A review by casey_h
A Psalm of Storms and Silence by Roseanne A. Brown

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective tense fast-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? No

5.0

This duology is one of the best duologies or series that I've read in such a long time. The cities and settings were so tangible and vivid, I could feel the wind whipping sand in my face and the earthquakes shaking the ground beneath my feet (or rather beneath my couch let's be real lol). This world was just so lush, full, and vibrant I'm going to miss it for days to come. This duology was so much more than the love story the description set it out to be, and honestly I'd say the romance is more secondary to everything else happening - the racism and power struggles Malik and his sisters face all the time, the political coup and manipulations a certain someone so expertly weaves throughout the courts, the struggles Malik faces with his anxieties and the manipulation he faces from other people, the desperate quest Karina is on to find an solution to the horrors coming at their world without her literally DYING for it. This was fantastic.

And don't get me started on the characters! Everyone had such an intense and unique personality that they felt like real, tangible people. Every person had their own strengths, weaknesses, and traumas to heal from and they were just so human and relatable. I just want to give Malik a hug :(

The representation as well is fantastic, and gets much more nuanced in this book than the first, especially the LGBTQ+ rep. The mental health rep was a lot deeper and more intense in this one too.

All in all, fantastic, I loved it so much, I'm sad it's over, and I hope that this DOES get made into a tv series at some point still bc it would be AMAZING! 
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