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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
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
MIRAGE is a story of a girl forced to be the body double for the princess assumed to be the next monarch of her colonized planet. As Amani adjusts to the strict requirements of her new role, she starts connecting with others who are trying to end the occupation.
I love the worldbuilding in MIRAGE. It’s concerned with language, culture, and class dynamics reinforced through colonization. Its suffuses everything from Amani's life with her family to the Vathek court and everything in between. It was obvious to me that many parts of the language are based on Arabic, and the interview with the author which is included in the audiobook clarified for me that it was specifically influenced by Moroccan culture. Even before I knew which specific country's history had contributed to the worldbuilding, there were so many wonderfully detailed moments which filled this picture of a people who went to space and have been living on this moon for so long that their culture references a long history on that moon and not their arrival from somewhere else.
This deals heavily with the cruelty of colonizers, and the difficulty of Amani trying to stay alive when everything she does to preserve her life also helps her oppressors. The Vathek colonizers are quasi-European, culturally and aesthetically different from those they’re subjugating. Long stretches in the middle are a bit more hopeful, as every time Amani is sent somewhere instead of the princess it’s more time that she can interact without a harsh gaze upon her. One complication is that the princess is engaged to be married, so Amani interacts with her fiancé, Idris, who isn't supposed to know about the body double. I like Idris, his dynamic with Amani is really sweet. I especially love the way that they slowly begin discussing more of their history and shared culture together, since Idris was made to forget his first language years ago but Amani still can read and speak it.
As the first book of a trilogy, this establishes Amani's transformation away from who she was before she was kidnapped. There's more of a focus on Vathek culture because Amani has to become familiar with the Vathek court to survive. The ending was a dramatic shift and I'm excited for how the next book handles things.
I love the worldbuilding in MIRAGE. It’s concerned with language, culture, and class dynamics reinforced through colonization. Its suffuses everything from Amani's life with her family to the Vathek court and everything in between. It was obvious to me that many parts of the language are based on Arabic, and the interview with the author which is included in the audiobook clarified for me that it was specifically influenced by Moroccan culture. Even before I knew which specific country's history had contributed to the worldbuilding, there were so many wonderfully detailed moments which filled this picture of a people who went to space and have been living on this moon for so long that their culture references a long history on that moon and not their arrival from somewhere else.
This deals heavily with the cruelty of colonizers, and the difficulty of Amani trying to stay alive when everything she does to preserve her life also helps her oppressors. The Vathek colonizers are quasi-European, culturally and aesthetically different from those they’re subjugating. Long stretches in the middle are a bit more hopeful, as every time Amani is sent somewhere instead of the princess it’s more time that she can interact without a harsh gaze upon her. One complication is that the princess is engaged to be married, so Amani interacts with her fiancé, Idris, who isn't supposed to know about the body double. I like Idris, his dynamic with Amani is really sweet. I especially love the way that they slowly begin discussing more of their history and shared culture together, since Idris was made to forget his first language years ago but Amani still can read and speak it.
As the first book of a trilogy, this establishes Amani's transformation away from who she was before she was kidnapped. There's more of a focus on Vathek culture because Amani has to become familiar with the Vathek court to survive. The ending was a dramatic shift and I'm excited for how the next book handles things.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Colonisation
Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Torture, Medical content, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Sexual content, Pregnancy
No sé por qué me animé a leer esta novela, pero mi a mi booktuber favorita leerlo y decidí darle una oportunidad. No sabía NADA sobre de qué se trataba Mirage cuando lo empecé. Nada de nada. Pero debo decir que me llevé una grata sorpresa.
“You do not kneel or bend, I told myself. To anyone. You continue.”
