#heretherebebookreviews

[bookbeani]

A Girl Like That by Tanaz Bhathena

“Abdullah had told me about such girls. NATO, he called them. No action, talk only. The ones who kissed like whores and then cried like virgins.”

Goodreads Summary: Sixteen-year-old Zarin Wadia is many things: a bright and vivacious student, an orphan, a risk taker. She’s also the kind of girl that parents warn their kids to stay away from: a troublemaker whose many romances are the subject of endless gossip at school. You don't want to get involved with a girl like that, they say. So how is it that eighteen-year-old Porus Dumasia has only ever had eyes for her? And how did Zarin and Porus end up dead in a car together, crashed on the side of a highway in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia? When the religious police arrive on the scene, everything everyone thought they knew about Zarin is questioned. And as her story is pieced together, told through multiple perspectives, it becomes clear that she was far more than just a girl like that.

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

My Thoughts: This is officially the worst book I’ve read, ever, which is not something I say lightly. It’s a contemporary young adult novel set in Saudi Arabia that’s supposedly meant to bravely expose rape culture, but all it does is expose the author’s own islamophobia and girl-on-girl hate. Now, it’s a subtle islamophobia, and I suppose a subtle hate if you’re not looking for it, and maybe that’s why it’s gone largely unnoticed so far. But if anything, it’s more glaringly harmful for its subtlety. Let me take you on a tour through this novel, across the dozens upon dozens of quotes and bookmarked pages, and maybe I’ll be able to make myself a little more clear.

Let’s begin with the fact that Tanaz Bhathena clearly did no research when it came to Islam – which is sort of concerning considering she wrote an entire novel set in an Islamic country.  Oh, sure, it seems she knows lots when it comes to the religious police, throwing around everyone’s favourite word, Sharia law, but the history? Apparently the accurate portrayal of that is beyond her. She seems to know a wonderful amount about bridges in hell and eternal damnation, but when it comes to common burial practices? No, not possible, sorry.

Okay, whatever, these are little things, right? Who cares if she doesn’t know that Muslims don’t get buried in coffins or that the three wise men were indeed Zoroastrian priests, that’s not harmful is it? Well, if only it ended there, I could have forgiven this book its shortcomings and moved on with my life.

Let’s move on to the actual Muslim characters portrayed in the novel, shall we? The main character, Zarin, is Zoroastrian, as is the love interest, Porus. The main Muslim characters you see throughout the novel are 1) the religious police 2) Mishal’s family and 3) Farhan’s family. And as far as fucked up representations go, these three really take the cake.  

The religious police: do I really need to say much about them? It seems pretty self-explanatory. They’re a constant threat lurking throughout the novel – reminders that girls must cover up their hair, that unchaperoned interactions between unrelated boys and girls are Not Allowed (funny, that this is only mentioned when Zarin is with other boys, but never when she’s with Perfect Porus), and… that’s pretty much it. Is there any talk of the Muslims who are oppressed by the religious police for their beliefs? The fact that the religious police don’t follow any religion, and are pretty much one step short of being ISIS? Of course not, that would be an almost… positive and accurate portrayal of Islam wouldn’t it? And we can’t have that, obviously. But, ultimately, the religious police are a background thing – they don’t really take centre stage in this novel. That’s where the two families come in.

Enter: the two Muslim families closest to the heart of the story. In one, you’ve got a man who abandoned his first wife for a second, because polygamy is a totally common and normal thing (spoiler: it’s not). You have Mishal, a sixteen-year-old girl whose marriage prospects are “limited to creepy grooms nearly twice or thrice [her] age.” (spoiler: this is also not common, despite what every wonderful portrayal of the middle east would have you think). Mishal, whose brother tells her, after his friend attempts to assault her, “Have you learned nothing about men and the necessity of a proper hijab? Or did you want his attention?”. A brother who says that “A woman’s honor is like a tightly wrapped sweet. If you unwrap a sweet and leave it lying around, you expose it to everything out there. If, by accident, it falls into the dirt – tell me, Mishal, will anyone want to eat it?” Mishal, who lives in a society that believes that sex is something that a girl should “[suffer] through like a proper virgin.” (spoiler: also not true). All this, while Abdullah reads porn magazines, smokes, dates multiple girls, and Mishal the prude watches, scandalized. Not to mention the fact that since their father moved out to live with his new wife, he’s legally the “guardian of the household” and this is something that’s not questioned, even once, by anyone. What a great, wonderful, functional family, right? What a fantastically positive portrayal. But it gets worse.

