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A review by helenoflombard
Race the Sands by Sarah Beth Durst
5.0
Race the Sands is an adult novel, but would certainly be appropriate for teens to read. The themes are similar to Durst’s Queens of Renthia series: women grappling with their ability to control monsters.
The main characters are Tamra and Raia, who live in a desert kingdom where one kind of magic is real: magic of reincarnation. The most evil people are reincarnated into monstrous beasts called kehoks. The city’s main sport is racing these kehoks as if they were incredibly violent horses. Raia is a 17-year-old who ran away from an abusive home and finds herself as a kehok jockey. Tamra is a grizzled 40-year-oldish single mom who trains kehok jockeys. They enter the races in order to make a living but end up competing for the fate of their city.
The story is told mainly from the point of view of the two main characters, but also includes the point of view of several other characters. I loved reading each character, especially the stuck-up rich lady, Lady Evara. My favorite parts, though, were the heart-pounding exciting races.
I love how the story unfolds like putting together a puzzle. There are a few things that are surprises to the characters but not the reader. For example in the beginning chapters there’s a search for a missing person. The reader knows right away where this person is and so I enjoyed the build-up to the characters all learning this info. However, I just when I started to think the story was clear-cut, there were many surprises for the reader, too.
The main characters are Tamra and Raia, who live in a desert kingdom where one kind of magic is real: magic of reincarnation. The most evil people are reincarnated into monstrous beasts called kehoks. The city’s main sport is racing these kehoks as if they were incredibly violent horses. Raia is a 17-year-old who ran away from an abusive home and finds herself as a kehok jockey. Tamra is a grizzled 40-year-oldish single mom who trains kehok jockeys. They enter the races in order to make a living but end up competing for the fate of their city.
The story is told mainly from the point of view of the two main characters, but also includes the point of view of several other characters. I loved reading each character, especially the stuck-up rich lady, Lady Evara. My favorite parts, though, were the heart-pounding exciting races.
I love how the story unfolds like putting together a puzzle. There are a few things that are surprises to the characters but not the reader. For example in the beginning chapters there’s a search for a missing person. The reader knows right away where this person is and so I enjoyed the build-up to the characters all learning this info. However, I just when I started to think the story was clear-cut, there were many surprises for the reader, too.