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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
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Oh my god, an Art History Mystery that also is grounded in the female experience! This book hit all my pleasure points, including a nice romance.
Oh my god, an Art History Mystery that also is grounded in the female experience! This book hit all my pleasure points, including a nice romance.
mysterious
slow-paced
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Loved the adventure and mystery in this book, but the writing (of Khayyam's character especially) felt both repetitive and inconsistent at times. She changes her mind constantly, and attention is repeatedly drawn to her feeling like she has to switch focus between solving the mystery and being in love. This makes the conflict feel manufactured (if she's honest and open, she can do both). All (romantic) conflicts are caused by dishonesty and perhaps a reluctance to be vulnerable, which I guess I've outgrown. <\spoiler>
The mystery was good fun to read and I'd definitely recommend having a look at the author's note, in which Ahmed explains a bit about her motivations for, and process of writing this book.
The mystery was good fun to read and I'd definitely recommend having a look at the author's note, in which Ahmed explains a bit about her motivations for, and process of writing this book.
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
2.5 / 5 Stars
(before i start, is it just me or is this book really jarringly typeset? Like its not bad it just feels off?)
I wanted to love this. I kept picking it up while I was sorting through the shelves. It wasn't one I'd heard of, so it kept getting pushed until I finally picked it up properly this week. The premise is so unique - a teenage girl, burned by an Art History Scholarship rejection and her boyfriend's disinterest, is spending the summer in Paris with her parents. She meets a young, handsome descendent of Alexandre Dumas and they go on a research adventure, attempting to piece together the story of a missing Delacroix painting. Along the way she discovers the story of Leila, a young Muslim woman who is the subject of Byron's Giaour, and uncovers parts of her lost story. This sounds like an excellent premise for a book, because it is, but I wasn't in love with the execution.
Essentially, what you've got here is a Da Vinci Code style Arts and Humanities mystery. It's silly - very silly. The book doesn't quite lean into that enough, and feels like it presupposes an understanding of who Byron, Dumas and Delacroix are. I reckon you could get along okay without that knowledge but it would certainly help. Chunks of the language feel a little over-academic, leaning on texts like Said's Orientalism to construct a political and feminist argument for the book. Again, the argument is great - women's stories, particularly those of WOC, have been neglected and lost to time, so we must do what work we can to reconstruct them. Great, I'm all on board. However, at times the repeated stating of this thesis statement throughout the novel made it feel a bit ham-fisted. This seems to have the biggest impact on the dialogue, which often feels like reading a thinkpiece instead of reading about two teenagers talking to each other. I feel like the message could be executed just as well without the need to keep referring back to it constantly.
The romance was a bit damp too - I didn't feel the chemistry with Alexandre, nor were the stakes there enough with Zaid for me to really connect with it. Khayyam's lack of a moral leg to stand on with the boys was also frustrating. It just needed more.
There were also just huge plot points that strained my suspension of disbelief to breaking point. You're telling me that you found a whole salon left basically untouched for 150 years, left almost exactly as described in a specific letter? It just felt awfully convenient. If you're going to be that silly, lean into it more.
All being said, the writing and construction of the story itself was good, vivid and well-paced. Paris really came to life in this book in a way that felt very Parisian but not too self-indulgent. I liked Khayyam a lot, even though I thought her fixation on one specific scholarship was a bit odd, and weirdly unresolved at the end. I'd be interested to read Ahmed's other books to see if they stick a bit better than this with me.
(before i start, is it just me or is this book really jarringly typeset? Like its not bad it just feels off?)
I wanted to love this. I kept picking it up while I was sorting through the shelves. It wasn't one I'd heard of, so it kept getting pushed until I finally picked it up properly this week. The premise is so unique - a teenage girl, burned by an Art History Scholarship rejection and her boyfriend's disinterest, is spending the summer in Paris with her parents. She meets a young, handsome descendent of Alexandre Dumas and they go on a research adventure, attempting to piece together the story of a missing Delacroix painting. Along the way she discovers the story of Leila, a young Muslim woman who is the subject of Byron's Giaour, and uncovers parts of her lost story. This sounds like an excellent premise for a book, because it is, but I wasn't in love with the execution.
