Rebel of the Sands

Book Review:

Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton

She’s more gunpowder than girl—and the fate of the desert lies in her hands.

Mortals rule the desert nation of Miraji, but mystical beasts still roam the wild and barren wastes, and rumor has it that somewhere, djinni still practice their magic. But there's nothing mystical or magical about Dustwalk, the dead-end town that Amani can't wait to escape from.

Destined to wind up "wed or dead," Amani’s counting on her sharpshooting skills to get her out of Dustwalk. When she meets Jin, a mysterious and devastatingly handsome foreigner, in a shooting contest, she figures he’s the perfect escape route. But in all her years spent dreaming of leaving home, she never imagined she'd gallop away on a mythical horse, fleeing the murderous Sultan's army, with a fugitive who's wanted for treason. And she'd never have predicted she'd fall in love with him...or that he'd help her unlock the powerful truth of who she really is.


I tried with this book. I really, really tried. 
I got nearly 50% through this (albeit, rather slowly) before I realized that I would rather be reading my Anatomy textbook than this. And that is NOT a good thing.
I think the problem was, for me, was the mixing of the genres. It could've been great, if executed properly, but it fell short. I think the problem was that the only incorporation of anything Arabic-ness was the names, and a some jinn's popping around. And a few stereotypes thrown in for good measure. That's it. 
I think what bothered me the most was that instead of encouraging diversity (which was incredibly easy to do in a book centered around Middle Eastern mythology) the author went out of her way to make her MC have blue eyes. I feel like Disney's Aladdin is more accurate than this. What kind of message are we sending when we say that the only way for a main heroin to be 'pretty' or 'special' is to give her Eurocentric features.


The characters didn't have much chemistry, and the plot was dragging.

Overall, this was, sadly, a meh read. 

You can read this review and others on my website:

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/7...

http://hebhebheb.tumblr.com/

also, follow me on instagram for all things books:
https://www.instagram.com/dearwildern...

Sincerely,