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sofii24 's review for:
And I Darken
by Kiersten White
“Not very pretty for a w*ore.” The soldier behind her tugged on a strand of her hair. She ducked under his arm, gripping his wrist and twisting it behind his back to pin him. […] The soldier shouted angrily and tried to pull away, so she twisted harder, pushing up against the jount. He yelped in pain.
"You are prettier than I." She put more pressure on his arm, "Perhaps you could offer yourself as w*ore instead."
I have very contrasting feelings for this book, on one hand, i really loved Lada, she’s pretty different from the usual fmc, she’s ruthless, vengeful, proud and ready to commit any kind of crime to protect her dear ones. She also always has a quick, sharp reply for everyone and it was truly a delight to see it!
Besides this, I loved the setting and the fact that this story starts from the day Lada’s born and shows her and her brother, Radu, throughout the years.
Lada and Ramu are the children of the vaivode of Wallachia and Lada’s supposed to represent the feminine retelling of Vlad the impaler. The two kids however are soon “sold” as collaterals to the Ottoman Empire where they end up spending their late childhood and befriending one of the sultan’s sons Mehmed.
Now what I didn’t like was honestly how the author almost made it seem as if the Ottoman Empire was totally justified in its actions: let’s start from saying that most empires in history were absolutely cruel and inhumane, The Ottoman Empire is certainly no exception. It was said in the book how magnanimous Ottomans were to the countries they conquered, how they would never oblige other people to convert or give up their religion, how they granted the prosperity of the conquered territories and Mehmed constantly justifies his obsession with conquering Constantinople by saying that it was his ancestor’s dream and he was destined and BLA BLA. It honestly made me so mad! Nothing could ever justify the cruelty that the Ottomans showed when they put Constantinople under siege, it was a shameful conquest with the population and its king bravely fighting until the very end.
Moreover, I really cannot accept how there is NO condemnation of the Ottomans’ cruelties! I personally come from southern italy and my region was brutally devastated by them, with towns being decimated, christian symbols and churches burnt down, so much so that the survivors tried to hide their religious statues underneath the earth etc so really
"You are prettier than I." She put more pressure on his arm, "Perhaps you could offer yourself as w*ore instead."
I have very contrasting feelings for this book, on one hand, i really loved Lada, she’s pretty different from the usual fmc, she’s ruthless, vengeful, proud and ready to commit any kind of crime to protect her dear ones. She also always has a quick, sharp reply for everyone and it was truly a delight to see it!
Besides this, I loved the setting and the fact that this story starts from the day Lada’s born and shows her and her brother, Radu, throughout the years.
Lada and Ramu are the children of the vaivode of Wallachia and Lada’s supposed to represent the feminine retelling of Vlad the impaler. The two kids however are soon “sold” as collaterals to the Ottoman Empire where they end up spending their late childhood and befriending one of the sultan’s sons Mehmed.
Now what I didn’t like was honestly how the author almost made it seem as if the Ottoman Empire was totally justified in its actions: let’s start from saying that most empires in history were absolutely cruel and inhumane, The Ottoman Empire is certainly no exception. It was said in the book how magnanimous Ottomans were to the countries they conquered, how they would never oblige other people to convert or give up their religion, how they granted the prosperity of the conquered territories and Mehmed constantly justifies his obsession with conquering Constantinople by saying that it was his ancestor’s dream and he was destined and BLA BLA. It honestly made me so mad! Nothing could ever justify the cruelty that the Ottomans showed when they put Constantinople under siege, it was a shameful conquest with the population and its king bravely fighting until the very end.
Moreover, I really cannot accept how there is NO condemnation of the Ottomans’ cruelties! I personally come from southern italy and my region was brutally devastated by them, with towns being decimated, christian symbols and churches burnt down, so much so that the survivors tried to hide their religious statues underneath the earth etc so really