¡Esta es esa novela de fantasía que me estaba faltando últimamente! La escritura de Somaiya Daud es precios y maneja un ritmo ágil y atrapante en cada segundo. El mundo, la trama y los personajes que ha creado me dejaron sin palabras. ¿Quién diría que esto me fuera a gustar tanto? Se sintió como Star Wars, aunque no tenga mucho que ver (no me pregunten xD). La ambientación es hermosa, compleja y a la vez para nada abrumadora, mientras los personajes son todos geniales y afsdgfrhigjth mi corazón. Había pasado un tiempo desde que no me involucraba tanto dentro de un libro con mente y sentimientos al 100%, y se sintió asombroso que Somaiya Daud me sumergiera en su bella novela por un rato.
“All may see the stars, but few will see their forebears.”
Dobles, infiltrados, una corte real, traiciones, rebeliones y muchos detalles en la cultura y el mundo. Me parece maravilloso ver más libros de #ownvoices porque es importante y me encantó ver personajes de color y su cultura en la ciencia ficción protagonizando este pedazo de historia que sin duda es un éxito total. Esta es la historia de una chica, Amani, que es secuestrada por droides imperiales porque se ve exactamente igual a la princesa real, así que se ve obligada a actuar como el doble y volver a empezar su vida en un palacio donde a nadie le importa si vive o muere. Al final se menciona que la autora adora la poesía árabe y esa pasión se puede ver perfectamente en sus palabras. ¡ESTE ES ESE LIBRO DIVERSo DE FANTASÍA Y CIENCIA FICCIÓN QUE HE ESTADO BUSCANDO! Sin duda lo agrego a mis favoritos del año. ESTO es lo que quiero ver en la literatura. ¿Vieron eso que siempre menciono que quiero leer? Acá está, damas y caballeros.
“When you are raised in a place like Cadiz, in a time like ours, you learned the signs. The absolute silence, followed by the soft, near imperceptible click of metal against stone. The soft whir of gears just loud enough to announce itself. The Vath rarely sent men to our homes. When they did—well. The cruelty of men knew few bounds. So there was some relief when the first body through the door was an Imperial droid, chrome and silver, its body etched in cruel, sharp designs.”
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I really enjoyed this! You'd think this is a fantasy but it is actually more like sci fi! It takes place in this empire and there's robots and different idk if theyre planets I feel like they are but different worlds kind of and I haven't read a sci-fi in a while mostly just fantasy so this was very refreshing for me! I liked how the main character and her double- the princess slowly work up this friendship and it does change the princess a little but of course at the end it doesn't really matter. I kinda liked how the main character and the princess worked better than the love interest dude lol like he's cool and all but there's something about his character that I just don't like.
anyways,, I'm glad I read this now and not earlier bc the sequel is coming out in like a week aha
anyways,, I'm glad I read this now and not earlier bc the sequel is coming out in like a week aha
I enjoyed this story. Amani, who happens to be an identical twin of the future queen is stolen away from her family in order to be the queen's body double. I enjoyed seeing Amani grow into her own power and navigate a growing friendship with the queen, romance, and the causes of her people. I thought that the end was a bit predictable, but I am excited to see where the series goes.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
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:
No
adventurous
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
This was very disappointing. I love the premise and the world building, but the plot, main character, and the dynamics between the characters were very lacking.
The novel starts with the main character being taken by The Empire TM (very generic sci-fi overlords) while the fate of her family and community were left unknown and the main character doesn't spend much time caring. She's then forced to act as a stand-in for the imperial princess, whom she looks identical to. She is immediately approached to act as a spy for The Rebellion TM (again, very generic), who have no reason to trust her. While this is happening, a "romance" (incredibly generic) is forced in. All this happens without ever getting to know the main character, let alone care about her or what's happening. None of the plot nor dynamics that were supposedly forming felt organic or natural.
I really did like the world building with the clashing cultures. The history with the previous royals being forced to join with the conquerors of their planet in marriage was very interesting as well. There were moments when the story felt very promising, but they happened in the last fourth of the novel when I had already checked out for the most part.
I might give the sequel a try since it's already released. I hope the story gets better from here.
