English language
Published Sept. 25, 2023 by HarperCollins Publishers.
From debut author Hadeer Elsbai comes the first book in an incredibly powerful new duology, set wholly in a new world, but inspired by modern Egyptian history, about two young women--Nehal, a spoiled aristocrat used to getting what she wants and Giorgina, a poor bookshop worker used to having nothing--who find they have far more in common, particularly in their struggle for the rights of women and their ability to fight for it with forbidden elemental magic
As a waterweaver, Nehal can move and shape any water to her will, but she's limited by her lack of formal education. She desires nothing more than to attend the newly opened Weaving Academy, take complete control of her powers, and pursue a glorious future on the battlefield with the first all-female military regiment. But her family cannot afford to let her go--crushed under her father's gambling debt, Nehal is forcibly married into …
From debut author Hadeer Elsbai comes the first book in an incredibly powerful new duology, set wholly in a new world, but inspired by modern Egyptian history, about two young women--Nehal, a spoiled aristocrat used to getting what she wants and Giorgina, a poor bookshop worker used to having nothing--who find they have far more in common, particularly in their struggle for the rights of women and their ability to fight for it with forbidden elemental magic
As a waterweaver, Nehal can move and shape any water to her will, but she's limited by her lack of formal education. She desires nothing more than to attend the newly opened Weaving Academy, take complete control of her powers, and pursue a glorious future on the battlefield with the first all-female military regiment. But her family cannot afford to let her go--crushed under her father's gambling debt, Nehal is forcibly married into a wealthy merchant family. Her new spouse, Nico, is indifferent and distant and in love with another woman, a bookseller named Giorgina.
Giorgina has her own secret, however: she is an earthweaver with dangerously uncontrollable powers. She has no money and no prospects. Her only solace comes from her activities with the Daughters of Izdihar, a radical women's rights group at the forefront of a movement with a simple goal: to attain recognition for women to have a say in their own lives. They live very different lives and come from very different means, yet Nehal and Giorgina have more in common than they think. The cause--and Nico--brings them into each other's orbit, drawn in by the group's enigmatic leader, Malak Mamdouh, and the urge to do what is right.
But their problems may seem small in the broader context of their world, as tensions are rising with a neighboring nation that desires an end to weaving and weavers. As Nehal and Giorgina fight for their rights, the threat of war looms in the background, and the two women find themselves struggling to earn--and keep--a lasting freedom.
I was hoping for more of a political edge to solve the problems... Nice world build, though. Unfortunately, one of the protagonists was insufferable 🫤
(this is going to be a long review that's not... very nice and contains mild spoilers as well (I don't really think they're spoilers though) so yeah here's your warning i guess)
First of all i have to say that my biggest problem with this book was its premise. So why have i read it? I saw someone on twitter post a picture of their recent book purchases and i spotted this book among them, the author's name stood out as very Egyptian and i got really excited and immediately looked it up. When i read the synopsis i was so disappointed but i thought i should give it a chance anyway. I really shouldn't have bothered.
This book is just another attempt at recycling the extremely tiresome narrative of Arab/Egyptian women being helpless and oppressed by the evil, regressive Arab/Egyptian men. Yes, I know it's a fantasy book, but …
(this is going to be a long review that's not... very nice and contains mild spoilers as well (I don't really think they're spoilers though) so yeah here's your warning i guess)
First of all i have to say that my biggest problem with this book was its premise. So why have i read it? I saw someone on twitter post a picture of their recent book purchases and i spotted this book among them, the author's name stood out as very Egyptian and i got really excited and immediately looked it up. When i read the synopsis i was so disappointed but i thought i should give it a chance anyway. I really shouldn't have bothered.
