The Forbidden Wish » Book Review

The Forbidden Wish is a beautifully written book filled with exactly the kind of magic I needed. I shall do my best to be coherent, but there might be more swooning and gushing than one might except from a romantic cynic such as myself.

Now, I will be the first one to say that I am tired of the fairy-tale retelling genre. But Khoury did an amazing job with this one. This is a fantastic stand-alone fantasy novel that is a retelling of the story of Aladdin. At this point, I can't even decide which version I love more.

Our Jinni

Our protagonist is Zahra, the jinni. Formerly known as Genie voiced by our beloved Robin Williams. There are some major differences between the two. For one, Zahra is a woman. For another, she possesses an entirely different kind of humor.

Aladdin stumbles across Zahra's lamp deep in a cave surrounded by a beautiful garden made entirely of gems. He manages to escape with the help of Zahra and forges an unlikely friendship beyond that of master and jinni.

I loved reading from Zahra's perspective. She is a flawed character, witty, manipulative, and sometimes painfully insightful. Her life experiences have warned her against love in a way that is entirely realistic and plausible. I've read/watched too many heroes refuse to show or have emotion out of pure stubbornness and selfishness instead of having a justifiable reason.

The story is told in first person and is addressed to Zahra's old friend Roshana, also referred to as Habiba. Roshana used to a previous master of Zahra's but they formed a deep and abiding love for each other that transformed their bond into that of sisterhood. When Zahra spoke of Roshana, it was as if Khoury had weaved a spell around my heart. I could feel that love and connection resonate within myself, and it was a very powerful moment for me.

Everyone Else

The princess of our story, Caspida, is freakin' badass. She is a warrior princess with her own band of warrior-maidens. How amazing is that?! I loved every single moment with her and her ladies. Khoury did an amazing job creating a vast array of strong female characters with their own strengths, weaknesses and personality. Every character was distinct from each other and had their own role to play within their insular society.

The interactions between Zahra and Caspida had me pumping my fist in delight. Two strong women coming together to discuss politics and the fate of the kingdom? SIGN ME UP.

The romance that slowly developed and simmers between Zahra and Aladdin was absolutely swoon-worthy. Their relationship is built on friendship and mutual trust. There were moments when I would skim over some of the political intrigue in the story to get to an Aladdin and Zahra section. Of course, I made sure I went back and re-read what I missed.

Magic and the Jinni

I found the descriptions Khoury used to describe Zahra's brand of magic to be breathtaking. I am typically not a visual imaginative reader. By that, I mean that I don't picture things in my head. But when I was reading about Zahra, I couldn't help but imagine the swirls of smoke that would erupt around her as she practiced a certain aspect of her magic and giggle over her ability to turn from a cat or a bumbling peacock to a tiger at a moment's notice. I know I keep saying the same things over and over again, but this book was just beautiful.

If you're interested in learning a little more about Zahra's background, Jessica Khoury has written a free short story (HERE) on Wattpad aptly titled The Jinni.

I couldn't recommend this book more. I strongly urge you to pick it up and give it a chance yourself.

Mirror in the Sky » Book Review

I cannot stress this enough, Mirror in the Sky is NOT in any way a science-fiction novel. I typically don't like to delve too deeply or research books before picking them up. I saw that Penguin was hyping up this book, realized that it was written by an Indian author and featured an Indian-American protagonist and decided to pick it up from my local library. I also made the mistake of assuming that there would be stronger sci-fi elements to the book.

Yeh Tara Woh Tara

Our protagonist's name is Tara Krishnan. Tara means 'star' in Hindi and happens to be part of the title of one of my favorite Hindi songs (hence the sub-heading). Tara is half-Indian with an Indian father who runs a restaurant and a white mother who teaches ballet. She is entering her junior year at Brierly without her best friend, Meg, who has decided to study for a year abroad.

Their world soon discovers the existence of a mirror planet, where things seem similar and yet a little different. This sparks a lot of spiritual and philosophical debates amongst Tara's family and friends. That is the extent of the science-fiction premise in the novel. The rest reads like a contemporary high-school story about Tara, and her family, and her friends. In fact, Khorana calls it a contemporary speculative novel, which describes the atmosphere of the book very well.

Family & Friends

I loved Tara and her family. Her relationship with her parents was genuine and wonderful, but not suger-coated. All three of them have dealt with serious disappointments and that has had a substantial impact on the family. I thought Khorana did a great job depicting the loving bonds that existed and persisted through their hardships and struggles. It was woven together with the appearance of the mirror planet, and the self-reflection that came along with such a discovery.

Without Meg, Tara felt absolutely bereft at her high school. She hated her school and feared having to sit in the library for lunch. There were moments that I felt she was just being a little over-dramatic. But then, I thought about my high school years and remembered the holy terror I felt having to walk into a cafeteria when I knew absolutely no one, and realized she wasn't being all that dramatic after all. Lucky for her, she happened to accidentally become friends with the popular crowd. Even better, one of them is Nick, her crush. Only he's crazy in love with Halle.

