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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
lighthearted
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
While the romance in this book was relatively well-executed and I liked Alexandre and Leila, that is where my praise sadly ends. Following is an overly long list of grievances that I will not claim to be at all objective:
- Khayyam seems uncertain whether she is a French girl or an American tour guide. Her internal monologue careens from namedropping her favourite parts of Paris (featuring out-of-place historical context) and feeling conflicted about ordinary parts of everyday French life (if I have to hear "la bise" awkwardly slotted into another sentence I will explode). I feel like the author was trying to both write an insider's perspective and give context to her American readers, which fell flat.
- French words were slotted awkwardly into English sentences throughout, and as someone who can understand both, I found the effect grating and nonsensical.
- I also found that the dialogue at times sounded more like a thinkpiece than two teenagers interacting.
- Despite wanting to go into art history, Khayyam balks at doing her research (not bothering to read Byron's biography) or reading (thinking a 20 page poem is a bother). She also doesn't really seem to like the subjects she is researching beyond uncovering Leila's past and getting into her dream university (though it is never explained why she wants this).
- Every time any piece of European culture or history is brought up, feminism and colonialism are mentioned. My issue is not that these accusations are untrue, but that their repetition made the whole message feel rather hamfisted. It's also bit annoying, and it seems strange to me that Khayyam wants to go into this field at all if all she can think of are its detractors.
- The book also features jarring jokes about these same social justice issues that don't fit with its overall politics, eg. "In France there are no perverts, only prudes" and "If you suggest stealing a necklace from Cartier for the good of the proletariat, then we'll know [that you've started a life of crime]"
- Everyone always agrees with Khayyam and she can do no wrong. She uses two boys for most of the novel but never owns up to it, instead becoming defensive and shifting the blame. She is painfully naive and this doesn't change at all.
- This novel falls into incorrect corset stereotypes: "their corsets crushing their rib but pushing their breasts up perfectly."
- The work is replete with hallmark-like sentiments about history and fate, but neither of the characters ever recognize the importance of just telling history to recognize and learn from the past. Khayyam is focused on what a dead woman would have wanted, ignoring the fact that we presently don't know much about Muslim women in 19th century Europe, and this knowledge could change the way some look at history. Alexandre just cares about preserving Dumas' property.
- The plot as a whole relies overmuch on conveniences to be engaging.
- The book focuses far more on Dumas than on Byron, rendering the title misleading.
I wanted to like this book; from the summary it sounded really cool and overlapped with a lot of my interests. But this book tries to be too many things at once, and ends up doing most of them badly.
This was a lovely read, combining real-world, contemporary teen life with historical fiction and some liberal sprinklings of feminism. Seventeen year-old Khayyam is in Paris for the summer, trying to get over both a failed attempt at a college application and a boy she left back in the States.
Her holiday plans aren’t all that spectacular, until she runs into Alex Dumas – an actual descendant of THE Alexandre Dumas, and gets pulled into a literary mystery involving the lost letters of Dumas and Lord Byron’s She Walks in Beauty. Khayyam is determined to find out more about the woman who connects the two men and learn her story, while writing her own, along the way.
The book is told in alternating chapters, between Khayyam in present day Paris, and the mysterious woman, Leila, two hundred years ago. A nice sub-layer is Khayyam’s own search for her identity; she’s mixed race, American-French-South-Asian Muslim, and as she explores the past, she explores her own future as well.
This was a soft, lovely read, with just enough intrigue and romance to keep the plot moving, and enough contemporary real-world issues to keep Khayyam’s story relevant.
Her holiday plans aren’t all that spectacular, until she runs into Alex Dumas – an actual descendant of THE Alexandre Dumas, and gets pulled into a literary mystery involving the lost letters of Dumas and Lord Byron’s She Walks in Beauty. Khayyam is determined to find out more about the woman who connects the two men and learn her story, while writing her own, along the way.
The book is told in alternating chapters, between Khayyam in present day Paris, and the mysterious woman, Leila, two hundred years ago. A nice sub-layer is Khayyam’s own search for her identity; she’s mixed race, American-French-South-Asian Muslim, and as she explores the past, she explores her own future as well.
