Mirage

Warning: Spoilers ahead! Also… This is not a comprehensive review, just a quick spat of my thoughts.

I recently read (as in, I finished it yesterday) Mirage by Somaiya Daud. It was pretty good, I won’t lie. I was relatively hooked. Unfortunately, it took me over a month to read. That wasn’t the book’s fault—more like… I was incredibly busy in the month of February, and I barely had time to even breathe, much less read. However, I did read it, and I did really like it.

I thought it was going to be a one off… but hey! This just means I have to read more books!

Let me start with the world. I absolutely love it when I can be thrown into a completely new world—a completely new star system and galaxy—and understand what is going on. Of course, the two maps printed at the beginning of the book helped quite a lot, but it was still nice. I felt like there was a good amount of world building, but also that it wasn’t shoved down the reader’s (aka my) throat. The poetry threaded into the book helped with this. Also, I feel like there is a lot of culture beautifully visible, and I am curious to know if it is based off of a culture from our world (I’ll turn to my handy friend Google later). In any case, it was all very well written.

Ok… With how the star map (there’s a special name for that, but I don’t know what it is) was included at the beginning, I really should have figured that this book was a part of a larger series XD

Out of everybody, I probably felt the worst for Maram? Or Idris. Actually, definitely Idris, when I think about it, but my immediate sympathy (or maybe pity) goes towards Maram. Surprisingly, not Amani, but that is most likely because she was the main protagonist—I rarely feel anything super strong for the main protagonist (weird, right?). I just really hope Maram and Amani’s relationship grows in a happy direction in the later book/books… Maram needs it.

I don’t know. My thoughts are very tangled. There are definitely social commentaries and integral scenes with the characters that could be touched on, but I really think I’ll keep this post short and leave y’all with my favorite quote:

“You do not kneel or bend, I told myself. To anyone. You continue.”

Who did you feel bad for? What do you hope happens with relationships in the later book/books? How did you feel about the poetry? What’s your favorite quote? Tell me all the things!

My next read:

My last read: