Abdullah Meeting: “The Stardust Thief”

What we enjoyed about the book:

• Dropping the title in the book quite late, fascinating
• Vibe was great: sultan, souks, bazar
• 1001 Nights vibe, does not feel stereotypical, weaved into it very well
• Arabic setting, does not feel forced, does not fall into ‘Oriental’ stereotypes, Kuwait-American author does a great job
• Stories within stories cool
• Story about storytelling, meta, how stories change through telling it, oral tradition nice
• Easy to read, young adult patterns
• Arabic language in the book works very well
• Like in Arabic: “Neither…” instead “Once upon a time”
• Not overexplaining culture, language etc. –> does not alienate or other
• Immersive!
• Fast-paced but does not feel rushed
• “Mazen is my baby”, golden retriever vibes
• “Aisha, I love her”
• Characters are great
• Nice plottwists! 40 thiefs are (SPOILER!!!!!) also djinn (partly)
• Quadir ❤ drinks pure sugar, sweet!
• Not a strong focus on romance
• Ahmed is a good person partly doing the wrong things partly but thinks he’s doing the right things; as a love interest interesting –> does not see djinn as people; duality of it interesting in connection to L.
• Relic idea fascinating, L. struggles with that
• Djinn culture vs. human culture: memory = relict –> should go to different people and be kept in use
• First half of the book quite cosy
• Forced quest was to be expected but it was interesting
• Positions of the brothers connected to the mothers; influences their relationships a lot
• Djinn in exile idea interesting
• L. not realizing O. is M. was hilarious
• Mazen has a nice character development
• M. never has a problem with L. or A. taking care of him
• Aisha’s character arc fascinating: deal with a djinn, connection to 1001 story!
• L. complex character, leaning on Q., not the “strong female character” stereotype, traumatised, but also trying to find a balance in her life between being vulnerable and being independent; well done
• A. ends up liking M. against her better judgement – hilarious!
• A. has a toxic crush (????) on O.?
• Using djinn blood sinister “I loved it”; djinn died: vivid nature in the desert

What we discussed:

• Aisha too preoccupied with herself to notice anything off with Omar etc., funny
• Ahmed’s fate not as surprising but meh
• Beginning not fast-paced enough?
• World building underused but djinn world etc. will be focussed on in the sequels so that’s ok
• Mazen gullible, naive and does not question anything
• Third brother not really given enough space and complexity
• Plotwise not incredible original, characters a bit predictable too
• Body switching could’ve been used more to understand Mazen more (or Omar)
• Mazen very passive; dislikes his privilege but does not do anything about it
• Mazen is a bit mindless, immature, had been too pampered; does not think about consequences
• Characters a bit too young? YA trope again?
• “Everybody need a hug and therapy again”
• L. and A. could bond more, more female friendship?
• How do ghouls work???

Ratings:

• 5/5 magical relic
• 4.5/5 sinking cities in the desert
• 4.5/5 undead ghouls
• Some people had not finished the book yet, so more ratings are coming (here or on the Discord!)