A review by toggle_fow
Inda by Sherwood Smith

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

 This book was a delicious cookie, soft and warm straight from the oven, but tragically punctuated with raisins.

Our main character is eleven-year-old Inda, the second son of a noble family. His society is highly structured and organized around war; each child of the highborn families has a specific role they are expected to fill, and are trained from childhood for that position.

The story kicks off when Inda is sent to the capital city to attend the royal academy. From here, the vibe reminded me a lot of Ender's Game:

• Structured, harsh battle school-type environment with complex and violent social dynamics between groups of boys

• A larger political context in which the boys are pawns, while mostly not realizing it

• Inda, simultaneously sharp-eyed and naive, with inborn talents for command and team-building

I had a GREAT time here, needless to say. I love Inda and Sponge, the friendships here, and the battle school politics. The loyalty dynamics are strong and top notch.

Another great thing I have to mention is the worldbuilding. This is set in the same world as Crown Duel, but much earlier in time, and you dive into the world a lot deeper. I do not know how the names work, who all these ethnic groups and nations are, and nor do I fully grasp all the subtleties of varying customs and traditions that are presented. But I enjoyed all of it, and I felt that it was all both fascinating and cohesive.

The plot takes a hard left turn at about the halfway point. We follow Inda in one direction, and the rest of the cast in another.

There is more seafaring here. I'm not generally a big fan of seafaring, and this became a little less fun because of that and Inda being separated from all his friends. The dip was minor, though, and overall I think this sets up a truly excellent, vast story that I cannot wait to see more of.

I finished the book and immediately wanted the next one, which is a great feeling. Emotionally, I would love to rate this book five stars. But then, there are the raisins.

The raisins: a whole lot of sexual content.

While the kids are kids, this is very minor. As they become teenagers, though, it starts popping up more and more. It's not smutty, but it's presented in a way that reminds me of if you turned Tamora Pierce up to level ten.

The exploration of sex is a part of the coming-of-age process and not graphic; it uses allusions, euphemisms, flowery metaphorical language and fade-to-black. I could have overlooked some of this as reasonable, but as I got deeper and deeper into the book the frequency started becoming oppressive.

We had to go through a sexual awakening for almost every semi-significant character, and it was just too much. Very uncomfortable. I really don't need to read about teenagers' erections, especially not what felt like every other page for a while. I think you could have accomplished the same thematic purpose with a lot more circumspection, and I'm really not sure how to rate the book as a whole because of this.

I LOVED the experience of reading this book. The experience was at times awkward and off-putting.

Those two truths contradict and coexist, so take that as you will.

I am going on to the next books very excited to see where they lead for Inda. I cannot WAIT for his homecoming. And I very much hope that, the characters no longer being teenagers, they will become a little less sex-obsessed.