TRAITOR TO THE THRONE Review

This review includes spoilers for both REBEL OF THE SANDS and TRAITOR TO THE THRONE.

Here's the thing: one day, you finally pick up that pretty blue and gold book that's been waving at you for ages. You look away, leave it be for a while, think over buying it. But then you buy the book and it's called Rebel of the Sands written by an author with one of the coolest names going, Alwyn Hamilton. So this book turns out to be not just one of the best fantasy books set in a desert (which is so uncommon in YA fantasy) with legends galore but it has everything in it. And truly everything. Everything, enough to coax this booknerd to write their first fantasy book review.

(So if this is bad and messy and just godawful, please do excuse. I'm filled with a lot of emotions right now about this story and don't really know what anything is anymore.)

It turns out that this story of a rebellious, mouthy desert girl called Amani who learnt to shoot a gun at a very young age gripped me tightly enough to tumble headfirst into the equally pretty sequel. AND LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT THIS THE SEQUEL.

It starts off with Amani being captured in Saramotai, soaking a shirt through with blood. She gets herself captured in order to free two rebels who'd already gotten themselves into trouble. There, in prison, she finds two sisters, one Demdji. From the prison, the rebels free many women who choose to follow them to their camp. One of them happens to be Amani's aunt who was meant to be making a life for herself in Izman, a more prospering city that was originally Amani's destination. This aunt also happens to be a bad woman and captures Amani one night when they run from their camp, selling her to the Sultan due to her Demdji powers. From there, Amani spends 70% of the book in the palace, under the command of the Sultan thanks to the iron and bronze embedded in her skin; the bronze to follow the orders and the iron the strip her of her powers. In the palace, she meets previous characters from Rebel, literal ghosts from her past, and also she meets Sam. A wall-walking, amusing boy who takes her nickname, Blue-Eyed Bandit, and turns it into a very notorious legend that includes seducing many women. Inside the palace, she's trapped in the harem and meets her Djinni father and makes unexpected allies and Leyla. Sweet, sweet Leyla. Traitor is Amani's time in the palace, enduring the Sultan's command in the face of his foreign guests and alliances and witnessing terrible things from inside, and finding her own true loyalty and doubts and helping the Rebellion from where she is, even when she can't quite reach them.

There's this wonderful transition from Rebel to Traitor where Amani isn't just a desert-girl from Dustwalk, her hometown. Now, she's fully recognised as the legendary Blue-Eyed Bandit, which originates from the very first chapter of Rebel. At first, her blue eyes are just another trait from her real father, who Amani doesn't know. But then she meets Jin, and through him, she gets the adventure and escape from her hometown she's always wanted. It's a little (a lot) bloody and dangerous that she may have anticipated but it gets her away. It gets her to an entirely different world. It gets her to the Rebellion. Through Jin, (wonderful, swoony, heart-breaking Jin) Amani meets the Rebel Prince, Ahmed. More importantly (I think), she meets Shazad, the ultimate female fighter in the whole thing. I adore Amani's skills and her constant need for guns and how the iron of guns made her securely human and safe for her entire life, but Shazad is truly something else.

The rebellion is not just some magic circle who think they can fix every problem with a flick of a hand or will and have elements at their fingertips. It's not just about having otherworldly elements at their disposal there. The Rebellion is everything. It's a human prince who wants a better world for his country, who wants to be a better ruler than his murderous father, the Sultan. It's a general's daughter who's constantly underestimated due to being both female and beautiful. Nobody looks past Shazad's status or beauty to see the cunning brains she has. It's Demdji's working alongside non-Demdji's and having a fully mutual respect. Hala, Imin, Izz and Maz, Delila. All of them having their own powers that set them aside from each other but make them fit easily with the Rebellion. They're not selfish magic-users; they want to use their Demdji gifts to better the world, to help their friends and families and their prince.

In Traitor, there are so many elements of the world addressed. Something I found incredibly important was Imin's character and the swaps. As a shape-shifter, Imin switches between female and male appearances and with that Alwyn Hamilton tailors to the gender swap, giving light to an issue that has such an influence within the story. Navid, Imin's husband (as he becomes in the sequel), is mentioned to never discriminate Imin for whatever form she chooses. Whether Imin is a burly guard hiding in plain sight in the palace, or a slight young woman sitting in Navid's lap, as his wife, he loves Imin whole-heartedly and never loses an ounce of that dedication and love no matter the form he sees. And for me, that was an amazing thing to have included in this story. It's an equality within a relationship, friendship, and a world-changing group to all see Imin as anything she chose or had to be seen as. It's diversity for Imin's character; to show her (or his) value to the Rebellion as anything. She dedicates her entire being and appearance to any role she needs to fill and is never ashamed or let anyone put her down for any shape she chooses to take.

