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A review by bookishmillennial
The Daughters of Izdihar by Hadeer Elsbai
adventurous
emotional
reflective
sad
disclaimer: I don’t really give starred reviews. I hope my reviews provide enough information to let you know if a book is for you or not. Find me here: https://linktr.ee/bookishmillennial
The fantasy worldbuilding totally reminded me of Avatar: The Last Airbender (only because of recency bias, I just watched the new Netflix TV show lol), but I recognize that not every world built upon elements like earth, air, fire and water are only derivative of ATLA. ATLA does not own the copyright and was not the first to do that, I know that! I'm just saying the "weaving" reminded me of it, that's all!
Anyway, I do think the messaging of this women's suffrage movement was extremely heavy handed. Most of the examples of the sexism were overtly sexist and loudly misogynistic. Not too many subdued or covert behaviors displayed, which are sometimes helpful to illustrate too, to show how the patriarchy operates in such insidious ways! However, I didn't find the on-the-nose telling to be exhausting or unnecessary. We need things spelled out sometimes, and that's okay!
This book sets up Nehal and Giorgina's stories (they act a bit like foils against each other) perfectly for the next book in the duology, which I am excited to read! I have the arc so I can't wait to see how this all wraps up!
The fantasy worldbuilding totally reminded me of Avatar: The Last Airbender (only because of recency bias, I just watched the new Netflix TV show lol), but I recognize that not every world built upon elements like earth, air, fire and water are only derivative of ATLA. ATLA does not own the copyright and was not the first to do that, I know that! I'm just saying the "weaving" reminded me of it, that's all!
Anyway, I do think the messaging of this women's suffrage movement was extremely heavy handed. Most of the examples of the sexism were overtly sexist and loudly misogynistic. Not too many subdued or covert behaviors displayed, which are sometimes helpful to illustrate too, to show how the patriarchy operates in such insidious ways! However, I didn't find the on-the-nose telling to be exhausting or unnecessary. We need things spelled out sometimes, and that's okay!
This book sets up Nehal and Giorgina's stories (they act a bit like foils against each other) perfectly for the next book in the duology, which I am excited to read! I have the arc so I can't wait to see how this all wraps up!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Police brutality, and War
Moderate: Abortion and Sexual harassment