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A review by sunnybandit
Climbing the Date Palm by Shira Glassman
5.0
What I loved:
Firstly, the worldbuilding. LOVE IT. I will freely admit that I know very little about Jewish culture, but it infuses the fantasy setting in the Mangoverse series and I can’t get enough. I am used to a fantasy diet of “standard fantasy setting” - pseudomedieval European style places - and the kingdom of Perach is a breath of fresh air and sunshine in my TBR pile. Seriously, I hope Shira Glassman carries on writing these books for years and years and years.
Second - I still love Shulamit and her dietary issues. I had a tiny fear, after they were covered so well and in detail in ‘The Second Mango’ that they might disappear from the sequel. Reading this character means a lot to me, due to my own food intolerances - I’ve never read a main character (or come to think of it a secondary character) who deals with the same as I do. My fears were (thankfully) unfounded - while Shulamit’s diet is not as heavily featured in this book, it still pops up now and again (as does her sweetheart’s care and compassion around these issues, which just makes me melt!).
Third - positive bi representation. A novel that deals with biphobia in a very honest way, but celebrates positive (and different) representations of bi characters. After reading what I felt was less good bi rep recently, I needed Prince Kaveh and Akiva in my life.
What I wanted: I’m struggling to think of anything, to be honest. The mangoverse books are fluffy adventures - that’s what I wanted, and the author delivered (again).
What it made me want to read next? More from Shira Glassman, certainly.
Firstly, the worldbuilding. LOVE IT. I will freely admit that I know very little about Jewish culture, but it infuses the fantasy setting in the Mangoverse series and I can’t get enough. I am used to a fantasy diet of “standard fantasy setting” - pseudomedieval European style places - and the kingdom of Perach is a breath of fresh air and sunshine in my TBR pile. Seriously, I hope Shira Glassman carries on writing these books for years and years and years.
Second - I still love Shulamit and her dietary issues. I had a tiny fear, after they were covered so well and in detail in ‘The Second Mango’ that they might disappear from the sequel. Reading this character means a lot to me, due to my own food intolerances - I’ve never read a main character (or come to think of it a secondary character) who deals with the same as I do. My fears were (thankfully) unfounded - while Shulamit’s diet is not as heavily featured in this book, it still pops up now and again (as does her sweetheart’s care and compassion around these issues, which just makes me melt!).
Third - positive bi representation. A novel that deals with biphobia in a very honest way, but celebrates positive (and different) representations of bi characters. After reading what I felt was less good bi rep recently, I needed Prince Kaveh and Akiva in my life.
What I wanted: I’m struggling to think of anything, to be honest. The mangoverse books are fluffy adventures - that’s what I wanted, and the author delivered (again).
What it made me want to read next? More from Shira Glassman, certainly.