Pub date: March 24, 2026
An exquisite collection of short stories written in Amal’s poetic prose that might leave you shedding a few tears or staring at the wall after reading, contemplating life, love, and the many joys and horrors of our world.
If everyone loved women the way this author so dearly loves women, the world would be a more beautiful and safe place for all. The way my heart ached for the women in these stories, for all the evils the world of men has put upon them, for the way they were healed by fellow women, sisters, mothers, friends…the way they were accepted for who they were, not for who others (men) wanted them to shaped like…
My auto-buy author list has one more addition!
A standout story in this collection was the title track, Seasons of Glass and Iron. This was a story of women discovering new possibilities through their relationship with each other after being conditioned by men/systems into harmful beliefs. It was beautiful, and I cried.
Another poignant tale is John Hollowback and the Witch. This perfectly encapsulates the horrible habit men have of seeing something beautiful, wanting to cage it and shape it to their liking, thinking they are doing a wonderful service, demanding to be the hero, the main character in everyone’s story, and completely blind to the reality where they smother someone’s soul so much it shrinks to barely a whisper and it isn’t until this crushed and bruised soul breaks free that the full scope of such a harm is realized…and everyone hates the men for it but they don’t even know because they cannot see themselves in a poor light, it must be everyone else’s fault.
While these two might be the ones I point out in this review, it by no means diminishes the rest. Each piece in this work is as precious as any other. You’ll find stories, perspectives, and representations of queer, Palestinian, and immigrant characters. There are also West Asian supernatural entities such as the Peri and Djinn. In every piece, there is magic.
This book is for everyone; everyone should read this book! Highly recommend!! Preorder below:
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Thank you to Tor for the eARC copy via NetGalley for review consideration. All my opinions are my own.
About the Author
Find more information about the author and their other works at their website linked here.
About the Publisher
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