Halle is the Queen Bee. Everyone in the friend group revolves around her, especially Nick. Tara then spends the rest of the time trying to deal with her crush, and navigating the new friendship dynamics she finds herself in.

Being Indian

This book addresses what it is like to be a brown teenager in an all-white school. As such, Tara has always felt like an outsider even after she is deemed a part of the popular crowd. She often feels stereotyped because of her skin color, and has some struggles with her guidance counselor because of that. I thought it was an interesting topic to read about especially since I have never felt discriminated against for being in Indian in America (at least the places I've lived). I don't know if this is the right thing to do, but I often take advantage of the stereotypes.

People assume that Indians are smart and great at school. I happen to enjoy that inherent assumption. When I first moved here at the age of fourteen, numerous people remarked upon my perfect use of American English down the accent. Many more told me how surprised they were that I could speak and write so well. I took it as an opportunity to disavow my Indian heritage since I had spent the majority of my life out of India anyway. I hated being thought of as backward, and I disliked living in India anyway, so I didn't embrace that part of my identity. For these reasons, I couldn't relate to Tara's struggles with racism, but I am glad to have gotten to opportunity to read and understand her perspective.

Pacing

I wasn't very pleased with the pacing of the book. Mirror in the Sky kept my attention, but I found the first two-thirds of the book to be a little too slow for me. Towards the end of the book, we get to see Tara and her friends celebrating their friendship with child-like joy. That was the moment when I realized how much I enjoyed these characters and I wished we could have spent more time with them in that state of being. The last third of the book felt a little rushed. A ton of things were happening at once, but that was when I truly felt engrossed in the book. It's just a pity that it took so long to get there.

I wanted to address the romance aspect very quickly. I LOVED how the author chose to write it. It is one of the more realistic depiction of a high school crush/romance that I can think of. I think Tara handled herself with true maturity, while remaining a 16 yr-old girl.

Last Thoughts

I believe Mirror in the Sky is a promising start to Khorana's writing career. I look forward to reading more of her stories!

The Glittering Court » Book Review

Aaah! I feel such conflict! Richelle Mead is such a hit or miss author with me, and for the first time, I feel unsure over one of her books. Did I love The Glittering Court or did I hate it?

Neither.

To really understand the book, you need to erase much of what the official synopsis is telling you.  It's true, The Glittering Court is much like Kiera Cass's book The Selection for about 1/2 of the time.  Not all of those bits in The Glittering Court were bad, but where the book really shined was when it got into its religious stride.

Reminding me of her series, The Age Of X, The Glittering Court shows us once more how Mead studied folklore and historical religion in university.  In this, her latest book, the world's mainstream religious belief centers upon worshipping a host of pure and principled angles.  However, there is a heretical movement of belief that reveres a number of fallen angels as well.  These heretics, Alanzans, are put to death when discovered.  Despite this, they continue to practice their earthier, more passionate belief system in secret.

I loved the parts with the Alanzans. Sexy religion? Say yeah!  If the book had more about them, I doubtlessly would have bumped up my rating.  As it was, much of the stuff that interested me was choked by talk of ball gowns, jewels, horny sugar daddies, and thirsty sugar babies. Blah.

The book follows Elizabeth/Adelaide, who is a runaway Countess.  She was engaged to her cousin, unwillingly, and when she stumbles upon an opportunity to start a new life, she takes it!  Posing as a low-born girl, Elizabeth, now Adelaide, is recruited for the Glittering Court, a business venture that grooms young ladies into respectable brides for new-money bachelors on the new continent of America Adoria.

Adelaide enjoys her life of adventure, but she goes along with the ride in no small part due to Cedric, the son of one of the Glittering Court's owners.  This relationship was insta-lovey in the extreme, and even though their pairing was entertaining and seemed... true, I did think Adelaide put too much on the line too soon for their relationship.  Nevertheless, I though Cedric was an intriguing character, a budding businessman with liberal values.

Where the book faltered, in my opinion, was its final fourth. It was rather abrupt, and didn't exactly have a tonal precedent, if that makes sense. Here's what I mean: [spoiler]We get a California/Klondike setting with jolty wagons, stinky horses, and dirty fingernails completely out of the blue. What?! What happened to the Glittering Court?!?[/spoiler] And the denouement! God Almighty, so many deus ex machina were coming through the stage traps, there was, like, a traffic jam of plot devices. That was... it was bad.

But here's something that came out of the blue in a good way... Kristen Sieh, the narrator for the audiobook of The Glittering Court does an incredible job.  For all of Mead's bad choices in dialogue — "Um, yeah" — Sieh was there to save the day, making the words seem aristocratic, confiding, and humorous all in turn.  I can't emphasize enough how much she classed up the book. Bravo, Kristen Sieh. *Standing Ovation*

So, I'm not going to recommend this one.  But still, over The Selection, it is a step up.