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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
tense
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:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence
This book has a content warning at the beginning. It advised that the work contains themes of sexual and Physical violence.
emotional
fast-paced
Many thanks to BookSparks for this gorgeous gifted copy!
While I grew up on fantasy books, I'm starting to think I have just outgrown my interest in the genre. I found this book to be incredibly moving and beautifully written, and I could never put into words how Nafiza Azad's words made me feel. Thus, I want to share with you my favorite quotes:
“Some days we are so sad, we want to drown the world. Some days we are so angry, we want to set it on fire.”
“The world continually tries to steal a woman’s right to her own body—who she allows to touch her and who she doesn’t. They take it one step further and try to remove the pleasure that belongs wholly to her.
Does this not make you angry?
Can you blame us, then, for wanting to burn the world down sometimes?”
“Feminism isn’t a four-letter word.
You know what is?
Rape.”
“Because the fear that I struggle with is 50 percent anger. Anger that even so many years, centuries, later, I still can’t walk down a dark road alone without ‘asking for it.’ Anger that my female body makes me available for consumption whether I consent to it or not. Anger that those with strength continuously try to use that strength against me. Angry. I am so angry.”
“Aren’t you angry, sisters? At being treated the way we are? At having to pick up the pieces of what remains after the world is through with us? At being silenced and abused? At being denied our dignity, our bodies, our voices, and our right to justice? Aren’t you angry?
Embrace this anger. Let it fuel your everydays. Defy everyone who tells you that you can’t.
Be wild.”
While I grew up on fantasy books, I'm starting to think I have just outgrown my interest in the genre. I found this book to be incredibly moving and beautifully written, and I could never put into words how Nafiza Azad's words made me feel. Thus, I want to share with you my favorite quotes:
“Some days we are so sad, we want to drown the world. Some days we are so angry, we want to set it on fire.”
“The world continually tries to steal a woman’s right to her own body—who she allows to touch her and who she doesn’t. They take it one step further and try to remove the pleasure that belongs wholly to her.
Does this not make you angry?
Can you blame us, then, for wanting to burn the world down sometimes?”
“Feminism isn’t a four-letter word.
You know what is?
Rape.”
“Because the fear that I struggle with is 50 percent anger. Anger that even so many years, centuries, later, I still can’t walk down a dark road alone without ‘asking for it.’ Anger that my female body makes me available for consumption whether I consent to it or not. Anger that those with strength continuously try to use that strength against me. Angry. I am so angry.”
“Aren’t you angry, sisters? At being treated the way we are? At having to pick up the pieces of what remains after the world is through with us? At being silenced and abused? At being denied our dignity, our bodies, our voices, and our right to justice? Aren’t you angry?
Embrace this anger. Let it fuel your everydays. Defy everyone who tells you that you can’t.
Be wild.”
This book leaves me at a loss as to where I should start.
The magic in the book is like none I’ve ever read. As though the magic could be wielded by anyone who has the ability to look into themselves and see they are magic.
The sisterhood this book gives to survivors of pain and mistreatment.... Thank you to Nafiza Azad for writing it. My pain is within these pages and like the magic you wrote that girl from the past now has a star and she is too magic.
The prose is beautiful. A lyrical poem of pain and redemption. The tiny note of romance, a redemptive love the greatest of Magic’s.
I want nothing more than every young girl to read this and realize they are magic and no matter what walk of life they may come from, no matter the trials she may face, she can use her magic to be a Wild One.
This book is peppered with triggers that may be hard for many readers. The author has written a note to this on goodreads and I recommend it being read cautiously. If read by someone young I feel their parent or trusted adult should read it with them to open communication to the many things touched in this book.
5 stars all the way!
The magic in the book is like none I’ve ever read. As though the magic could be wielded by anyone who has the ability to look into themselves and see they are magic.
The sisterhood this book gives to survivors of pain and mistreatment.... Thank you to Nafiza Azad for writing it. My pain is within these pages and like the magic you wrote that girl from the past now has a star and she is too magic.
The prose is beautiful. A lyrical poem of pain and redemption. The tiny note of romance, a redemptive love the greatest of Magic’s.
I want nothing more than every young girl to read this and realize they are magic and no matter what walk of life they may come from, no matter the trials she may face, she can use her magic to be a Wild One.
This book is peppered with triggers that may be hard for many readers. The author has written a note to this on goodreads and I recommend it being read cautiously. If read by someone young I feel their parent or trusted adult should read it with them to open communication to the many things touched in this book.
5 stars all the way!
How do I write a review for a book that captured the pain, betrayal, and anger I feel on an everyday basis? How do I come up with words to express how much this book means to me? I love this book so much it hurts.
