Chelsea Abdullah is a new must-buy author, and I couldn't be happier!

The Stardust Thief took me on a rollercoaster of emotions to put it simply. I went from laughing to screaming to hyperventilating to biting my lip and— finally— to crying. These characters are a breath of fresh air, and I love their continuous journeys into moral ambiguity as well as their self discovery into their personal identity. Loulie will always hold my heart because she reminds me of my own ambition and curiosity, especially when it comes to situations where you really shouldn't be curious lol. Mazen reminds me of one of my favorite underutilized tropes— the teddy bear male lead. He's honestly the epitome of a clutzy prince, running around trying to help but only making it worse. It's amazing! Aisha, in many ways, reminds me of typical fantasy women because she's strong, loyal, and absolute in her decision making (at least until the ~thing~ happens). Moreover, you can tell an author is phenomenal with their characters when they can create side characters nearly as fleshed out as the leads. Qadir comes to mind immediately, the being of my heart, as well as Ahmed. Oh, Ahmed.

I couldn't tear myself away from this story, and even during the slower portions of the novel, I was entertained by witty banter, dynamic new environments, or political intrigue. Every scene had a point to be made in terms of the overall plot, and I simply love getting to enjoy it. My only real critique in terms of world building is that I wish Omar was in more scenes.

He is the villain of the boo, even though its not truly revealed until the end, but I just thought he physically played a much minor role than he could have. Yes, he may be puppeteering Aisha at times or other characters to get what he wants, but where's the fun in that? He's the Stardust Thief for Pete's sake, so I thought he would've played a much more significant role throughout the entirety of the story.

One of the best surprises when it comes to debuts is great writing. I wasn't necessarily expecting bad writing, but I was blown away by Chelsea's ability to double task with world building and dynamic prose. In her interview with Kaikeyi's author Vashnavi Patel, Chelsea actually talks about how this book was like double in size originally, but we lost a lot of POV characters. The perspective that I feel we missed out on was Ahmed. Yes, he was one of them.

If Chelsea had kept Ahmed's POV then we could have seen Omar in his element at the end when he freaking murders the king/ Ahmed. Although, do we even believe Ahmed is truly gone? That's besides the point though—Ahmed would've given invaluable insight, so I'm kinda salty we didn't get his POV.

Another favorite part of mine lies with the stories. They felt fundamental to the storytelling influences of this book, and I loved Chelsea's slight shift in voice in those moments. It made me feel like I needed to crawl under my sheets in case any unwanted demons were eerily watching me. The stories felt distinct from her own writing, but it still held that magic from the main story. Chelsea gave me a beautiful world to consume as well as prose that felt life-like in description. Besides Omar, the fighting descriptions were the only other issue I found because I could not picture them well, particularly the last one, but that could be due to the inherent chaos of the scene.

Overall, I need the sequel like yesterday please because I cannot wait over a year for more! Not after that cliffhanger!!

Thank you to Orbit Books for letting me review an eARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

3/28/22: This was an incredible debut! Mazen needs all the hugs in the world. I want to have endless conversations with Qadir and Loulie about their relic adventures. And Aisha… well she also needs a hug but I’m terrified of her LOL