The novel starts with the main character being taken by The Empire TM (very generic sci-fi overlords) while the fate of her family and community were left unknown and the main character doesn't spend much time caring. She's then forced to act as a stand-in for the imperial princess, whom she looks identical to. She is immediately approached to act as a spy for The Rebellion TM (again, very generic), who have no reason to trust her. While this is happening, a "romance" (incredibly generic) is forced in. All this happens without ever getting to know the main character, let alone care about her or what's happening. None of the plot nor dynamics that were supposedly forming felt organic or natural.
I really did like the world building with the clashing cultures. The history with the previous royals being forced to join with the conquerors of their planet in marriage was very interesting as well. There were moments when the story felt very promising, but they happened in the last fourth of the novel when I had already checked out for the most part.
I might give the sequel a try since it's already released. I hope the story gets better from here.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-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:
Yes
Actual rating: 2.0
Spoiler free mini review.
While I didn’t absolutely hate this book, I can say for sure that I really disliked it. This book was very forgettable, there was nothing in this book that stood out, surprised me, or made me “feel” something.
Note: I’m not trying to find excuses of why I didn’t like this, but it could be that I missed a lot of things because I listened to the audiobook, and I was so bored that I kept missing pieces.
The beginning was very rushed, Amani is abducted from her coming of age party on like page 4, we know nothing of her family, her brothers, her parents, her life. This is a very powerful motivation for Amani to survive and keep her family alive, and because there wasn’t any introduction to her previous life, how am I supposed to understand that she wants to go back?
The world building was awful. It wasn’t just underdeveloped, it was non existing. This book is marketed as a sci-fi/fantasy, and the only thing that was noticeable was that they took a ship to fly to a moon. There was NOTHING else that made me think this was a “star system”. I have no clue why people get killed, no clue what the “bad’ guys want and what they are doing that is so awful. I had absolutely no clue what was going on 99% of this book, and this made me care even less. I can’t tell you what this world looks like, how people dress, what their habits are, how they look, where they life etc. I was also disappointed that there wasn’t any kind of fantasy element, like magic, fantastical creatures, or any sort of battle. I do respect that the author tried to bring some of her culture and beliefs into this book, but I also think that fell flat.
The romance, sigh. Do I even need to get into this? There was no chemistry, no development, it was too convenient, too insta-love, too rushed. I absolutely loathed it and cringed with every scene.
The characters were very stereotypical and 100% boring. I cannot tell you a thing about them, they didn’t have any traits. The mc, Amani, was super whiney, boring and flat. Same for all other characters. The only character that was remotely interesting was Maram, but that went out the window the last 10 pages.
But usually I can deal with bad world building and underdeveloped characters. What I however can’t deal with in this book was the plot. I was soooooo bored. There wasn’t any action, any excitement, nothing refreshing and most importantly nothing surprising. If I should describe this plot I could do it in one sentence: abduction, transformation, visit 1 as Maram, visit 2 as Maram, visit 3, 4, 5, some mild excitement, the END.
The plot didn’t build to something exciting and I was even more disappointing with the ending. I’m not going to continue with this series and will probably sell the book I own from FL.
Spoiler free mini review.
While I didn’t absolutely hate this book, I can say for sure that I really disliked it. This book was very forgettable, there was nothing in this book that stood out, surprised me, or made me “feel” something.
Note: I’m not trying to find excuses of why I didn’t like this, but it could be that I missed a lot of things because I listened to the audiobook, and I was so bored that I kept missing pieces.
The beginning was very rushed, Amani is abducted from her coming of age party on like page 4, we know nothing of her family, her brothers, her parents, her life. This is a very powerful motivation for Amani to survive and keep her family alive, and because there wasn’t any introduction to her previous life, how am I supposed to understand that she wants to go back?
