very soft dnf, just have too many books i’m reading currently 

checked some reviews and apparently this book is mainly about eating disorders (which isn’t mentioned in the description at all :/ )
one part of me wants to read it anyways but the other part knows i am not in the headspace to read about something that’s consistently a big trigger for me so i am going to listen to that part 

love the representation in this but ngl im bored
“camp” books tend to be wildly hit-or-miss for me depending on the surrounding tone of it, and this just isn’t hitting

1: this is due at the library tomorrow :))) gotta return it
2: apparently the actual American Daughters stuff in the description doesn’t occur until 2/3rds of the way in and i have just had such a string of books ive disliked. not sticking around for it for that long i dont have the energy for it

honestly i just need to pick my middle grade reads extremely carefully anymore cause im just not in that age range and some books (like this) just dont appeal to me
does not mean that this is a bad book!! it touches on some really important topics, such as islamophobia and bullying. im just bored by it, but that doesnt mean a kid will be bored too

i cannot stand this narration. one narrator sounds like an adult woman and the other narrates with an extremely flat tone and its driving me bonkers

this is probably the perfect book for some people, but the framing of “oh haha this looks and reads like nonfiction, but its actually fiction!” is making me grumpy. plus i have too many books borrowed on libby so ones gotta go

idk when or if i’ll ever come back to this

all the representation in here (disabled (both MCs use canes), t4t, ftm, and bigender) is wonderful, but this plot is so meandering and confusing that i just can’t continue.
supposedly all the elder rulers of these kingdoms were put into some magical sleep and that’s why the kingdoms are mostly run by teens/young adults, but i just have so many questions surrounding that. how long have they been asleep? was there no chain of command to ensure that their kids would not rule until they came of age? apparently they were all sent to sleep at a summit, so DID THEY LEAVE NO ONE BEHIND IN CASE OF POSSIBLE TRAPS???
it’s also incredibly unclear why they are at war in the first place, they’ve been fighting for a very long time but they worked together on an aqueduct system during that? and at the beginning of the story cade just waltzes over to the enemy castle to return gael and faces zero consequences? and a delegation just goes to the enemy kingdom and does some dances? doesn’t war mean you don’t hang out and work with this other kingdom?
i am so genuinely confused and this feels like i was dropped into the middle book of a trilogy and expected to understand.

there’s just something with Hafsah Faizal’s writing style that makes my eyes glaze over,
happened when i read We Hunt The Flame and its happening again here despite how much i wanted to give Faizal’s writing another shot and how excited i was over the synopsis :/
i should not be feeling as bored as i am over this story but i am. im dnf’ing this, not putting myself through the same reading experience as We Hunt The Flame