Essentially, what you've got here is a Da Vinci Code style Arts and Humanities mystery. It's silly - very silly. The book doesn't quite lean into that enough, and feels like it presupposes an understanding of who Byron, Dumas and Delacroix are. I reckon you could get along okay without that knowledge but it would certainly help. Chunks of the language feel a little over-academic, leaning on texts like Said's Orientalism to construct a political and feminist argument for the book. Again, the argument is great - women's stories, particularly those of WOC, have been neglected and lost to time, so we must do what work we can to reconstruct them. Great, I'm all on board. However, at times the repeated stating of this thesis statement throughout the novel made it feel a bit ham-fisted. This seems to have the biggest impact on the dialogue, which often feels like reading a thinkpiece instead of reading about two teenagers talking to each other. I feel like the message could be executed just as well without the need to keep referring back to it constantly.
The romance was a bit damp too - I didn't feel the chemistry with Alexandre, nor were the stakes there enough with Zaid for me to really connect with it. Khayyam's lack of a moral leg to stand on with the boys was also frustrating. It just needed more.
There were also just huge plot points that strained my suspension of disbelief to breaking point. You're telling me that you found a whole salon left basically untouched for 150 years, left almost exactly as described in a specific letter? It just felt awfully convenient. If you're going to be that silly, lean into it more.
All being said, the writing and construction of the story itself was good, vivid and well-paced. Paris really came to life in this book in a way that felt very Parisian but not too self-indulgent. I liked Khayyam a lot, even though I thought her fixation on one specific scholarship was a bit odd, and weirdly unresolved at the end. I'd be interested to read Ahmed's other books to see if they stick a bit better than this with me.
I dunno. I didn’t get into it enough to finish it
This book just barely got four stars through a hard won battle. For most of the book, I genuinely only wanted Leila's side of the story. I could have lived with a purely historical magical realism tale of a harem girl finding her power and agency by escaping to France and writing her own story. I could have lived without Khayyam.
Khayyam is a young biracial French Muslim American who's staying in France for the summer. She just wrote a contest essay for the Art Institute of her dreams and failed spectacularly because she poorly researched it and was maybe, kind of, a little bit conceited. Then, she accidentally runs into Alexandre Dumas, the ancestor of the Dumas and she's given the opportunity to redeem herself by discovering a real secret about a missing painting and a mystery woman Dumas was in love with.
And of course there's romance. Khayyam has feelings for Alexandre and they flirt back and forth through most of the book. And that's the part I couldn't stand. The mystery, the discussion of women in history and particularly women of color in history being actively written out of the narrative, all of that was wonderful. But Khayyam's personal life and her decisions around that made me hate her. She's actively hypocritical, even admits to being so, and she uses Alexandre blatantly from the beginning. By the end, I think I tolerated Khayyam and forgave her a little cause she's young and at least admitted that she wasn't entirely rational all the time. I just... I think it's just a personal issue here for me. I can't sympathize with characters who .
I loved Leila's side though. Her historical story, the strength of her and the way she moved from one world to the next, always navigating a man's world, I emphasized with her. And the little author's note at the end really cinched it for me. I can give four stars for the strength of those particular plot elements and ignore the romance subplot that pissed me off.
Khayyam is a young biracial French Muslim American who's staying in France for the summer. She just wrote a contest essay for the Art Institute of her dreams and failed spectacularly because she poorly researched it and was maybe, kind of, a little bit conceited. Then, she accidentally runs into Alexandre Dumas, the ancestor of the Dumas and she's given the opportunity to redeem herself by discovering a real secret about a missing painting and a mystery woman Dumas was in love with.
And of course there's romance. Khayyam has feelings for Alexandre and they flirt back and forth through most of the book. And that's the part I couldn't stand. The mystery, the discussion of women in history and particularly women of color in history being actively written out of the narrative, all of that was wonderful. But Khayyam's personal life and her decisions around that made me hate her. She's actively hypocritical, even admits to being so, and she uses Alexandre blatantly from the beginning.
Spoiler
And then gets mad when she finds out Alexandre has kept a few secrets of his own, none of which I personally believe were worse than her own secrets.Spoiler
actively use another person, knowing it's wrong, to make someone else jealous and then lie about itI loved Leila's side though. Her historical story, the strength of her and the way she moved from one world to the next, always navigating a man's world, I emphasized with her. And the little author's note at the end really cinched it for me. I can give four stars for the strength of those particular plot elements and ignore the romance subplot that pissed me off.