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A review by readingintothevoid
The Bloodprint: Book One of the Khorasan Archives by Ausma Zehanat Khan
Did not finish book. Stopped at 2%.
Even though I previously found a book by this author very boring, I thought this desert fantasy with kickass women murdering slavers and Quran verses incorporated sounded really interesting. On page 6 the quote, “She had killed many men in this effort. And did not regret it.” had me convinced I was going to love this.
However, on page 10, this quote had me questioning things, “…women didn’t ride in Talisman territory. They covered their heads, their faces, their bodies. Their voices were silenced…” I’m like wait… since the two MC women who were already described as shocking the slavers they killed by having their hair uncovered, is the author now directly equating women covering themselves with oppression and being silenced? Because I’m not down with that.
So I decided to look at reviews and found a lot of discussion about the only Black character in the book being frequently compared negatively to the other fair skinned MC. And since I had already raised my eyebrows a bit at the Black MC being described in the first paragraph of the book as “coal-skinned”, I’m confident that I am not going to take any more kindly to these issues other reviewers mention happen throughout the book.
I couldn’t find any reviews discussing the issue I see might be developing with the author equating hijabs and women covering themselves with oppression so I don’t know if this remains an issue throughout the book. But me questioning these things I find very troubling before I’m even past ten pages… I think I’m comfortable simply DNFing.
However, on page 10, this quote had me questioning things, “…women didn’t ride in Talisman territory. They covered their heads, their faces, their bodies. Their voices were silenced…” I’m like wait… since the two MC women who were already described as shocking the slavers they killed by having their hair uncovered, is the author now directly equating women covering themselves with oppression and being silenced? Because I’m not down with that.
So I decided to look at reviews and found a lot of discussion about the only Black character in the book being frequently compared negatively to the other fair skinned MC. And since I had already raised my eyebrows a bit at the Black MC being described in the first paragraph of the book as “coal-skinned”, I’m confident that I am not going to take any more kindly to these issues other reviewers mention happen throughout the book.
I couldn’t find any reviews discussing the issue I see might be developing with the author equating hijabs and women covering themselves with oppression so I don’t know if this remains an issue throughout the book. But me questioning these things I find very troubling before I’m even past ten pages… I think I’m comfortable simply DNFing.