This book is just another attempt at recycling the extremely tiresome narrative of Arab/Egyptian women being helpless and oppressed by the evil, regressive Arab/Egyptian men. Yes, I know it's a fantasy book, but it's inspired by Egyptian culture/history. And of course, surprising absolutely no one, the only man who supports women's fight to liberate themselves has to be a blond “Talyani” (Egyptian Arabic for Italian, the author didn't even bother with coming up with new countries lol. A wholly new world, i heard.) with blue eyes and everything. The man who rescued our heroine from her backwards family and lets her pursue the studies she has always wanted. Wow heart fucking eyes. You can't convince me that this book, aimed mainly at a western audience, doesn't reinforce harmful stereotypes with these frankly bizarre choices in 2023.
Anyway, i also thought that maybe the feminist stuff in this book would be good to read about. What's not to love about women with superpowers trying to dismantle the patriarchy? Oh, a whole fucking lot. The sexism/misogyny in this book was, again, recycled arguments that you've heard millions of times before, that have been done in thousands of books before and sometimes they were caricature-ishly funny from how forced and convoluted they were because the author had a checklist of misogynistic things to put in the book just to make a point. The retorts at said misogynist arguments were also recycled. That shit was just fucking boring to read and it was also like 70% of the whole book. The other 30% was just the astonishingly uninteresting characters doing the most stupid bullshit.
I also heard this was a queer story which was another reason i put my suspicions about a book with such a premise aside and picked it up anyway. sigh there is a gay side character in here that gets introduced at the beginning of the book to Nehal, one of the protagonists, from nowhere for no reason but i was like “ok, whatever” and she immediately befriends him, then he just disappears for the rest of the book (she also gets told by her in-laws that he's “a queer”, and she should stay away from him because of her reputation bla bla bla. What a homophobic people!!) and appears again only a few pages before the book ends so that Nehal can tell him “hey i think I'm gay too” and he goes “damn, sucks for us doesn't it”, then disappears again. Like???? He just felt like a plot device to me. (Other characters felt the same btw, they appeared to be important characters at first who clearly should have some influence on whatever tf was going on but then they just abruptly disappear from the story and we move on lol) Nehal's relationship with the female love interest wasn't dealt with in much better ways, it felt rushed and most of the supposed development of their feelings for each other happened behind the scenes and we just got told about it.
Oh, i forgot the fantasy aspect of this book...which wasn't really there? The author barely changed the names of a few Egyptian places, came up with an extremely boring religion (that didn't get exolored at all and the reader barely knows shit about it), then decided to choose the most boring, overdone magic system and rolled with it. There was a ton of references to Egyptian culture (clothes and food) and that was supposed to be enough world building? I thought this book was, uh, “set in a wholly new world”. (The exotic orient?? Lol)
That magic system too, again,as recycled as it is, didn't get explored enough, if at all. Surely people with superpowers to control elements would fight more against the oppression they supposedly endure. What about the bad people who could weave? What did they do with their abilities? Like there have to be consequences for something like that especially with how much only two/three of the bunch of characters we encounter do so much with their weaving but no, the story could as well be set in real Egypt in like the 1800s and not much would be different. What about male weavers? Yes, they were allowed to to go to school to master their weaving but there was still a lot of prejudice against weaving, what did they do about said prejudice?
I don't want to be mean to a young Egyptian author and especially since this is her debut novel but this book pissed me the hell off. And lastly, if someone saw this review and got mad at me for it: i simply don't care. I'm obviously entitled to my opinion.
I’ll be blunt about Hadeer Elsbai’s The Daughters of Izdihar. There are some serious problems with this book. There’s the fact that it ends on a massive cliffhanger. (This is the first half of a duology.) There’s the fact that most of the characters, especially the men, are utterly repellent misogynists. There’s the fact that the entire magic system is criminally underdeveloped, even though one of the protagonist’s goals is to study that very magic system. And yet, in spite of all of that, I still want to know what happens in part two...
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.
Slow to get going, the first half of this duology focuses on the oppression of women, the suffrage movement and police corruption, and is light on the magic. It picks up towards the end but leaves everything unresolved. So definitely prepare to have to read both books for this one.
