A review by angelreads
And I Darken by Kiersten White
4.0
This reivew and more can see seen at Angel Reads
I received an e-arc of And I Darken by Kiersten White from Penguin Random House via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, this has in no way influenced my thoughts and feelings about the book.
When I heard And I Darken I knew that I had to read it. A book set in an ancient country is always a plus for me. Then add a gender switch, so that we have a female Vlad the Impaler; yes please.
And I Darken follows siblings Lada and Radu as they try to survive in a cold and brutal world.
Lada was quite interesting, she is very brutal and has little to no remorse. Sometimes it was hard to connect with her nevertheless, I do understand why she was that way. She does have quite a bit of trust issues, but again the world she lives in; explains it all. Lada also doesn’t form relationships well, even with her own brother however, let’s just say that her father wasn’t the best in the world.
Radu on what a special snowflake. I wanted to cuddle him and make him my best friend. He has this nature about this that he doesn’t want to hurt anyone in a world where anyone wants to hurt everyone. He does become stronger throughout the novel, but at what cost?
Mehmend was very into his religion and that contributed to his character and how he saw the world quite a bit. He also has this nature about him, which was intriguing. He wants to be friends with Lada and Radu. However, there were things later in the novel that he did, that I didn’t like at all. It was heartbreaking.
The romance in And I Darken was problematic and quite a mess. There was a love triangle, of sorts. With other people jumping in between and I am not the biggest fan of them. So that kind of was a downfall for me.
This wasn’t just a romance between 3 people, but two siblings loving the same person – And I don’t know who deserved it more. They all had their issues and betrayed each other in so many different ways. There was no honesty and it did get on my nerves sometimes.
The relationship between Lada and Radu was complicated. They never trusted each other, yet they were always there for each other. They never really loved each other, but they still care. Sometimes I wasn’t a big fan of the way that they treated each other. Though I did like it because I haven’t seen it before. It was tense from the get go and that played out throughout And I Darken.
The world of And I Darken is very interesting. It’s complex, but understandable. It’s kinds of base on the Ottoman Empire, but not. It was captivating and very different. The world building well thought out however, if people are not all that familiar with the history it might have been better to explain how everything ‘look’ landscape and city wise.
I loved that the characters were diverse in many ways from ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation. It was also fascinating to see Islam in a fantasy/retelling/historical fiction.
And I Darken was also pretty gruesome, there are executions that are described and it’s not one – they are done is some horrible ways. There are some torture scenes, though we don’t ‘see’ these, but we hear them. The world is brutal – very much like the ancient countries.
Nevertheless I did have a problem with the pace of And I Darken. I felt that the plot was quite slow and nothing happened at all for a lot of the book - this could be hard for some people; but, I was immersed into the world that it didn’t bother me too much. This isn’t saying that things don’t happen – because there is a lot of shit that goes down. I felt that And I Darken was an introduction into the world and characters.
And I Darken tells a story of the lengths people would go to for love, approval and just the thought of being forgotten. It was captivating and dropped you into a vivid and brutal world that you might not want to get out off.
I received an e-arc of And I Darken by Kiersten White from Penguin Random House via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, this has in no way influenced my thoughts and feelings about the book.
When I heard And I Darken I knew that I had to read it. A book set in an ancient country is always a plus for me. Then add a gender switch, so that we have a female Vlad the Impaler; yes please.
And I Darken follows siblings Lada and Radu as they try to survive in a cold and brutal world.
Lada was quite interesting, she is very brutal and has little to no remorse. Sometimes it was hard to connect with her nevertheless, I do understand why she was that way. She does have quite a bit of trust issues, but again the world she lives in; explains it all. Lada also doesn’t form relationships well, even with her own brother however, let’s just say that her father wasn’t the best in the world.
Radu on what a special snowflake. I wanted to cuddle him and make him my best friend. He has this nature about this that he doesn’t want to hurt anyone in a world where anyone wants to hurt everyone. He does become stronger throughout the novel, but at what cost?
Mehmend was very into his religion and that contributed to his character and how he saw the world quite a bit. He also has this nature about him, which was intriguing. He wants to be friends with Lada and Radu. However, there were things later in the novel that he did, that I didn’t like at all. It was heartbreaking.
The romance in And I Darken was problematic and quite a mess. There was a love triangle, of sorts. With other people jumping in between and I am not the biggest fan of them. So that kind of was a downfall for me.
This wasn’t just a romance between 3 people, but two siblings loving the same person – And I don’t know who deserved it more. They all had their issues and betrayed each other in so many different ways. There was no honesty and it did get on my nerves sometimes.
The relationship between Lada and Radu was complicated. They never trusted each other, yet they were always there for each other. They never really loved each other, but they still care. Sometimes I wasn’t a big fan of the way that they treated each other. Though I did like it because I haven’t seen it before. It was tense from the get go and that played out throughout And I Darken.
The world of And I Darken is very interesting. It’s complex, but understandable. It’s kinds of base on the Ottoman Empire, but not. It was captivating and very different. The world building well thought out however, if people are not all that familiar with the history it might have been better to explain how everything ‘look’ landscape and city wise.
I loved that the characters were diverse in many ways from ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation. It was also fascinating to see Islam in a fantasy/retelling/historical fiction.
And I Darken was also pretty gruesome, there are executions that are described and it’s not one – they are done is some horrible ways. There are some torture scenes, though we don’t ‘see’ these, but we hear them. The world is brutal – very much like the ancient countries.
Nevertheless I did have a problem with the pace of And I Darken. I felt that the plot was quite slow and nothing happened at all for a lot of the book - this could be hard for some people; but, I was immersed into the world that it didn’t bother me too much. This isn’t saying that things don’t happen – because there is a lot of shit that goes down. I felt that And I Darken was an introduction into the world and characters.
And I Darken tells a story of the lengths people would go to for love, approval and just the thought of being forgotten. It was captivating and dropped you into a vivid and brutal world that you might not want to get out off.