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A review by shadon
Rebel of Fire and Flight by Aneesa Marufu
adventurous
dark
reflective
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
2.5
I picked up this book on a whim, solely because a brown-skinned hijabi is on a gorgeous purple cover. It caught my eye immediately. I didn't bother to read the plot, I just glanced at it and bought it. I thought I would dislike this book more than I did. I hated and loved an equal amount of things, but they balanced out in the end.
I like the writing, It's quick and fast-paced and while it's simplistic, that works for the better most of the time. It was a very easy read and I flew through it. I like the glimpses of the world and the setting we got, especially the hot-air balloons which you can tell was the author's favorite thing to write about. I mostly liked our two main characters, though neither of them were very good people and were deeply flawed. Their friendship was sweet and I enjoyed their interactions, and Jacob's story was at least somewhat compelling. Khadija felt more stagnant, she doesn't do much and most things manage to go her way. She faces very little challenge and never goes through the complex struggles that Jacob does. I loved the first two chapters, especially Khadija's which were never topped. I thought the action scenes were good, the conflict and pace kept me reading and I mostly finished because I wanted to know how it would end.
Okay, I think the basis of this book is lame. What if white people experienced racism? :O No way! I know the point was to frame it the other way to highlight just how awful (and ridiculous? absurd?) it is in the "real world," but whenever it was discussed, I just felt myself cringing or rolling my eyes. I couldn't take it seriously when the 'hari' were telling the brown-skinned, head-scarf-wearing people they couldn't understand prejudice or racism. That they were never oppressed so they couldn't understand. What? Whose idea was that and why did it go beyond a first draft?
The worldbuilding ranges from barebones to awful. There is no map and nothing is described once and beyond a basic level. The 'hari' are oppressed because they tried to invade and conquer Ghadea. Okay? How long ago was that? How were they defeated beyond the sun beating them down and being unsuited to the environment? Who segregated them into slums? What stopped them from going home? Nothing is told to us after the initial explanation. The brown people hate the white people, they do awful things to them and that's that. No more questions and no more context.
Every character, outside of our main characters and like 2 other people is one-dimensional, stereotypical, and flat. I couldn't describe any of them and I just finished reading the book. Every brown Ghadean is just a stereotype of a man believing that women should stay invisible in their bedroom, be quiet, have children, and die. The 'hari' are granted far more nuance. There are very few exceptions to this! And the ones that we get have three pages of screen time and two sentences of dialogue. I thought the main romantic relationship was okay, but it felt incredibly unnecessary. It felt like the author had no idea what to do to add more time and just shoved it in there. I didn't hate it, but did we need to have it at all? There were 3 chapters of bonding and then they just kissed. I guess?
The ending is also rushed. There is no resolution to anything, most people are still prejudiced, and nothing is resolved. Overall I think this started well but mellowed out in the middle, ran toward an unearned finishing line and fell flat on its face. More time needed to be spent on literally every aspect as nothing felt like it had much time to breathe.
I like the writing, It's quick and fast-paced and while it's simplistic, that works for the better most of the time. It was a very easy read and I flew through it. I like the glimpses of the world and the setting we got, especially the hot-air balloons which you can tell was the author's favorite thing to write about. I mostly liked our two main characters, though neither of them were very good people and were deeply flawed. Their friendship was sweet and I enjoyed their interactions, and Jacob's story was at least somewhat compelling. Khadija felt more stagnant, she doesn't do much and most things manage to go her way. She faces very little challenge and never goes through the complex struggles that Jacob does. I loved the first two chapters, especially Khadija's which were never topped. I thought the action scenes were good, the conflict and pace kept me reading and I mostly finished because I wanted to know how it would end.
Okay, I think the basis of this book is lame. What if white people experienced racism? :O No way! I know the point was to frame it the other way to highlight just how awful (and ridiculous? absurd?) it is in the "real world," but whenever it was discussed, I just felt myself cringing or rolling my eyes. I couldn't take it seriously when the 'hari' were telling the brown-skinned, head-scarf-wearing people they couldn't understand prejudice or racism. That they were never oppressed so they couldn't understand. What? Whose idea was that and why did it go beyond a first draft?
The worldbuilding ranges from barebones to awful. There is no map and nothing is described once and beyond a basic level. The 'hari' are oppressed because they tried to invade and conquer Ghadea. Okay? How long ago was that? How were they defeated beyond the sun beating them down and being unsuited to the environment? Who segregated them into slums? What stopped them from going home? Nothing is told to us after the initial explanation. The brown people hate the white people, they do awful things to them and that's that. No more questions and no more context.
Every character, outside of our main characters and like 2 other people is one-dimensional, stereotypical, and flat. I couldn't describe any of them and I just finished reading the book. Every brown Ghadean is just a stereotype of a man believing that women should stay invisible in their bedroom, be quiet, have children, and die. The 'hari' are granted far more nuance. There are very few exceptions to this! And the ones that we get have three pages of screen time and two sentences of dialogue. I thought the main romantic relationship was okay, but it felt incredibly unnecessary. It felt like the author had no idea what to do to add more time and just shoved it in there. I didn't hate it, but did we need to have it at all? There were 3 chapters of bonding and then they just kissed. I guess?
The ending is also rushed. There is no resolution to anything, most people are still prejudiced, and nothing is resolved. Overall I think this started well but mellowed out in the middle, ran toward an unearned finishing line and fell flat on its face. More time needed to be spent on literally every aspect as nothing felt like it had much time to breathe.