The world building was awful. It wasn’t just underdeveloped, it was non existing. This book is marketed as a sci-fi/fantasy, and the only thing that was noticeable was that they took a ship to fly to a moon. There was NOTHING else that made me think this was a “star system”. I have no clue why people get killed, no clue what the “bad’ guys want and what they are doing that is so awful. I had absolutely no clue what was going on 99% of this book, and this made me care even less. I can’t tell you what this world looks like, how people dress, what their habits are, how they look, where they life etc. I was also disappointed that there wasn’t any kind of fantasy element, like magic, fantastical creatures, or any sort of battle. I do respect that the author tried to bring some of her culture and beliefs into this book, but I also think that fell flat.
The romance, sigh. Do I even need to get into this? There was no chemistry, no development, it was too convenient, too insta-love, too rushed. I absolutely loathed it and cringed with every scene.
The characters were very stereotypical and 100% boring. I cannot tell you a thing about them, they didn’t have any traits. The mc, Amani, was super whiney, boring and flat. Same for all other characters. The only character that was remotely interesting was Maram, but that went out the window the last 10 pages.
But usually I can deal with bad world building and underdeveloped characters. What I however can’t deal with in this book was the plot. I was soooooo bored. There wasn’t any action, any excitement, nothing refreshing and most importantly nothing surprising. If I should describe this plot I could do it in one sentence: abduction, transformation, visit 1 as Maram, visit 2 as Maram, visit 3, 4, 5, some mild excitement, the END.
The plot didn’t build to something exciting and I was even more disappointing with the ending. I’m not going to continue with this series and will probably sell the book I own from FL.
The story of Mirage beautifully tells a story about the importance of culture, family, and heritage. As I read, my heart ached for the Kushaila people who had all of those things stolen from the by the Vathek conquerors. I read between the lines to see the stories of people of color and the harm that colonization has caused to so many across the world.
In addition, the story also points out the importance of art and how quickly it can be lost in civilizations that focus too much on productivity and achievements. Art, poetry, novels, music, even the beauty of spices in cooking; these things are not about what you can achieve, but what makes you happy. What do you feel as you read the prose of your favorite poet? What do the lyrics of your favorite song mean to you? Can you imagine a world where these things are outlawed? That is the world Amani is living in. As much as I adored this portion of the story, the synopsis made me think poetry would hold a much bigger place in this story. Instead, it felt sort of tossed in at random. I really wish we saw more of Amani's passion for poetry in a more consistent way. I took a star away for this.
My biggest complaint and the other star reduction is the pacing. It felt like a slog getting through the book and much of the action happened at the very end. It did not end on a cliffhanger, but rather a cavern? Whatever the opposite of a cliffhanger is. It was an extremely down note, an unhappy ending, which I usually enjoy for the sake of something different except that this is a series and it didn't leave any expectations or understanding of what book 2 might entail.
I will probably read the rest of the series because I am intrigued by the story, but overall I think this one just ranks as a Meh status. I love the message, but the means of telling it leave something to be desired.
My favorite quote from the book:
Happiness is rebellion
In addition, the story also points out the importance of art and how quickly it can be lost in civilizations that focus too much on productivity and achievements. Art, poetry, novels, music, even the beauty of spices in cooking; these things are not about what you can achieve, but what makes you happy. What do you feel as you read the prose of your favorite poet? What do the lyrics of your favorite song mean to you? Can you imagine a world where these things are outlawed? That is the world Amani is living in. As much as I adored this portion of the story, the synopsis made me think poetry would hold a much bigger place in this story. Instead, it felt sort of tossed in at random. I really wish we saw more of Amani's passion for poetry in a more consistent way. I took a star away for this.
My biggest complaint and the other star reduction is the pacing. It felt like a slog getting through the book and much of the action happened at the very end. It did not end on a cliffhanger, but rather a cavern? Whatever the opposite of a cliffhanger is. It was an extremely down note, an unhappy ending, which I usually enjoy for the sake of something different except that this is a series and it didn't leave any expectations or understanding of what book 2 might entail.
I will probably read the rest of the series because I am intrigued by the story, but overall I think this one just ranks as a Meh status. I love the message, but the means of telling it leave something to be desired.
My favorite quote from the book:
Happiness is rebellion