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archytas 's review for:
The Wild Ones
by Nafiza Azad
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I struggled to really get immersed in this multi-city fantasy tale. Azad is working on an ambitious scale - a large cast of characters traipsing magically to an equally large set of cities. The cities showcased here far too rarely appear in English-language fiction - Lautoka City, Agra, Byblos for example - as well as the more-common go-tos of Istanbul, New Orleans and Marrakech. The diversity for me was undermined by the sheer volume of cities, just as the large, diverse cast was hard to engage with individually. The plot is slow-moving - not always a bad thing - but felt even slower when divided into tiny chunks interspersed with brief descriptions of a city, and a great deal of group angsting. Overall, it became very exposition heavy - both in describing the food, city and culture of the locations and then often an information dump related to the plot - which for me came at the expense of character exploration or a tense plot. All of which is a long-winded way to say I got bored.
All of that, of course, assesses it against the standards of a lightweight fantasy, which is a little how it is marketed. In reality, The Wild Ones has a foot both in that camp and in something far darker. The book's characters are all marked by trauma - the kind that comes from terrible childhood betrayal/failure by those responsible for keeping you safe. The book is structured as an escapist girl-power-revenge-and-justice fantasy for survivors, but also dabbles in much harder conversations around when violence is justified, how to move on (in this world, the girls are gifted amnesia when they decide they are ready, and get to craft the narrative of memories their trauma is replaced with) and how to balance love and safety. The balance sat uneasily with me for reasons I find hard to pin down. I hope others find more resonance, because so much about the concept here is wonderful.
All of that, of course, assesses it against the standards of a lightweight fantasy, which is a little how it is marketed. In reality, The Wild Ones has a foot both in that camp and in something far darker. The book's characters are all marked by trauma - the kind that comes from terrible childhood betrayal/failure by those responsible for keeping you safe. The book is structured as an escapist girl-power-revenge-and-justice fantasy for survivors, but also dabbles in much harder conversations around when violence is justified, how to move on (in this world, the girls are gifted amnesia when they decide they are ready, and get to craft the narrative of memories their trauma is replaced with) and how to balance love and safety. The balance sat uneasily with me for reasons I find hard to pin down. I hope others find more resonance, because so much about the concept here is wonderful.