Amazing World but Character-Driven Story
I finally decided to pick this novel because I kept hearing raving reviews, and people compared it with Six of Crows, a book I absolutely love with all my bookish heart.
At the beginning, I was really liking it and definitely thought it would be a five star rating for me. The world building is amazing, and I can definitely see how it is similar to Six of Crows. I loved how it was based off of Arabian nights/Middle East culture and gave me such Aladdin vibes. And the PROSE!! Hafsah Faizal does a beautiful job at writing. It was so so descriptive and I really felt immersed in the story.
My qualm with this book, however, is the fact that it is a very character-driven story with not much plot going on. Nothing really happened and it seemed like the characters were in the same place for the majority of the book not doing much. I am very much a plot-driven reader, and would rather have the action and adventure over a lot of character development. Thus, I felt that the lack of plot flow really prevented the book from being as good as it could have been.
Overall, I still enjoyed the book and would recommend it. It just didn't live up to my expectations. I will be reading the sequel and definitely read more of Hafsah's works.
At the beginning, I was really liking it and definitely thought it would be a five star rating for me. The world building is amazing, and I can definitely see how it is similar to Six of Crows. I loved how it was based off of Arabian nights/Middle East culture and gave me such Aladdin vibes. And the PROSE!! Hafsah Faizal does a beautiful job at writing. It was so so descriptive and I really felt immersed in the story.
My qualm with this book, however, is the fact that it is a very character-driven story with not much plot going on. Nothing really happened and it seemed like the characters were in the same place for the majority of the book not doing much. I am very much a plot-driven reader, and would rather have the action and adventure over a lot of character development. Thus, I felt that the lack of plot flow really prevented the book from being as good as it could have been.
Overall, I still enjoyed the book and would recommend it. It just didn't live up to my expectations. I will be reading the sequel and definitely read more of Hafsah's works.