The writing style is breathtaking. I am in awe at Nafiza’s talent. I truly believe there is no one out there in the world who could have written this story as well as she did. The words, the imagery, the emotion…I could feel the anger and the pain through the page. It made me feel alive. It gave me hope. It put words to all the thoughts that have whirled around in my head for years. I love the mix of Paheli’s POV and the other Wild Ones. It didn’t bother me that we couldn’t tell who’s perspective the chapter was from. It fit with the story. These girls, their stories are so similar, yet so different. They are each their own individual, yet they’ve bonded because of the trauma and betrayal they’ve experienced. And I think having the book written like this was very unique, but also perfect for the story Nafiza was trying to tell.
Paheli’s POV was fun. That’s the best way I can describe it. And I think the reason I liked it so much was because her inner narrative fits so much with my own. It fits with her as a character too. We see how the trauma Paheli has gone through hasn’t disappeared completely. Trauma never completely does. You learn to move on, soften it a bit, squish it into a small ball and surround it with happier memories. But it never disappears completely. And we see that so well in her relationships with Taraana, Eulalie, and the other girls. Ngl I almost cried when, she just has trouble expressing her emotions because she’s constantly on alert for betrayal. When she is separated from the others, her first thought is “what if they realize they don’t need me/what if they don’t love me.” And even with Taraana…the relationship is kind of instalove, but also not. You guys know how picky I am when it comes to romance, but this was done so well. It didn’t feel rushed, and Paheli’s hesitancy and fears made complete sense with her past. I really appreciated how much time we got to spend with Paheli and Taraana as they get to know each other. I loved how they actually communicated (even if it took some pushing from Taraana lol), because that’s the one thing I find lacking in a lot of books with romance. The romance definitely didn’t overtake the plot and even when it was the centre of a scene, it didn’t make me cringe or feel awkward. I really liked the two of them together.
My favourite part of this book, besides for everything else I’ve mentioned, was seeing so many different cities and experiencing the culture and food. I read this book while on vacation in Italy, and I could actually imagine Paheli and her girls wandering the streets of Rome, wearing flowy dresses in the sweltering heat, and eating gelato. For a lot of us, I think this book can be a perfect escape from our current world and allow us to travel to other cities and countries in our minds, since it’s still not easy to travel right now.
Another thing I’ll mention…I love me a “weak, scared” male love interest. How rare is it to see this in books? The men are always brave and strong, nothing ever terrifies them or if it does they don’t show it. The women are always described as more emotional and scared and weak. But in this book we have a lovely switch in gender portrayal. The Wild Ones are strong, they are undefeatable. The very cry that is expected from a woman cowering in fear can be used in defence. And maybe it is the trauma and hard lives that have made them this way, but isn’t that the way of male characters too? Aren’t they also brave and rash and angry because of their past? So why can’t women be shaped by their past also? This book ajakskdkd is just so empowering. If you’re a woman or identify as a woman, this book will make you feel seen, it will give you hope and strength to get you through whatever you’re going through. It will make you angry, but in a good way.
The last lines of this book sum up everything so well.
”Embrace this anger. Let if fuel your everydays. Defy everyone who tells you that you can’t. Be wild.”
Also sharing this one because I love it so much:
”Some days we are so sad, we want to drown the world. Some days we are so angry, we want to set it on fire.”
Overall, 5/5 stars. I need to buy this book immediately.
The writing style is breathtaking. I am in awe at Nafiza’s talent. I truly believe there is no one out there in the world who could have written this story as well as she did. The words, the imagery, the emotion…I could feel the anger and the pain through the page. It made me feel alive. It gave me hope. It put words to all the thoughts that have whirled around in my head for years. I love the mix of Paheli’s POV and the other Wild Ones. It didn’t bother me that we couldn’t tell who’s perspective the chapter was from. It fit with the story. These girls, their stories are so similar, yet so different. They are each their own individual, yet they’ve bonded because of the trauma and betrayal they’ve experienced. And I think having the book written like this was very unique, but also perfect for the story Nafiza was trying to tell.
Paheli’s POV was fun. That’s the best way I can describe it. And I think the reason I liked it so much was because her inner narrative fits so much with my own. It fits with her as a character too. We see how the trauma Paheli has gone through hasn’t disappeared completely. Trauma never completely does. You learn to move on, soften it a bit, squish it into a small ball and surround it with happier memories. But it never disappears completely. And we see that so well in her relationships with Taraana, Eulalie, and the other girls. Ngl I almost cried when
Spoiler
Paheli tells Eulalie that she does love herMy favourite part of this book, besides for everything else I’ve mentioned, was seeing so many different cities and experiencing the culture and food. I read this book while on vacation in Italy, and I could actually imagine Paheli and her girls wandering the streets of Rome, wearing flowy dresses in the sweltering heat, and eating gelato. For a lot of us, I think this book can be a perfect escape from our current world and allow us to travel to other cities and countries in our minds, since it’s still not easy to travel right now.
