A review by chaptertraveller
The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I really enjoyed this book, but it did have a few flaws for me. I adore Arabian inspired fantasy (shoutout to the Daevabad trilogy) and was super exited when I found this at Waterstones one day on a whim. I got around to starting it a couple of weeks ago, and found the world and main character Loulie and her companion Qadir (very small spoiler)
(non-romantic relationships between a woman and her ancient magical companion FOR THE WIN)
to draw me in with their initial descriptions and imagery and interactions. That said, after the first couple of chapters I felt there was a serious lull of content that prevented me having that 'omg i need to keep reading' feeling so it took me ages to get through it. The second half though? LOVED IT - the adventure, the new characters, the action scenes, the new places, the gender flexibility... I loved the subtle inspirations from folklore throughout that still felt independent of and a fresh take on those stories as opposed to another predictable retelling.

Overall, whilst i really loved many elements of the book, there was just something missing for me. Maybe it was the writing style, it feels YA in a sense but not in the nicely fast-paced way or in terms of content (I have no idea if that makes sense, like idk how to explain this take??), or maybe I didn't love it as much as I wanted to just because it didn't give me that feeling of 'I need to stay up until 3am reading because it's just SO GOOD' and ended up taking me just over two weeks to finish (double what it usually would).   

However, I will probably read The Ashfire King when it releases and if you love these kind of stories, definitely give it a go!
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