SPECTACULAR…give me 14 of them right now!!
This dark and haunting masterpiece just absolutely barrelled itself into my book-loving heart and obliterated whatever poor soul had previously held the title of ‘the best book I’ve read in recent memory’. The way I became an obsessive unrecognizable creature absorbing this story, these characters into my veins as directly and swiftly as possible, while at the same time mourning the fact that I would never again be able to read this book for the first time.
Heba Al-Wasity sweeps us away with her beautiful, well-edited manuscript, her characters that burrow and nestle themselves in the dark corners of your heart, and a masterclass in creating atmosphere, depth, tension, anticipation, and feeling.
Being pitched as a gothic fantasy, this means pain, and no doubt there is suffering here. You will feel it, you will feel everything, and it climbs and it builds like a wave about to devastate the shores of a sleeping village, unaware of the beast about to change its entire world in one crash. I was that sleeping village. And I’m awake now.
Dear potential reader, I could summarize the plot and tell you about all of the poignant themes brilliantly laid bare for your consumption in Weavingshaw, but I promise that no matter what, once this book comes out, there will be severe FOMO for those who don’t immediately shell out what little value money has in the exchange of such a treasure.
* Gothic
* Political
* Demons
* Ghosts
* Mysteries
* A slow burn you will devour
Leena Al-Sayer can see the dead; this is her most severely kept secret. But when she needs to exchange it for the life of her brother in a deal that will threaten to upend her already fragile situation, she bargains with the Saint of Silence. Not a Saint but a haunting mystery, one that slowly unravels into madness, demons, ghosts, and dark corners of the world that might have been better left unturned.
The first book in a TRILOGY.
Recommendation: I’d recommend this book to anyone, everyone!
Additional compelling themes/commentary:
* Legacy – and what men will do/have done to maintain it. How self-important they make themselves and how monstrous…how they feel fit to make decisions of fate like gods for those they see as less than or in control of simply for greed.
* Exploitation – of the poor, the migrant, the refugee. How they are used and bled for the continued vitality of the rich and ruling class. How prison systems become businesses, profits before people…How ‘othering’ people makes it so easy to treat them as less than, to rationalize harming them.
* Secrets – even the smallest of these can change the course of a life.
* Family – and how sometimes the ones we love the most will move and shake our lives so violently we might find resentment haunting our relationships
* Fear & Control – and that maybe, just maybe we might be stronger than we think when it comes to fighting our ghosts.
Thank you to Del Rey for providing this ARC for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
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Find more information about the author and their books at their website linked here.