Farhan’s family is where things start to get properly disgusting. How is it first introduced? Here are the actual first lines of Farhan’s point of view in the entire book, no joke: “They were going at it like dogs, Abba and the maid. My father, who my mother said I would look like when I got older – tall, dark, and handsome – banging the maid so hard that he banged the headboard against the wall and left a mark in the paint.” Yeah, a great start, isn’t it? So aside from a cheating father (because the only two Muslim fathers portrayed in the novel have to be these disgusting men who can’t possibly have a healthy relationship with a single wife, it’s impossible), you have the disgustingness that is Farhan himself. Farhan, who’s most renowned as being the school heartthrob. But unlike your usual YA contemporary heartthrob, because all these characters are Muslim, and thus must be degenerate somehow, right, this one drugs girls to get with them, sexually assaults them, and rapes them. On a regular basis. How wonderful, right?

Thus ends the part where I talk about how terrible each of these characters are, and we can move on to more of the general horrors that make up this book. If my above description hasn’t been clear enough, I’m just going to say it: you have the female characters portrayed as these sexually repressed individuals, completely lacking agency, while pretty much the only reason any of the male characters (aside from Perfect Porus, who wants to get to know Zarin for who she is, like the great non-Muslim guy he is) live is for sex.

In general, this book’s obsession with sex is seriously ridiculous. The entire first third of the novel, the only things that happen are that different people have sex, think about having sex, or judge other people for having sex – that is literally it, I’m not exaggerating in the least. Yes, teenagers are hormonal. Yes, they think about having sex a lot. But that is literally the only thing these characters are characterized by. None of the girls have any hobbies, other than gossiping about boys and hating on other girls (and by other girls I mean Zarin). There is not a single healthy girl-girl relationship in the whole book. In fact, the only relationship in the whole book that can actually be termed healthy is the one between Zarin and Porus. Funny, isn’t it?

There’s a lot more I could go into, honestly – the astonishing relationship between Zarin and her aunt (who started shaming her niece at the age of four for “spreading her legs and sitting like a boy”), the slut-shaming rampant throughout the whole book, the idea that a girl has to bleed when she loses her virginity, the inevitability of arranged marriage for not only Mishal but all the female characters, the objectification of girls for their boobs (seriously, there is a concerning hyperfixation on boobs for some reason, you’d think this was written by a white man because this is almost titting down stairs level boobery), a debate that only seems to show domestic abuse as normalized in this society, and more.

I can hardly begin to explain how damaging something like this is – a book that’s being lauded as this brave exposure of misogyny and rape culture, but is written in such bad taste. The context of this book makes the whole discussion fraught with damaging implications, and the lack of any good, or positive, or normal characters in the whole book to counterbalance all the shitty ones is really inexcusable. 

In conclusion, this book is cancelled. 

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

[bookbeani]

A Whole New World by Liz Braswell

I usually put a quote here, to interest the potential reader in the book, but I refuse to do so here :) 

Goodreads Summary: What if Jafar was the first one to summon the Genie? When Jafar steals the Genie’s lamp, he uses his first two wishes to become sultan and the most powerful sorcerer in the world. Agrabah lives in fear, waiting for his third and final wish.To stop the power-mad ruler, Aladdin and the deposed Princess Jasmine must unite the people of Agrabah in rebellion. But soon their fight for freedom threatens to tear the kingdom apart in a costly civil war. What happens next? A Street Rat becomes a leader. A princess becomes a revolutionary. And readers will never look at the story of Aladdin in the same way again.