This was a soft, lovely read, with just enough intrigue and romance to keep the plot moving, and enough contemporary real-world issues to keep Khayyam’s story relevant.
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
[I literally gave an extra quarter star rating for the brilliant & inspiring author's note at the end of the book, I love that Storygraph has this option]
I may have waited a little too long to write this review seeing as I completed reading this book a few days ago, but I'll try to recall as many of my initial thoughts and reactions as I can.
Firstly let me say: I loved this book. I knew I was going to love it from the beginning.
The book starts off expressing Khayyam's identity struggles as a biracial child of interfaith, immigrant parents. While I do not share the exact same struggles or story as Khayyam, my identity battles are similarly rooted. I know what it means to feel like you "live between spaces" and perhaps my entire perception of this story is, at least partially, influenced by the great impact *this* particular overarching theme has had on me.
“I’m a bunch of disparate parts that aren’t enough to make a whole. But I’m trying to stop caring about what everyone else thinks about me. I am enough.”
Before you pick up this book you may be wondering what to expect? What are the tropes and main idea? Who are the characters? And how is it shelved historical fiction AND ya contemporary?
Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know is told in alternating POVs told across centuries. Khayyam, a 17 year old in the 21st century, is trying to get her life back together after likely ruining her attempts at getting into her dream art college, being ghosted my her maybe-ex-boyfriend and fighting her own inner identity battles. Leila, a Haseki in the 19th century, is a young woman given favoured status in the Pasha's harem who hides a secret love affair and a great desire to escape her bejewelled cage. Their lives intertwine when Khayyam's regular family trip to Paris sets her on an art history mystery that allows her to unravel the hidden story of Leila's life covered beneath the stories and art of the men who knew her.
An artfully told light academia story with the thrill and suspense of a mystery novel, the romantic touch of the City of Love and the unwavering strength of strong female characters that continues to linger long after you've stopped reading.
“Being a feminist means you believe that a woman’s life and her choices are her own. It means you believe in equality and that you’ll fight for it.”
While Khayyam was a character I could relate to in terms of identity crises and passion for justice (and clumsiness), we have such different personalities that it made it difficult for me to relate to or understand most of her thoughts and actions. Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading her story (I attributed most of her ill-attempts and rather questionable decisions to her age. I mean she's only 17 and she does have a sort of hot-headed, but innocent naivety to her? I was probably the same at 17 😅). But Leila? OH I ADORED LEILA! The way she spoke, the way she fought, the way she hurt, the she healed, the way she loved, the way she longed, the way she lived. I couldn't relate to her at all, but I was still so fascinated by her character (and so was every other person in the story lol).
To be completely honest, I didn't care much for the romance (particularly Khayyam's messy love ? life that had me shaking my head at these kids), but I DEVOURED everything else.
the
art
architecture
history
poetry
literature
language
culture
religion
feminism
scooby doo sleuthing (+ references)
and the FOOD! trust a book to make me crave french sweets and pastries I've never heard of before.
also things I learnt in this book:
- an ethnomorph is someone whose physical appearance makes it seem like “they could be from half the countries in the world.”
- a dilettante is a person who cultivates an area of interest, such as the arts, without real commitment or knowledge.
- that light two-cheek kiss that the french do when greeting is called la bise
Overall this book was a good read and I'm interested in exploring the rest of Samira Ahmed's work :)
I may have waited a little too long to write this review seeing as I completed reading this book a few days ago, but I'll try to recall as many of my initial thoughts and reactions as I can.
Firstly let me say: I loved this book. I knew I was going to love it from the beginning.
The book starts off expressing Khayyam's identity struggles as a biracial child of interfaith, immigrant parents. While I do not share the exact same struggles or story as Khayyam, my identity battles are similarly rooted. I know what it means to feel like you "live between spaces" and perhaps my entire perception of this story is, at least partially, influenced by the great impact *this* particular overarching theme has had on me.
“I’m a bunch of disparate parts that aren’t enough to make a whole. But I’m trying to stop caring about what everyone else thinks about me. I am enough.”
