And then all I could see was the sand and I forgot about everything. About fear. About bombs. About Jin. The desert reached out for us all with huge open arms. The churning mass that was chaos in the streets became order in the sand, welcoming us home.
I started this book at my friends beach house, simply planning on getting it done for the review. I actually went into it with no expectations. I'd heard about it, but I hadn't really put it high on my anticipated list. But of course, I am so lucky to have received an ARC from my local bookstore, so I went into it with much excitement. (I'm very lucky for this bookstore)
And then I read it.
Goodness gracious.
Guys.
Stats:
Genre: High fantasy
Feelings: Eh? Sort of?
Cuteness: oh my go s h
Fast pacing: A bit slow in the middle, but every chapter it seemed there was a reason for me to keep reading
Series: THANK GOODNESS, YES
Read if you like: Fantasy westerns. Westerns in general. The Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo. Horses!!! Magic!!! DESERTS. And sass.
Content: I made the mistake of waiting to write this, so I don't completely remember. I know there's some shooting. Some removal of bullets. But nothing bad enough for me to remember a week later.
Trigger warning? Loss of siblings, friends. Death??
In summary...Amani, the girl with the killer shot needs to get out of Dustwalk, her dumpy little town. And if it means joining impossible shooting contests, stealing magical horses, bribing, drugging or robbing mysterious foreigners and hitching a ride on some train, she'll do it. Until everything goes south and she realizes what she's gotten herself into....all thanks to that awfully sassy foreigner guy. (At least he's cute)
Thoughts: S a n d. And gunpowder.
Messages: Bravery.
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
Right of the bat, I loved this book. From the first few
chapters I loved the characters, the sass...all of it. Overall a satisfying
read, flaws and all.
-The characters-
Amani. Ah, Amani. As stated in previous reviews, I have the hardest time liking main characters. No matter
how well done they are, I never can seem to really care enough to be worried about what happens to them. And here come
Amani, and somehow I cared. A lot.
She’s realistic. She was well shaped. I mean, she’s another
snarky-stubborn-impulsive female character in a fantasy series. It’s easy to
expect her to kind of fade away upon finishing the book. But I liked her. She was stubborn. She was snarky, but it never once felt
forced. Her sass never felt like a shoved in character trait, but an actual
part of her story.
And boy was she far from perfect. She made so many mistakes
in this book. Or missed things that seemed so
obvious. I appreciated her not being too much of anything.
Side characters. Jin. Um, Jin. Jin! Jin was adorable. Again,
another snarky male love interest, and yet I didn’t care. I didn’t even once
notice anything stereotypical in these characters, even if there was some,
because Alwyn Hamilton did just such a good job of making you care.
Character interactions were on point. The side characters,
the characters there for only a few pages were marvelous. All in all, this was
a success in the character department. I loved all the side characters that
came along later. But honestly I don’t remember their names. Or who was who.
But I did like them.
-Plot and Writing-
Ahh. Goodness, this story. Worldbuilding is hard. Okay, it’s so hard. And a novel under 400 pages, I can only imagine how tricky
it is to make a story world fit. But Alwyn nailed it. This story world was
interesting, unique, and in depth, and all in 350 pages.
In the opening chapters, I could picture the scenes and
setting so well, and that’s always
the best feeling. I could taste the dust and the feel the coarse sand and feel
the sun. It was wonderful.
My one complaint, is there are info dumps. That I will admit to sort of skimming. I just liked
the story too much. And honestly during Amani’s character arc, when she stopped
shooting and sassing, it was saddening. But I got over it.
Pretty much all of the plot twists were predictable. I mean,
I didn’t see them coming, but I wouldn’t have seen them coming if they were
dangled in front of my face. I’m that oblivious. But, looking back, it’s pretty
easy to see what’s going on.
The ending did feel a bit…rushed? And confusing? It might be
that there were so many characters that I lost track of who was shooting who
and who was bad and all of that. But oh my god,
that ending. That…showdown. The MAGIC. AMANI KICKING ASS.
Okay this book is just very cool.
Looking at the plotline itself, there was this huge switch
somewhere in the middle, in which it went into a direction I wasn’t expecting.
At first I immediately missed the excitement of the first half, but once it got
magicky I was okay with it.
-Messages and other-
Amani started out as a nobody. A girl, struggling to just
get enough money to get out of her crappy little town. And somehow, she gets
caught up in mayhem and chaos and magic.
And she doesn’t lose her head. She doesn’t cry, freak out, and
fall apart. Well, she does fall apart. But internally. She’s brave. She’s
incredibly brave. And I like that.
I really like underdog stories, but what I liked about this
one is even though Amani could be classified as one, she never acted like one. She
didn’t buy anyone’s crap, didn’t care about marriage or the sexism or the
things she faced. She just wanted to get out of that town. And even when things
got so intense, she didn’t give up.
And I can stand by that.
Overall, this was a great book. If you’re looking for a well
done fantasy western, then this one should definitely be on your tbr list. Like
now.
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