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

My Thoughts: This book completely ruined Aladdin for me. Hell, I can't even sing A Whole New World anymore without this book popping into my head and haunting me. Yes, the original Disney movie wasn't perfect. It had its inaccuracies (because, really, where exactly is Agrabah meant to be and which culture is it based on?), its cliches, and its flimsy worldbuilding. But it's Disney. It's a twenty-year-old hour-and-a-half-long movie for kids - the characters are going to be cartoony, the fight scenes aren't going to be super serious, and the villains are going to be slightly ridiculous. A lot of the problems with this book came from the fact that so many of these elements were transferred directly into it, without modifying them a) for the new (longer and altogether different) medium and b) for the different audience. This is a young adult novel - it isn't geared towards palatable consumption for four-year-old kids. And yet the first quarter of the book was pretty much a word-for-word transcription of the movie. Everything felt two-dimensional and scripted, the dialogue coming off as incredibly awkward. "Oh boy, am I glad to see you!" might not sound extremely strange in the context of a Disney movie, but it sure as hell does when you write it down in a book. 

If I could sum up this book in one word, it would be lazy. Aside from the whole the-first-quarter-of-this-book-is-literally-the-first-quarter-of-the-move thing, this book relies so heavily upon tropes and cliches, it wouldn't even be able to stand up on its own without them. And it brings absolutely nothing new to the table. Every single part of this book is something I have seen hundreds upon hundreds of times in other YA novels. Instalove? Check. Royalty in disguise? Check again. Two-dimensional characters who have no personality other than things that are directly related to the plot? Check. Delicate female heroine and muscular hero who comments on said delicacy? Check and check. A completely unexplained magic system with no clear rules other than three things it can't do for absolutely no given reason? Check. Characters literally referring to themselves as, I quote, "the good guys", and the villains as "the bad guys" because how else would the undiscerning reader over the age of two and half really understand? Check. Impromptu revolution against an Evil Sorcerer who is defeated by people who he should logically be able to kill without batting an eye? Quadruple check. Oh, and the Evil Sorcerer's evilness being ascribed to mental illness? Disgusting problematic check. I could go on, you get the point. 

But you know what, I could forgive this book for all these things, just shove it in some dark corner and never think about it again, if it wasn't for the absolute butchering of the worldbuilding, and the blatant lack of research/fucks given that went with it. All through the book, I was scrambling to figure out what culture exactly this was based on, and came to the conclusion that the author herself does not even know. But okay, whatever, I’m nice, I am willing to ignore the fact that the Middle East is treated like one big giant country, because everyone is brown, so all their cultures must be the same, right? It’s been done before (just like everything else in this book), nothing new. But Braswell doesn’t even stick to actual Middle Eastern culture. Two more points, and then I promise this “review” is over and you can go on with your life and never think about this again. 

Point number one: the blatant mixing in of western culture into the book and the complete disregard of her (quite frankly overtired and overused) source material. These two go hand in hand, which is why I’m condensing them into one point. And it all really starts with one thing: a wedding dress. Now let me get this straight, wedding dresses are great things, ubiquitous to many cultures. White wedding dresses, on the other hand, are not. Also, please note my use of the word many. I don’t claim to be an expert on history or anything, but it doesn’t take an expert to know that white wedding dresses are a (quite recent) western tradition, and that they have no place being in this book that supposedly takes place at a time when people can be “as easy to read as a book in Aramaic”. 