Before you pick up this book you may be wondering what to expect? What are the tropes and main idea? Who are the characters? And how is it shelved historical fiction AND ya contemporary?
Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know is told in alternating POVs told across centuries. Khayyam, a 17 year old in the 21st century, is trying to get her life back together after likely ruining her attempts at getting into her dream art college, being ghosted my her maybe-ex-boyfriend and fighting her own inner identity battles. Leila, a Haseki in the 19th century, is a young woman given favoured status in the Pasha's harem who hides a secret love affair and a great desire to escape her bejewelled cage. Their lives intertwine when Khayyam's regular family trip to Paris sets her on an art history mystery that allows her to unravel the hidden story of Leila's life covered beneath the stories and art of the men who knew her.
An artfully told light academia story with the thrill and suspense of a mystery novel, the romantic touch of the City of Love and the unwavering strength of strong female characters that continues to linger long after you've stopped reading.
“Being a feminist means you believe that a woman’s life and her choices are her own. It means you believe in equality and that you’ll fight for it.”
While Khayyam was a character I could relate to in terms of identity crises and passion for justice (and clumsiness), we have such different personalities that it made it difficult for me to relate to or understand most of her thoughts and actions. Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading her story (I attributed most of her ill-attempts and rather questionable decisions to her age. I mean she's only 17 and she does have a sort of hot-headed, but innocent naivety to her? I was probably the same at 17 😅). But Leila? OH I ADORED LEILA! The way she spoke, the way she fought, the way she hurt, the she healed, the way she loved, the way she longed, the way she lived. I couldn't relate to her at all, but I was still so fascinated by her character (and so was every other person in the story lol).
To be completely honest, I didn't care much for the romance (particularly Khayyam's messy love ? life that had me shaking my head at these kids), but I DEVOURED everything else.
the
art
architecture
history
poetry
literature
language
culture
religion
feminism
scooby doo sleuthing (+ references)
and the FOOD! trust a book to make me crave french sweets and pastries I've never heard of before.
also things I learnt in this book:
- an ethnomorph is someone whose physical appearance makes it seem like “they could be from half the countries in the world.”
- a dilettante is a person who cultivates an area of interest, such as the arts, without real commitment or knowledge.
- that light two-cheek kiss that the french do when greeting is called la bise
Overall this book was a good read and I'm interested in exploring the rest of Samira Ahmed's work :)
Content Warnings
Minor: Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Slavery, Grief, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
adventurous
emotional
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book is amazing! It's a literary mystery and an art mystery wrapped around a love story, and I am HERE FOR IT! How do Delacroix, Dumas, and Byron fit together? We get that in this contemporary and historical fiction mash-up. Those are big male names, but the focus in this story is taking back women's stories.
It's so good. I mean what's not to love about an aspiring art historian trying to solve a literary and art mystery with the help of a cute boy?! Oh and did I mention it's set in France! After reading this book, I want all the pastries.
Ahmed's storytelling is utterly enthralling, and I felt like I was there with the characters.
It's so good. I mean what's not to love about an aspiring art historian trying to solve a literary and art mystery with the help of a cute boy?! Oh and did I mention it's set in France! After reading this book, I want all the pastries.
Ahmed's storytelling is utterly enthralling, and I felt like I was there with the characters.
My teenage self would have completely fallen for this book, which has plenty of charm and cleverness. I mean, a historical mystery featuring Alexandre Dumas, Lord Byron, and Eugene Delacoix? What's not to like? The back and forth between Ahmed's French and Indian American modern-day heroine and the 19th-century Lelia has a lot to say about lost female voices and immigrant identity that is not always typical in teen fiction. While the romance/love triangle bogged the book down a bit for me, I can understand its place here and the paralells with Leila's story. The investigation of the mystery itself asks the reader to accept several unlikely scenarios, but I really wanted to like it anyway for the sheer nerdiness of it all. The Author's Note at the end of the book was especially great in centering the author's Feminist vision and scholarship in some of the areas covered by the book, hopefully opening up some new avenues of reading for those interested.
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No