Rebel of the Sands (Rebel of the Sands, #1)

by Alwyn Hamilton

Review originally posted at Simply Adrift.

Rebel of the Sands was a fun read. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I was happy with what I got.

Rebel of the Sands is about a young woman fighting for her freedom and respect, meaning women are looked down upon in her country, they are a means to an end in a mans life. Amani doesn't want to end up sold off to a man that will crush her will power. She has an idea to dress up as a boy and enter a shooting competition to win enough money to buy a ticket to the big city where her mothers sister lives.

Amani was a strong independent character, that was the first thing I noticed about her. She didn't adhere to the rules of society and continuously pushed the boundaries. Her parents both died the year before, her mother killed her father, we don't know exactly why but we get the gist that he was a bad, bad man. Amani loved her mother to pieces and missed her a lot, she continually daydreamed about the stories her mother had told her about Izman; the city far away where life was better, in her mind at least.

In Amani's world, the land of the Miraji, woman were nothing, they had no ground to stand on and were looked down upon. I really didn't like this factor of the story, but there are still cultures today that treat woman like this and that's why it sat really badly with me. I loved that Amani tried her hardest to break free of this damning trait of her people, I liked that we learnt other places in this world were not as sexist or harsh, I like that Jin treated her as an equal. Even though most people thought lowly of woman, I really enjoyed that the book didn't dwell on this a whole lot, it didn't over play this fact which was nice as that would have driven me crazy.

Amani was a strong character, she was a sharp shooter and the best that anyone knew of. This was because she started practising from a young age because she knew even then that she had to get out of Dustwalk. What I didn't like however, was that Amani tended to leave everybody if it was going to drag her down. She left her best friend after he was shot in the leg just so she could get away - that was how much she knew she needed to leave, and later in the story she promises someone she will help him, but when the time comes she decides not to and runs away instead. This trait of Amani's bothered me a lot, she wasn't loyal to anyone except for herself.

This story has a history of magic and magical beings, it was really interesting and I enjoyed reading about it. We learnt about the history of the Miraji through out the book, so we weren't told everything right at the beginning. The end half of this story is a lot different to the first half, which I loved because the first half wasn't as exciting - it set everything up. The half way point of this book was the turning point, it took the story into a new and exciting stage.

I am very excited to see what happens next because I really enjoyed this story.

Always,
Jordon

This review was originally posted on Simply Adrift