But aside from the offending fact that this wedding dress is white (what a quaint symbol for white-washing, huh?), you have the Genie, who claims his own wife wore the exact same wedding dress on their wedding day. Oh, how cute, why would that ever be a problem? I don’t know, maybe because Braswell completely disregards the idea of djinn as another race/species/whatever and turns them into some form of magical human beings, complete with weddings and wedding dresses? I’m not even putting these words into her mouth, she says that. There is literally a part where she describes djinn as humans, but with magic. The Genie and his wife literally look like human beings, except for the fact that their skin is blue and purple, respectively. His wife even has freckles. Freckles. First of all, why would you call it a djinni or a Genie or whatever name you’ve chosen for it (she uses both), if you’re going to make it a creature of your own invention? And a boring-ass creature at that? It’s just, again, lazy – including a fantastical creature with so many fun possibilities for worldbuilding and I-don’t-know-what-else, and then reducing it to a magical human being? What’s wrong with calling it a wizard, huh, if that’s what it is? Because, get this, in the end, the Genie loses his magic and literally because nothing more than a blue-skinned human. Granted, a blue-skinned human with an abnormally long lifespan. But still. Oh, and probably the thing that I am saltiest about in this section of my rant? She doesn’t just include djinn, she includes ghouls. Why am I differentiated the djinn from the ghouls? Because according to Middle Eastern mythology aren’t ghouls a type of djinn? Yes, friend, you are correct, but those aren’t the ghouls that Braswell writes into her novel. She includes the western version of ghouls. You know, those undead creatures? That have nothing to do with djinn? At all? There is some incredible form of irony here, but at this point, I’m just too exhausted to delve deeper into it.

Now, on to point number two: I’m going to be succinct here, and just provide you with a single quote. It is only a single instance of this kind of thing throughout the book, but I think it suffices to drive home the point. You can take it however you will, make your own judgements, I won’t say a thing. Here you are: 

“And where is your headscarf you insolent woman? Go back to the harem where you belong!” 

And that’s my review for A Whole New World. There are dozens of other points I haven’t touched upon, but at this point, I feel like it would just be excessive to include them. My point has been made. I’m not sure if it’s been made well, but it’s been made all the same. 

[bookbeani]

Eragon by Christopher Paolini

“The greatest enemy is one that has nothing to lose.” 

Goodreads Summary: One boy. One dragon. A world of adventure.

When Eragon finds a polished blue stone in the forest, he thinks it is the lucky discovery of a poor farm boy; perhaps it will buy his family meat for the winter. But when the stone brings a dragon hatchling, Eragon realizes he has stumbled upon a legacy nearly as old as the Empire itself.

Overnight his simple life is shattered, and he is thrust into a perilous new world of destiny, magic, and power. With only an ancient sword and the advice of an old storyteller for guidance, Eragon and the fledgling dragon must navigate the dangerous terrain and dark enemies of an Empire ruled by a king whose evil knows no bounds.

Can Eragon take up the mantle of the legendary Dragon Riders? The fate of the Empire may rest in his hands.

Rating: ★★★★☆

My Thoughts: I first read Eragon as a kid and absolutely fell in love with the series. This was a reread for me in which I wanted to see if my perspective had changed, and if I would enjoy it as much this time around. Turns out, my perspective has changed, and the book wasn't as perfect and wonderful as I had originally thought. I think the main difference is that I have read so many more books between then and now that my standards have just gone up. A book that once merited all the stars I could ever give it now warranted less. Now, I think it'll be easier if I broke it down: 

The characters. I hold a certain fondness in my heart for each of the characters, because I loved them so much reading about them the first time around and revisiting them was like revisiting old friends. However, I did find Eragon to be extremely naïve, and a lot of his stupid decisions left me cringing. 

The plot. I think my biggest issue with Eragon was the pacing. A lot less happened in the first book than I remembered (I originally read the first three books back-to-back so I couldn't actually distinctly remember where one ended and the next began). There just aren't a lot of events and a lot of just traveling/nothing happening for the majority of the book that was rather reminiscent of traditional fantasy novels. 

The world-building. I don't know if this is because I already knew the world before reading it this time around, but I felt like the book was very info dump-y. There would be pages and pages of info-dumps cloaked under the guise of Eragon learning about the world around him for the first time. I, for one, wasn't fooled. But, again, it may just be that I felt this way because I was already familiar with the world and everything was already old news.

So, all in all, Eragon was not as great a book as I remember it being, but I still enjoyed it a lot more than I would have if this was my first time reading it, as this book has a huge element of nostalgia associated with it. Despite not objectively being particularly spectacular, this book will always hold a special place in my heart.

[bookbeani]

Mirage by Somaiya Daud

"The blood never dies. The blood never forgets.”

