Narrated by Krupa Pattani
I had both a digital and audio version of this book available to me, and I am glad I worked my way through the audio version. The young adult protagonist shone through the narration, and I could feel and empathize with her inner conflict as she worked things out.
It took me a while to finish this book, mostly because audiobooks take longer to complete. This is the first in a series, something I did not realise until I reached the very end and realised there were things that needed resolution.
Our lead protagonist is someone who belongs to a high-ranking family with money and power behind them. They live in an oasis with magic to keep them safe and flourishing. There are several levels of people who can use this magic, and the manifestation of the magic is different for each person. The magics’ classification and their uses are only told to the readers as we encounter instances and uses during the course of the narration.
When we meet Imani, she is still grieving her missing brother and struggling to come to terms with her sister’s rebelliousness when she ends up finding out some secrets her brother kept from her. When this information is revealed to the council, further secrets come out, things that a select few have always known. Imani is reluctantly allowed to be part of a team that sets out over the sands outside the protection of existing wards to bring back their loss. What Imani finds out once she leaves her sheltered surroundings has her questioning her own thought process and the entitlement she unknowingly lived with.
It is a simple story in some ways. The world building is done well, and the ambience is set in a manner that works well for audio narration. I could picture the sights and even the smells of the descriptions. There is less gore than some of the other books of this ilk and I would recommend it to young adults as well as adults. I would love to know how things work out, given the way the situation rests (uneasily) at the end of this work. Even if I do not read the next, this felt like a good story in itself, something that does not often happen for me in serialised works.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my own listening experience.
Superfluous Reading 