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A review by freya_amber
The Battle Drum by Saara El-Arifi
3.0
The unlikable characters made this very hard to read. This review is mostly a rant about them.
Hassa is the exception. I feel for her having to navigate this world of idiots. She's also the only one with an excuse for not communicating—she tries and the idiots are rude to her or just don't understand. (So much of this book relies on everyone not bothering to talk to each other. It's infuriating.)
Hassa should take on the role of child of fire and burn the world down. I'd support her. Especially after what happened at the end.
The other two main characters are self-absorbed and stupid which makes them so painful to read about.
I don't think Anoor's character development flowed well. There wasn't enough buildup to her accusing her longterm friends while accepting "help" from relative strangers. She'd already been fooled by someone pretending to be her friend in book 1, so I would have expected her to be more cautious. I think the whole murder mystery sub-plot would have been better as something else.
Sylah doesn't seem capable of learning either and should just be dead instead of everyone having to save her from her own brash stupidity.
Jond has decent character development and becomes less annoying though he is too eager to aid Sylah in being stupid.
Oh yes, Sylah, you can totally learn a skill that takes people decades of training under professionals on your own in a few weeks.
Wife is an interesting character whose development is believable, but tragic.
My hatred of the characters made me pay more attention to the worldbuilding which wasn't good because it's the type that looks great on the surface but isn't quite believable when I think about it.
It had the same vibes as a YA book with these young people storming in and being rude to older adults who mostly just take it. But as the young people also do not have a plan, it lacks the charm of YA fantasy.
The trilogy's plot and concept is really interesting, but I don't like the execution.
Hassa is the exception. I feel for her having to navigate this world of idiots. She's also the only one with an excuse for not communicating—she tries and the idiots are rude to her or just don't understand. (So much of this book relies on everyone not bothering to talk to each other. It's infuriating.)
The other two main characters are self-absorbed and stupid which makes them so painful to read about.
I don't think Anoor's character development flowed well. There wasn't enough buildup to her accusing her longterm friends while accepting "help" from relative strangers. She'd already been fooled by someone pretending to be her friend in book 1, so I would have expected her to be more cautious. I think the whole murder mystery sub-plot would have been better as something else.
Sylah doesn't seem capable of learning either and should just be dead instead of everyone having to save her from her own brash stupidity.
Jond has decent character development and becomes less annoying though he is too eager to aid Sylah in being stupid.
Wife is an interesting character whose development is believable, but tragic.
My hatred of the characters made me pay more attention to the worldbuilding which wasn't good because it's the type that looks great on the surface but isn't quite believable when I think about it.
It had the same vibes as a YA book with these young people storming in and being rude to older adults who mostly just take it. But as the young people also do not have a plan, it lacks the charm of YA fantasy.
The trilogy's plot and concept is really interesting, but I don't like the execution.