A review by thebookcoyote
The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah

medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

TW/CW: Violence, family death, death of a child, fantasy violence, murder 

REVIEW: The Stardust Thief is the story of Loulie (Layla?), a merchant who sells magical artifacts and Mazen, a prince who is forced to travel with her on a mission to retrieve a magical lamp. It is the first in a planned trilogy. 
I really wanted to enjoy this book. Reading the blurb on Book of the Month, it sounded interesting and I am a huge sucker for epic fantasy, which was what I hoped this would be. I also loved the ideas of story telling and the idea of a great epic fantasy taking place in the middle eastern world with middle eastern mythology. Unfortunately, I was greatly disappointed. 
The first thing I have to say about this book was that it was boring. It droned on and on and on with nothing really happening. There is absolutely no reason that this book should have been even close to it’s 463 pages. A big part of the reason that it was boring was the complete lack of character development. I felt nothing for any of the characters. I really couldn’t have cared less what happened to any of them. None of them were friends, or close to each other, and none of that built over the ‘action’ of the story. 
The second thing that really bugged me was the author’s complete lack of ability when it came to writing any sort of dramatic tension. Even in places where it should have been exciting, it just kind of fell flat. 
And lastly, there was a lot of it that just didn’t make sense. More than in a lot of books, I found myself looking back to see if I’d missed something that could explain what was going on. If I had? I certainly couldn’t find it anywhere. I’m still very confused by the ending, and I’m not a skimmer, so I read everything. 
I do not recommend this book, and I won’t be reading the next one.
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