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apollinares 's review for:

The Map of Salt and Stars by Zeyn Joukhadar
4.0
adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Absolutely beautiful prose. To use a character with synaesthesia as the narrator was genius of the author - the descriptions become so vivid and rich with the addition of color, and I like that it plays an important part in the story.

In regards to the story-within-a-story aspect, I wish more had been done with it. It feels largely irrelevant, even if it isn't - it's just that the role that Rawiya's story plays in the main one doesn't live up to its potential.