Another thing I’ll mention…I love me a “weak, scared” male love interest. How rare is it to see this in books? The men are always brave and strong, nothing ever terrifies them or if it does they don’t show it. The women are always described as more emotional and scared and weak. But in this book we have a lovely switch in gender portrayal. The Wild Ones are strong, they are undefeatable. The very cry that is expected from a woman cowering in fear can be used in defence. And maybe it is the trauma and hard lives that have made them this way, but isn’t that the way of male characters too? Aren’t they also brave and rash and angry because of their past? So why can’t women be shaped by their past also? This book ajakskdkd is just so empowering. If you’re a woman or identify as a woman, this book will make you feel seen, it will give you hope and strength to get you through whatever you’re going through. It will make you angry, but in a good way.
The last lines of this book sum up everything so well.
Also sharing this one because I love it so much:
Overall, 5/5 stars. I need to buy this book immediately.
Thank you to Simon and Schuster Canada and NetGalley for providing me with an excerpt in exchange of my honest review.
To break the ice right off the bat, excuse my bluntness but, this isn't a bad book at all but...it isn't great or good either. I think this is a partial 'it's not you, it's me' kind of book but there were some things I just had a problem with as well.
My biggest issue with the book is the POV switches, and it may be how the eARC is formatted but considering how it was throughout the entire book and seeing that a few other reviews are having similar opinion to me here on this thinks otherwise. In the summary on Goodreads, you know there is a character named Paheli and out of all 11 characters, she is the only one you know you are reading POV wise. Everyone else, unless if it's the one chapter (some of them weren't even a paragraph long) describing a memory/background on the 11 characters, are not mentioned for their POV. To make this simpler to understand: 95% of the time I didn't know who's POV I was reading. I would see someone refer to Paheli in third person and I was like oh okay, not a Paheli POV. That was my biggest issue. I wouldn't have a problem with not mentioning who's POV it is if there were like 2 or 3 characters but when you have 11 main characters and then a few side characters. Even if the entire book was in Paheli's POV I wouldn't have a problem with there being so many characters.
And stemming off the last part into this: I honestly, couldn't tell you more than 3-5 things about all the characters. Nor do I remember most of the characters names. I think due to the POV switches and not knowing who was talking, due to the fact there is little information about each character that is shared it's hard to really...get to know the characters. As a collective you know they seem to all have sexual abuse/assault or rape happen to them (all is just mentioned, no details), they like mangoes and they're women. The most I know out of all the characters is Paheli and that really isn't say much at all. There are books that have more than the conventional 2-3 main characters like Roshani Chokshi's The Gilded Wolves series for example that has 6 main characters, all get POV's of their own and it's done well in the manner you understand all the characters. Whether you are reading for example Severin's POV's (a character in The Gilded Wolves) you understand his character but other the other 5 characters. This book, it simply just fails in that manner. And that me talking about the main characters too!
There is a romance in the book but the way it is developed and you haven't hit the halfway mark surely surprised me considering...I didn't know anything about either character. It continues throughout the book and gets a little better but found myself still not caring for said relationship I think due to the fact of how it developed within like I assume a few days and there were little scenes between the two to show the development of the relationship before they kissed.
The plot I...honestly have a vague idea of what was happening. I felt myself quite distracted during the novel due to two things, one being the points above and another one I will mention. The writing style, this is definitely where it's a "it's not you, it's me" situation. I'm sure there's those who like the style of writing but for me, it just distracted me from the plot and anything else that was happening. It felt poetic but not in a way that left a good impression to me? Felt a little like someone using a thesaurus for 50% of the words in a paragraph. But like I said, I do think this writing style was definitely a "not you, it's me" thing, so you can feel free to disregard my opinion about the writing style if you are questioning on whether or not you want to read this.
The worldbuilding in the universe is honestly a little weak, I've read worse but it left a far too big space to imagine, one that is too big for a fantasy novel. Especially if you have magic in your universe as well.
All in all, if you are interested in reading this, please do! I'm a simple casual reader and reviewer and everyone else can and will have different opinions about the book. Like I said, it's not a bad book in any sense, it's not anywhere near an unbearable read.
(This is more a small, small point but I would be lying if I said this didn't annoy me. Perhaps I'm being weird but as someone who is non-binary, I can't help but just. Be weirded out. There was only two points/sentences in the book that reminded me a little of the pussy hat/pussy power feminism. Specifically "Does the absence of periods make a question of our femininity?" and "Do they not consider that if the God they profess to serve wanted women to live without sexual pleasure they would be born without clitorises?" So if you are iffy about that kind of language, I would recommend just be aware of it while reading the book)
To break the ice right off the bat, excuse my bluntness but, this isn't a bad book at all but...it isn't great or good either. I think this is a partial 'it's not you, it's me' kind of book but there were some things I just had a problem with as well.