Goodreads Summary: In a star system dominated by the brutal Vathek empire, eighteen-year-old Amani is a dreamer. She dreams of what life was like before the occupation; she dreams of writing poetry like the old-world poems she adores; she dreams of receiving a sign from Dihya that one day, she, too, will have adventure, and travel beyond her isolated moon. But when adventure comes for Amani, it is not what she expects: she is kidnapped by the regime and taken in secret to the royal palace, where she discovers that she is nearly identical to the cruel half-Vathek Princess Maram. The princess is so hated by her conquered people that she requires a body double, someone to appear in public as Maram, ready to die in her place. As Amani is forced into her new role, she can’t help but enjoy the palace’s beauty—and her time with the princess’ fiancé, Idris. But the glitter of the royal court belies a world of violence and fear. If Amani ever wishes to see her family again, she must play the princess to perfection...because one wrong move could lead to her death.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

My Thoughts: This book was disappointingly average. If you’re going into this book expecting a typical YA read that doesn’t bring anything new to the table, then you should be satisfied, but any expectations beyond that will leave you wanting more. 

First, the characters. While they were decently written they were, ultimately, forgettable. The relationships fell flat, from the typical YA romance that honestly wouldn’t have been a romance if a few kisses were left out, to the dynamic between Amani and Maram that could have been interesting if it had been written more consistently and realistically. 

The plot, while serving to add some relevant social commentary that I did find important, felt, otherwise, pretty derivative. The interesting premise of a body double got lost in the aforementioned romance, and a lot of it was honestly just really unrealistic in the way that YA novels can be sometimes. There was just a general lack of political intrigue and the danger you would expect, given the setting, and that was pretty disappointing. 

As for the general world building, I also found that to be lacking. It just wasn’t very rich, and while the Moroccan cultural influences were unique and refreshing, I found this older aesthetic often clashed with the idea of a futuristic sci fi world, which hardly made an appearance except for an oddly placed robot here and there.

Overall, I feel like Mirage is simply another mediocre book publishers haven’t bothered to put much quality into because ‘diversity sells’. It had so much potential, but the execution was just incredibly lackluster and disappointing, and I really hope this is something that changes soon. 

[bookbeani]

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

"The best lies about me are the ones I told."

Goodreads Summary: Told in Kvothe's own voice, this is the tale of the magically gifted young man who grows to be the most notorious wizard his world has ever seen. 

The intimate narrative of his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, his years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-ridden city, his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a legendary school of magic, and his life as a fugitive after the murder of a king form a gripping coming-of-age story unrivaled in recent literature.  

A high-action story written with a poet's hand, The Name of the Wind is a masterpiece that will transport readers into the body and mind of a wizard. 

Rating: ★★★★☆

My Thoughts: I fell in love with this book from the very beginning. About two chapters in I was already screaming internally at myself about how Patrick Rothfuss was such a freaking genius because this book was just so amazing. I love how he takes on the story of a hero from a different point in the character arc. You get to see this guy who is basically a living legend, and you have absolutely no idea how he got there or what went wrong, or what in the world is going on, and I loved it. 

One of my favourite things in this book was the entire basis of the magic system - my inner (more like outer) science nerd was totally geeking out - and all the descriptions of how it works were just so freaking interesting. It was just so different from your run-of-the-mill recite a spell and *poof* you have magic, and I absolutely loved it. You could just tell Rothfuss had put a lot of thought into it - just as he had put a lot of thought into pretty much everything about this book. I'm serious, the world building and characters and writing are just fantastic.

I'm not sure how I feel about the pacing of this book. Looking back on the nearly 700 pages I've read, I realise not as much happened as had I originally expected - I mean, I was honestly expecting this guy's entire life story. I don't know whether or not I'm actually disappointed about that, though. You could tell this book was taking its time, slowly setting up the pieces in the game it's playing, and I sort of like that. I like that it doesn't try to rush headlong into things and instead eases you in, giving little glimpses of what's about to come but never fully giving you what you expected.

So, basically, this book completely engrossed me, from the first silence of three parts to the last, and I absolutely cannot wait to pick up the next book in this series (and for Patrick Rothfuss to get on and write the third book so I can read that one too).