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A review by heyimberbie
The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
So, this was rather disappointing…
Just straight up, I feel like authors really need to have a conversation with each other or something in regards to the enemies to lovers trope. Like enemies to lovers is great, it’s fantastic, it’s entertaining, but there is a huge difference between writing an enemies to lovers trope and writing a colonizer romance. I’ve especially heard how there is an influx in books lately that are colonizer romances such as The Hurricane Wars or To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods. Ones that I have read happen to be TOG (where the fmc debates colonizing the world for herself 😒) and ACOTAR (there’s too many things to list on how ACOTAR is a colonizer romance) and now I’ve read the Jasad Heir where the fmc ends up with the Heir of the kingdom that quite literally is committing an ethnic cleansing of Jasadi people, it’s just so weird and I have no idea what goes through an author’s mind to be like “hey, let’s have this woman be with this person that has ties to colonialism,” it’s just not cute. I understand that some people love fantasy romance with a woman falling in love with an evil prince or someone that’s super mysterious, but it usually ends with them working together to fight an opressive force of some kind. In this book, the fmc literally just plays both sides and, especially with how the world is right now and the way authors and politicians like to play both sides or stay silent on real world conflicts, it just made me feel uncomfortable, and I can’t imagine how it must have made others feel. At this point, I’m just tired of seeing this kind of thing pushed out to the masses.
I think the most shocking thing for me while reading this book was how there were times where the author seemed to be apologizing for Nizhal’s oppressive actions and was trying to separate Arin, the mmc, from the evil that’s being committed. But the issue is that Arin has a position of power in the kingdom as the Commander of the soldiers, so it didn’t make any sense why the soldiers would murder innocent people just because they have magic and then once Arin finds out all he does is give them a stern look and basically a slap on the wrist. It was just so weird and it wasn’t like there was any kind of accountability taken or realization in Arin that his kingdom is cruel and incredibly flawed.
I went into this book expecting that I would love it, and for a good portion of the beginning I actually did love it, but then everything just went down hill and it ended up being irritating. Don’t get me wrong, this book could have easily been a 5⭐️ read. It’s complex, the characters are complex, the world is filled with magic and Egyptian culture, the enemies to lovers are REAL enemies; I could see a lot of people liking this book but I can also see a lot of people hating this book because of the politics (and obviously the similarities to TOG because apparently there can only be one book series with trials, a champion, and a princess that disguises her royal identity 🥴). I especially feel conflicted because of the intent behind why Sara Hashem wrote this book. I think it’s very interesting that she wanted to include the emotions and experience of being an immigrant and finding your identity. I think that could have been a great concept, it’s just the romance that ruins it.
One thing I honestly liked was the court politics and seeing the royals act like idiots because, let’s face it, that’s what people in power do. Although I did find it disappointing how this whole world basically doesn’t have a single kingdom that has a royal family who has done good for their kingdom. They all either take money for themselves and build fancy palaces and leave the lower class villages poor or they just murder people for magic.
Here are some quotes from the book that show basically how awful and oppressive the royals are, including the mmc, and how the author will usually follow up with a line trying to absolve these characters from accountability by basically saying “that’s just how they are” or “it is what it is”:
“He believes in magic-madness. Jasadis will never be people to him. He will always think it is only a matter of time.
But as I said it, a different conversation rose to my memory.
We build our reality on the foundation our world sets for us.” — (our world does set a foundation for us, but that’s not up to us to make it reality. we can still choose to support it or not. this is like saying “well he thinks that way because of how he grew up” yet it’s not hard for people to educate themselves and unpack harmful ideologies. listen and reflect, that’s important. and the way that Arin is described in this like he’s still a good guy while also being a part of an army that hunts Jasadis like Sylvia is just weird.)
“Royals weave traps for the likes of us. They watch while we squirm and expect gratitude when they deign to release a select few from their web.” — (this quote was honestly too real and i can’t stop thinking about how accurate and horrifying it truly is.)
“In the measure of monster or man, what tips the scales?”
