Q U I C K S T A T S
Characters-⭐⭐
Setting-⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Writing style-⭐. 5
Overall rating- ⭐⭐⭐
// Content Warning: Blood / Death / Violence //
Publisher: Hyperion
Age rating: 14+
Genre(s): Fantasy
Pub date: October 6th 2015
P R E M I S E
Lo-Melkhiin killed three hundred girls before he came to her village, looking for a wife. When she sees the dust cloud on the horizon, she knows he has arrived. She knows he will want the loveliest girl: her sister. She vows she will not let her be next.
And so she is taken in her sister’s place, and she believes death will soon follow. Lo-Melkhiin’s court is a dangerous palace filled with pretty things: intricate statues with wretched eyes, exquisite threads to weave the most beautiful garments. She sees everything as if for the last time. But the first sun rises and sets, and she is not dead. Night after night, Lo-Melkhiin comes to her and listens to the stories she tells, and day after day she is awakened by the sunrise. Exploring the palace, she begins to unlock years of fear that have tormented and silenced a kingdom. Lo-Melkhiin was not always a cruel ruler. Something went wrong.
Far away, in their village, her sister is mourning. Through her pain, she calls upon the desert winds, conjuring a subtle unseen magic, and something besides death stirs the air.
Back at the palace, the words she speaks to Lo-Melkhiin every night are given a strange life of their own. Little things, at first: a dress from home, a vision of her sister. With each tale she spins, her power grows. Soon she dreams of bigger, more terrible magic: power enough to save a king, if she can put an end to the rule of a monster.
M Y R E V I E W
Welcome to another episode of Maryam reading random books instead of sleeping and today we have a king shahryar retelling portrayed similarly to The Wrath and the Dawn except we get POVs from the other force.
Obvious details aside (she takes her sister's place to play the ultimate sacrifice blah blah he marries her anyway blah blah she's the only wife who had lived longer than the others), I don't think we ever discover what her name was. Neither do we find her sister's, brothers' and parents' names. While this has received a lot of criticism, I believe the author had chosen to done this deliberately in order to show the status difference between the citizens and the king. Even his mother is addressed as 'mother' or 'the king's mother' instead of the title she deserves.
All praise aside, I didn't enjoy the long observations and unnecessary speeches which included terms such as 'father's father's father.' Bestie, that's literally your great-grandfather. Please just say great-grandfather. Don't forget the 3-page long descriptions of her sister which reduced me to tears. C'mon girl, just say your sister is nice and move on.
Again, the characters were literally getting on my nerves and made me lose faith in humanity, and as usual, I didn't understand the plot twist and now that I say it out loud, I really need to get my brain checked.
T R O P E S
Arranged marriage
R E P R E S E N T A T I O N
Arabic main and side characters
S I M I L A R B O O K S
The Wrath and the Dawn by Renée Ahdieh
Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton
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