With literary prowess, Ms Mafi drags us through the muck-thick streets of a Middle Eastern world of concealed magic, a manipulative patriarchy, and the remnants of a forbidden race repressed and at the mercy of their conquerers. Woven through are these ambiguous and telling prophecies, the missing links to truths long forgotten and fiercely oppressed.

And no one is exempt from the deceptions and temptations of the Devil, whispered in the blinding dark to a cast of relatable conflicted souls.

It's a fast-read that packs a subtle socio-feminist punch, shimmering with teasing forbidden romance a la Romeo & Juliet (especially the Juliet-role). I appreciated the layers of careful quality displayed in the sophisticated writing style, sheerly veiled setting, complex humorous characters that can't help but spout cheeky banter and sharp dialogue, and an addictive driving plot. Top-notch storytelling for its target audience.

I won't give anything away, just to say that if you like certain fantastical creatures appearing in your fantasy novels, hang on, they're coming... the end, by the way, is the best 'First Installation of a Trilogy' sort of cliff-hangery ending I've read in a long time.

(Bonus: My conservative and religious friends can give this one to their young teens (13+) as there wasn’t a glint of the nasty so currently rampant in the genre. I hope Mafi keeps that literary quality throughout; I'll let youse know... on to the second...)— scratch this, I’ve finished #2 and while there still isn’t any of the nasty funk, nor terminology best left for anatomy class, it does get a bit hot and heavier than suitable for -15s imo… 😬

Bloody fantastic. 
Loved the invented characters of Durrus and Valeria. Beautiful characterisation.  
A seamless collaboration of multiple  voices written by seven authors. 
I raged and bawled and felt like I was there…

 

Atmospheric and time-locked. 

Not quite coming-of-age, not quite first love story, wrapped in a subtle folklore-inspired magical realism. 

 

Characters were sometimes difficult to distinguish as they shared a lot of (understandable) similarities being rebellious youth stuck in small Irish towns despite the generations of difference. 

 

A melancholic read that stands out not for the story itself, but for its development of atmosphere and literary writing style. 

Short. 
Has potential.
Hits a few interesting issues.

I didn’t not not love it. There were bits of compelling action between reams of philosophy lecture delivered in plenty bantery conversation (strong point in the series), and these flashy action bits promised perhaps a looming plot, but alas, suspected plot never settled on the page. I get it, plot was secondary (tertiary?) to the core of this work: existentialist philosophical jabberings. First year philosophy students (in our current year: 2024, that means specifically those born 2005-2007) will find this riveting, eye-opening, Galaxy bursting stuff. (Third years will coolly roll their reddened eyes and return to Sartre and Nietzsche and Voltaire.)
Overall, it’s a not entirely unpretentious novel-ish sort of work with a not un-slim plethora of double (triple?) negatives fattening the not not already pretentious word count. For sure. 
Am I glad I read all three? Maybe. No. Yes. Well, is it Thursday? I have gained everything and nothing in this endeavour, and I cannot highly enough not recommend it to anyone and everyone. Or no one just the same. 

Complete and utter sabotage of the expected YA romance arc. Kill everyone off and end with hate and bitterness and banishment and brokenness. 
Apt title. 

I liked the stories of Arjun and Pippa, but this was so juvenile, and then suddenly matures 3/4 of the way through, and then it’s a cliffhanger… and just feels manipulative…