) but when you are marketing to an international market having 1/2 of your book be in a foreign language might not be for the best. That being said, this is a situation that is easily remedied (although slightly more inconvenient) but I still wanted to mention it.
I saw a few comments about the world-building being difficult to understand due to the language and I wanted to clarify that I don't agree with that. The world-building is very similar to that of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (please note I said world-building, not plot. There are no arenas!). There are 5 "districts" (I can't remember the word they used for it in the book) all governed by the Sultan. The Sultan is however a cruel ruler and allows the towns to suffer. We have the badass female MC who goes into the woods to hunt for game and with the help of a friend she provides for her dying town. Everyone is becoming more desperate by the day due to the expanding forest (Arz) and harsh conditions so the MC goes on a quest to a special island to bring back the McGuffin that will save everyone. The Arabic was annoying as someone who doesn't speak it but it doesn't impact your ability to understand the story by any means.
The last issue I want to discuss is that of Zafirah and Nasir's relationship. Mainly the question: love or lust? Nasir is a harashin (assassin) and Zafirah has a huge problem with him being a murderer, especially because he and his friend caused the death of her friend. While this can be said for most enemies-to-lovers relationships what bothers me is how big a deal Zafirah made about it. I am not by any means condoning murder or suggesting she take that information in her stride or anything, but up until like 5 chapters from the end, she was still very hung up on the fact that her love interest is a murderer. Usually, we see the heroin slowly come to terms with her brooding boyfriend's dark past but there wasn't any of that. Zafirah was super bothered by his profession and then suddenly she wasn't because he was hot? I just find it quite annoying that the author made such a big deal of how opposed she was to Nasir's past only to not explore how she came to terms with it. I realize this will likely be addressed in the sequel, but I'm not reviewing the sequel right now so I wanted to get it off my chest.
Though my review was a little harsh, I still really enjoyed this book and wanted to end off by praising Hafsah Faizal for diversifying the pool. Quite a few of the situations in the book were inspired by the Arabian culture and it was cool to read about characters who didn't fit the cookie-cutter fantasy novel mold. Furthermore, this was great work considering that this was her first book and I can't wait to see where her career goes from here!
I will start with the most off-putting thing: the Arabic. I would venture as far as to say that there was at least 1 Arabic word per paragraph (though it felt more like 1 per sentence). I'm not claiming to speak 8 languages or read the dictionary for fun, but I am not often stunted by unknown words but I spent this entire book playing the game of "guess that word". I even tried Google Translating some of the words whose definitions I couldn't decipher from the context, but not even Google knew (likely some fantasy made-up word, though I wouldn't know) and it just became too much. I want to put a disclaimer here that the version I read did not have the glossary that the printed books have. I don't know if any of the ebooks have the glossary but mine didn't and I didn't realize that Hafsah Faizal put the glossary on her website as well until I was 90% done with the book already. I love that the author drew from her culture and language to accurately express her thoughts (and as a bilingual person myself, I know that it is all too easy to think/speak in a combination of languages) but when you are marketing to an international market having 1/2 of your book be in a foreign language might not be for the best. That being said, this is a situation that is easily remedied (although slightly more inconvenient) but I still wanted to mention it.
I saw a few comments about the world-building being difficult to understand due to the language and I wanted to clarify that I don't agree with that. The world-building is very similar to that of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (please note I said world-building, not plot. There are no arenas!). There are 5 "districts" (I can't remember the word they used for it in the book) all governed by the Sultan. The Sultan is however a cruel ruler and allows the towns to suffer. We have the badass female MC who goes into the woods to hunt for game and with the help of a friend she provides for her dying town. Everyone is becoming more desperate by the day due to the expanding forest (Arz) and harsh conditions so the MC goes on a quest to a special island to bring back the McGuffin that will save everyone. The Arabic was annoying as someone who doesn't speak it but it doesn't impact your ability to understand the story by any means.
The last issue I want to discuss is that of Zafirah and Nasir's relationship. Mainly the question: love or lust? Nasir is a harashin (assassin) and Zafirah has a huge problem with him being a murderer, especially because he and his friend caused the death of her friend. While this can be said for most enemies-to-lovers relationships what bothers me is how big a deal Zafirah made about it. I am not by any means condoning murder or suggesting she take that information in her stride or anything, but up until like 5 chapters from the end, she was still very hung up on the fact that her love interest is a murderer. Usually, we see the heroin slowly come to terms with her brooding boyfriend's dark past but there wasn't any of that. Zafirah was super bothered by his profession and then suddenly she wasn't because he was hot? I just find it quite annoying that the author made such a big deal of how opposed she was to Nasir's past only to not explore how she came to terms with it. I realize this will likely be addressed in the sequel, but I'm not reviewing the sequel right now so I wanted to get it off my chest.
Though my review was a little harsh, I still really enjoyed this book and wanted to end off by praising Hafsah Faizal for diversifying the pool. Quite a few of the situations in the book were inspired by the Arabian culture and it was cool to read about characters who didn't fit the cookie-cutter fantasy novel mold. Furthermore, this was great work considering that this was her first book and I can't wait to see where her career goes from here!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Blood
Minor: Animal death, Slavery, and Trafficking
namaya's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
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? It's complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse and Emotional abuse
Minor: Slavery, Trafficking, and Murder