My biggest issue with the book is the POV switches, and it may be how the eARC is formatted but considering how it was throughout the entire book and seeing that a few other reviews are having similar opinion to me here on this thinks otherwise. In the summary on Goodreads, you know there is a character named Paheli and out of all 11 characters, she is the only one you know you are reading POV wise. Everyone else, unless if it's the one chapter (some of them weren't even a paragraph long) describing a memory/background on the 11 characters, are not mentioned for their POV. To make this simpler to understand: 95% of the time I didn't know who's POV I was reading. I would see someone refer to Paheli in third person and I was like oh okay, not a Paheli POV. That was my biggest issue. I wouldn't have a problem with not mentioning who's POV it is if there were like 2 or 3 characters but when you have 11 main characters and then a few side characters. Even if the entire book was in Paheli's POV I wouldn't have a problem with there being so many characters.
And stemming off the last part into this: I honestly, couldn't tell you more than 3-5 things about all the characters. Nor do I remember most of the characters names. I think due to the POV switches and not knowing who was talking, due to the fact there is little information about each character that is shared it's hard to really...get to know the characters. As a collective you know they seem to all have sexual abuse/assault or rape happen to them (all is just mentioned, no details), they like mangoes and they're women. The most I know out of all the characters is Paheli and that really isn't say much at all. There are books that have more than the conventional 2-3 main characters like Roshani Chokshi's The Gilded Wolves series for example that has 6 main characters, all get POV's of their own and it's done well in the manner you understand all the characters. Whether you are reading for example Severin's POV's (a character in The Gilded Wolves) you understand his character but other the other 5 characters. This book, it simply just fails in that manner. And that me talking about the main characters too!
There is a romance in the book but the way it is developed and you haven't hit the halfway mark surely surprised me considering...I didn't know anything about either character. It continues throughout the book and gets a little better but found myself still not caring for said relationship I think due to the fact of how it developed within like I assume a few days and there were little scenes between the two to show the development of the relationship before they kissed.
The plot I...honestly have a vague idea of what was happening. I felt myself quite distracted during the novel due to two things, one being the points above and another one I will mention. The writing style, this is definitely where it's a "it's not you, it's me" situation. I'm sure there's those who like the style of writing but for me, it just distracted me from the plot and anything else that was happening. It felt poetic but not in a way that left a good impression to me? Felt a little like someone using a thesaurus for 50% of the words in a paragraph. But like I said, I do think this writing style was definitely a "not you, it's me" thing, so you can feel free to disregard my opinion about the writing style if you are questioning on whether or not you want to read this.
The worldbuilding in the universe is honestly a little weak, I've read worse but it left a far too big space to imagine, one that is too big for a fantasy novel. Especially if you have magic in your universe as well.
All in all, if you are interested in reading this, please do! I'm a simple casual reader and reviewer and everyone else can and will have different opinions about the book. Like I said, it's not a bad book in any sense, it's not anywhere near an unbearable read.
(This is more a small, small point but I would be lying if I said this didn't annoy me. Perhaps I'm being weird but as someone who is non-binary, I can't help but just. Be weirded out. There was only two points/sentences in the book that reminded me a little of the pussy hat/pussy power feminism. Specifically "Does the absence of periods make a question of our femininity?" and "Do they not consider that if the God they profess to serve wanted women to live without sexual pleasure they would be born without clitorises?" So if you are iffy about that kind of language, I would recommend just be aware of it while reading the book)
I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I wanted to like this book, I really did. But I found myself skimming this entire book because it felt like it just dragged on and absolutely nothing happened. 85% of the story is just explanation and dialogue and going out to eat and traveling between countries and everything EXCEPT PLOT. I was so excited by the premise (MAGICAL GIRLS!!!) and the cover (GORGEOUS) but this book was just…. not it. I wouldn’t be able to tell you a single character’s name if you asked me because I just couldn’t find myself developing any emotion for any of them. I had so much hope… and was so disappointed.
I wanted to like this book, I really did. But I found myself skimming this entire book because it felt like it just dragged on and absolutely nothing happened. 85% of the story is just explanation and dialogue and going out to eat and traveling between countries and everything EXCEPT PLOT. I was so excited by the premise (MAGICAL GIRLS!!!) and the cover (GORGEOUS) but this book was just…. not it. I wouldn’t be able to tell you a single character’s name if you asked me because I just couldn’t find myself developing any emotion for any of them. I had so much hope… and was so disappointed.
dark
emotional
inspiring
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
This was a really beautiful story and such an interesting concept. I got lost a little in the plot, as it felt rather obscure at times and I think the pacing wasn't really what I was interested in. This was good though!
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
fast-paced