#literally ecstatic

If you guys haven’t heard of it yet, check out Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton. It’s a story set in a fictional Middle East or Northern Sahara and centers around a poor sharpshooter girl and a foreigner from fictional China wanted for treason. They’re running from the Sultan’s army and fight in this revolution and all that stuff. But the best part is that it incorporates a slight element of magic in the story. Just enough to make it seem plausible, and goddam I just find it so refreshing from the 3 million dystopian YA novels out there where a girl is chosen, sorted and somehow becomes the strongest fucking character overnight, where every word written is with doom or some shit.

If you read the Bartimaeus series by Jonathan Stroud, especially The Ring of Solomon, you’ll love this book. It incorporates the old stories about Djinni and immortal beings of fire, and also about the Sultan’s politics and white invaders from the North. It actually even reminds me of Eragon in a way, but brilliantly written. The world and character building is fantastic, and you can’t help but love the main character, Amani Al’Hiza who escapes oppression and fights for her own freedom. And the foreigner she travels with, Jin. Not a lot of stories are written with a brown girl and a asian guy as the main characters and this is a great fucking book too. The writing style starts out slightly choppy and tense, and there isn’t too much emphasis on long-winded existential crises or whatever nonsense I can’t stand anymore in YA books. But the plot moves forward at an incredible pace, the characters are fleshed out beautifully, from cameo characters to our protagonists, and have I mentioned the world-building?

//BURSTS THROUGH WALL//