“Choice. The ability to choose is what tips the scales. Monsters have no choice in their evil, but humans choose it deliberately.” — (yes, humans choose to be evil, but that doesn’t absolve them of their actions just because they act like a monster? I just hate this trope of like ‘healing the bad guy’)
Just straight up, I feel like authors really need to have a conversation with each other or something in regards to the enemies to lovers trope. Like enemies to lovers is great, it’s fantastic, it’s entertaining, but there is a huge difference between writing an enemies to lovers trope and writing a colonizer romance. I’ve especially heard how there is an influx in books lately that are colonizer romances such as The Hurricane Wars or To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods. Ones that I have read happen to be TOG (where the fmc debates colonizing the world for herself 😒) and ACOTAR (there’s too many things to list on how ACOTAR is a colonizer romance) and now I’ve read the Jasad Heir where the fmc ends up with the Heir of the kingdom that quite literally is committing an ethnic cleansing of Jasadi people, it’s just so weird and I have no idea what goes through an author’s mind to be like “hey, let’s have this woman be with this person that has ties to colonialism,” it’s just not cute. I understand that some people love fantasy romance with a woman falling in love with an evil prince or someone that’s super mysterious, but it usually ends with them working together to fight an opressive force of some kind. In this book, the fmc literally just plays both sides and, especially with how the world is right now and the way authors and politicians like to play both sides or stay silent on real world conflicts, it just made me feel uncomfortable, and I can’t imagine how it must have made others feel. At this point, I’m just tired of seeing this kind of thing pushed out to the masses.
I think the most shocking thing for me while reading this book was how there were times where the author seemed to be apologizing for Nizhal’s oppressive actions and was trying to separate Arin, the mmc, from the evil that’s being committed. But the issue is that Arin has a position of power in the kingdom as the Commander of the soldiers, so it didn’t make any sense why the soldiers would murder innocent people just because they have magic and then once Arin finds out all he does is give them a stern look and basically a slap on the wrist. It was just so weird and it wasn’t like there was any kind of accountability taken or realization in Arin that his kingdom is cruel and incredibly flawed.
I went into this book expecting that I would love it, and for a good portion of the beginning I actually did love it, but then everything just went down hill and it ended up being irritating. Don’t get me wrong, this book could have easily been a 5⭐️ read. It’s complex, the characters are complex, the world is filled with magic and Egyptian culture, the enemies to lovers are REAL enemies; I could see a lot of people liking this book but I can also see a lot of people hating this book because of the politics (and obviously the similarities to TOG because apparently there can only be one book series with trials, a champion, and a princess that disguises her royal identity 🥴). I especially feel conflicted because of the intent behind why Sara Hashem wrote this book. I think it’s very interesting that she wanted to include the emotions and experience of being an immigrant and finding your identity. I think that could have been a great concept, it’s just the romance that ruins it.
One thing I honestly liked was the court politics and seeing the royals act like idiots because, let’s face it, that’s what people in power do. Although I did find it disappointing how this whole world basically doesn’t have a single kingdom that has a royal family who has done good for their kingdom. They all either take money for themselves and build fancy palaces and leave the lower class villages poor or they just murder people for magic.
Here are some quotes from the book that show basically how awful and oppressive the royals are, including the mmc, and how the author will usually follow up with a line trying to absolve these characters from accountability by basically saying “that’s just how they are” or “it is what it is”:
“He believes in magic-madness. Jasadis will never be people to him. He will always think it is only a matter of time.
But as I said it, a different conversation rose to my memory.
We build our reality on the foundation our world sets for us.” — (our world does set a foundation for us, but that’s not up to us to make it reality. we can still choose to support it or not. this is like saying “well he thinks that way because of how he grew up” yet it’s not hard for people to educate themselves and unpack harmful ideologies. listen and reflect, that’s important. and the way that Arin is described in this like he’s still a good guy while also being a part of an army that hunts Jasadis like Sylvia is just weird.)
“Royals weave traps for the likes of us. They watch while we squirm and expect gratitude when they deign to release a select few from their web.” — (this quote was honestly too real and i can’t stop thinking about how accurate and horrifying it truly is.)
“In the measure of monster or man, what tips the scales?”
“Choice. The ability to choose is what tips the scales. Monsters have no choice in their evil, but humans choose it deliberately.” — (yes, humans choose to be evil, but that doesn’t absolve them of their actions just because they act like a monster? I just hate this trope of like ‘healing the bad guy’)