About Amy Hello, I'm Amy, an aspiring motorsports writer and former blogger. If you dig deeper enough, you find some very old blog posts, as this started as a book blog, but that's really where I got my start in writing: book reviews, hot book topics and as well as the odd personal essay. After leaving university, I left the book blog behind, but continued writing and going in the world of social media, writing film reviews and promoting queer cinema, but after a tragic event in my personal life, I quickly discovered Motorsports. What started as a love for Formula 1, while finally watching the Formula 1 film, Rush, and discovering Formula 1 TikTok, this love soon expanded to everything Formula E, IndyCar, Formula 2, Formula 3, as well as F1 Academy. I soon found the itch to write come back, with the fast-moving news of motorsport, to the drama, the competition, and the journey of drivers trying to find a race seat. I found that it was the people and storie...
* I have received this book for review from the publisher but this in no way affects my review *
Title: Rebel of the Sands
Author: Alwyn Hamilton
Source: NetGalley
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Summary of Rebel of the Sands from Goodreads:
"Tell me that and we'll go. Right now. Save ourselves and leave this place to burn. Tell me that's how you want your story to go and we'll write it straight across the sand."
Dustwalk is an unforgiving, dead-end town. It's not the place to be poor or orphaned or female. And yet Amani Al'Hiza must call it 'home'.
Amani wants to escape and see the world she's heard about in campfire stories.
Then a foreigner with no name turns up, and with him, she has the chance to run.
But the desert plains are full of dangerous magic. The Sultan's army is on the rise and Amani is soon caught at the heart of a fearless rebellion...
An epic story of swirling desert sands, love, magic and revolution.
Dustwalk is an unforgiving, dead-end town. It's not the place to be poor or orphaned or female. And yet Amani Al'Hiza must call it 'home'.
Amani wants to escape and see the world she's heard about in campfire stories.
Then a foreigner with no name turns up, and with him, she has the chance to run.
But the desert plains are full of dangerous magic. The Sultan's army is on the rise and Amani is soon caught at the heart of a fearless rebellion...
An epic story of swirling desert sands, love, magic and revolution.
Book Review Summary:
Rebel of the Sands was one of those books that I saw everywhere at YALC last year and was a book that wanted to read following its release. I was however disappointed, feeling disconnected from the novel although I do see some potential from the story and the characters so this would be a series that I would continue with.
The plot of this book was one that definitely interested me from the off, a girl who lives in an area that has two things lots of guns and lots of sand and I was completely interested in the story, however, it went downhill from here. So I would like to say that it may not be the book's fault with the fact that I was on holiday when reading the book so this was not my main focus. I therefore felt like I missed key points when reading that when I picked it back up again the plot did not make much sense. This almost left me to DNF the book a couple of times but I did prevail. I was happy that I did because I really like the last 100 pages or so which were really good and definitely means that I would love to follow where the plot goes next.
Characters:
Due to the fact that I often felt disconnected from the plot, this often meant that I do not feel any compassion for the characters. Although from what I did read, I enjoyed the character of Amani and liked the relationships that she had with other characters especially her family although they did not have a nice relationship, it was interesting to see. I did like the way that Amani developed as a character over the course of the novel including gaining some powers and the way that she reacted to over characters like the Demdji. I also did like the characters of Jin and the other Demdji and it was interesting to see the different powers that they had and how this was reflected on the outside.
Writing:
I really did like Alwyn Hamilton's writing, I feel like I enjoyed the world building that she wrote, liking the description of new cities and feeling like I could imagine the scenes in my head. I did like her writing in general and I often felt like I become immersed in the writing and got lost in the fantasy world.
The Verdict:
Rebel of the Sands was an interesting read but at the time, I felt disconnected from the plot and characters although this was probably my own fault rather than the book.
Have you read Rebel of the Sands? Did you like it? Leave it in the comments below.
See you soon,
Amy
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