danchuchie 's review for:

A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal

4.75

adventurous emotional funny fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

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“It's tea time, Scoundrels!”

“That was the nature of man; born to nurture, determined to destroy.”

“Let me bleed for you.”

“Every good love story starts with a bullet to the heart.”
 
“The dark is no place for a dove.” 

Synopsis:

The story follows Arthie Casimir, a criminal mastermind and collector of secrets, as her infamous tearoom (illegal bloodhouse for vampires at night) is threatened by the masked monarch. Unable to save her tearoom alone, she gathers a crew of mischiefs and polar opposites of each other.

However, the problem with gathering a crew from a group of strangers is not everyone might be on her side or even playing of the same goal. As the heist in a vampire society unfolds, the crew sees itself in the midst of a dangerous conspiracy the threatens the entire world. 

Review:

As always, Hafsah has written a world of alluring, mesmeric and daunting vampire world whilst reminding us of her origins (Arawiya).

Both Jin, Laith and Matteo exuded charm and flamboyance in different <i> fonts </i>. Jin's nonchalance and snarky remarks serve to hide his grief whilst Matteo's sassy and confidence in his appeal is a compensation for his condition. Laith is mysterious, thus using it as the fountain of his confidence to mask his guilt. Arthie is entirely mistrustful of anyone, sometimes including Jin, and believes everyone either owes her, is useful for her and, therefore seems to have no other value, all to mask to hide the pain of her past, the weight of her secrets and the insecurity in herself.

Flick, my sweetest baby, is probably the realest person in the entire crew. She is as you see. Naivety and blissful ignorance due to her privileged life pours from her but it doesn't affect her kindness, gentleness and curiosity.

The plot is, as always, deeply crafted, the writing is easy but immersive, captivating and somewhat bewitching with fast-paced short chapters. The plot gradually becomes more and more political as the story develops. It dives into the impact and consequences of colonialism and imperial power/influence as well as discrimination, genocide and war crimes.

Although I absolutely understood the purpose of Arthie as a character, it made it difficult to like her the same as the other characters: her guilt and secrets make her detach from making connections with people and, thus, more often than not, she sees them as discardable and, if they have no use for her, then she doesn't even care. I understood the purpose of this character's actions but it made

The plot twists and betrayals were wrecking but I loved them, I just wanted to keep reading. Some were predictable, others not but they hit the right emotions and were beautifully written as well.

I found it particularly misleading the low rating and how some reviews/critics were unfair towards the plot. However, I will agree with the critique: “author who basically writes adult books but ages the characters down”. Hafsah would make such a success in the Adult genre.

This book, in particular, was a lot of more sexual tension packed than We Hunt The Flame and We Free The Stars. I'm not saying it needed a sex scene because IT DOESN'T but it would've probably given her more freedom to write more intimate non-sexual scenes if she wasn't constrained to the boundaries of YA genre - which publishers/editors sometimes force authors to stay in. 

One thing that I would also critique would be the exaggerated use of purple prose. It doesn't happen a lot but, specifically when the author is trying to paint the image/vocalise the feelings of grief, despair, anger or sadness originated from colonialism/political actions, it becomes a bit off-handed. It's beautiful the first two lines but the more you force purple prose on a row, the less impactful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Grief, War