Also in the umbrella of gender, there's Shazad, as mentioned earlier. An incredible woman I was happy to read about on International Women's Day because if there was ever an admirably strong woman from the very start of her introduction, it's Shazad. As a general's daughter, it seems as though there could be a lot of pressure for her to be the leader of battles and strategies and she slips into that role so, so easily, and clearly has her passion for it. She's calculating, often formidable when she uses her appearance to her advantage to fight her enemies. Nobody expects her to be this girl who steps out of a stand storm wielding swords against soldiers but she does. And she does it wonderfully. Shazad faces an awful thing in Rebel: losing her best friend, Bahi. But she doesn't let that defeat her--she grieves for her friend but she comes back fighting, always. Even when she is met with hurdles and hitches in her carefully thought-out plans, she alters if she needs to and so quickly. Her mind is constantly moving with logic and thought and strategy. Know this about this story: Shazad is incredible. She is an inspiration with unwavering dedication to her cause, her prince, her friends. She's the character who, one minute, will be laughing with her head thrown back, pulling off a gorgeous khalat; the next, she'll whipping out a weapon from somewhere nobody quite knows and getting anyone to safety and fighting her way out.

Another notable woman in the series so far is the Demdji Hala. (Honestly, Alwyn, you write so many admirable females, I'll want to write for DAYS about them and had to narrow my individual talks.) At first, her and Amani don't seem to get along. The gold-skinned Demdji meets the Demdji-forced-human who literally grew up in golden sand. They're both golden-covered girls but for different reasons. It's Hala who ends up being Amani's most relatable friend in the Rebellion, learning to harness and know her power, helping her out when she loses it again, understanding what it would be like to lose the thing that makes her different. So when Amani returns to her aunt's place to get the iron removed from inside her, it's Hala she chooses to come with her. Not Shazad, not Jin. Hala. Because she knows Hala understands. And that was a massive bonding thing. I was deeply touched by how much Hala helped Amani out in that part. She alters the aunt's mind and when she sees Amani in the overwhelming amount of pain she is when the iron is being cut out of her, Hala takes her away to an illusion, taking the pain away. Something in Hala cares deeply for Amani and helps her through that pain and gives her something beautiful to focus on instead. I actually wanted to cry at that part, it felt so vital to develop that rocky friendship.

Traitor to the Throne is a story of immense sacrifice and reflection and betrayal, even more so than the first book. It's a story showing the power of the Sultan and his many sons, but also of the women in the palace, particularly Mirajin women in the harem. Whilst the palace is one big political spiderweb, the harem is full of dangerous, battling women, too. Except their fights are quite different to the royal overthrowing of the men. Ayet, the Sultim's wife is a jealous bitch to Amani, cutting off her hair, getting her two Mirajin friends to humiliate Amani over and over, purely because she is Mirajin and that's the Sultim's favourite  type of woman and they're scared of being replaced as there is only a place for three girls. In the harem, a surprising turn happens. Shira, Amani's cousin from Dustwalk, is reintroduced. Along with Tamid, Amani's best friend who she left for dead and forever carries that guilty burden on her shoulders of. Shira, the Blessed Sultima, becomes one of the biggest strength stories of the whole book, I think. She changes her views towards her cousin and they learn to become somewhat allies. Amani changes her views too and starts respecting her cousin for the lengths she went through to survive and make a name for herself in the harem, as an important person to not be easily discarded.

Set in a sprawling, vast landscape of desert and cities and palaces and beautiful exteriors, Alwyn Hamilton gives a very visual story, a book full of mesmerizing world-building. She doesn't just focus on where the Sultan lives just because Amani spends a great portion of the story there. She explores and uses her stunning world. I found myself loving the desert described and loving how it raised and taught Amani and how it became her hidden strength. I love how it witnessed magic and legends and love. It sees a new dawn full of clever plots, genius strategies throughout the Rebellion that literally left me wanting to screech at how wonderfully it was planned out. It sees death and execution and liars and deserters and pain. Here, the desert doesn't just represent a hometown. It represents a guardian, something that watched over the Rebel Prince taking his rightful lands and leading a growing group of rebels who saw a better world; who watched over a girl desperate to leave her hometown and make something of herself; it saw her learning her own skill at the age of ten, all the while never letting her see half of her true self. But then it spoke to her, rose up to help her and made her realise she was more than just a desert-girl who knew how to fire a gun with lethal accuracy.

A tale of magic and legends of Djinni, princesses and truths, of unknown creatures, of sacrifice and loyalty and betrayal, Alwyn Hamilton has written two fantastic books so far and left me itching for the third installment.