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“Hatred makes monsters of us all.”

Friends, I’ll be honest with you, I have been dreading writing this review. I don’t know what’s wrong with me or my reading tastes, but this series just isn’t the series for me. So many of my friends love this series more than anything and you should check out their reviews: Chaima (Muslim ownvoices), Elise, and Emily! But, sadly, I’m calling it quits and I’m not reading the third book. And if you want my honest opinion? Read The Traitor Baru Cormorant, because it’s a better version of (Radu’s storyline especially) this story.

I didn’t hate this book by any means, it’s just really a 2.5 star, middle of the road book for me. And I’m going to try to keep this review short, because I completely recognize that this series just doesn’t work for me! But this is a historical reimagining, starring two children during the fall of Constantinople, but one of those children is a genderbent Vlad the Impaler.

“The world will destroy her in the end. Too much spark leads to explosions. But your sister will destroy as much as she can before she goes out. She will go down in flames and blood.”

Lada is my favorite. She’s cutthroat, ruthless, and such a wonderful character to read about. She, to me, is the shining star of this book. Radu, is alright. I enjoyed his storyline in this book, but again, it was so reminiscent of The Traitor Baru Cormorant, but just done not as well.

I’ll be honest with you, and this might be a tiny bit spoilery so don’t read any further if you want to go into this tale completely unaware of anything, but I hate love triangles where both siblings like the same person. Maybe it is because I’m so close to my brother, and would never do that to him, but it just makes for a truly painful reading experience. And the character in the middle of it? I hate them with a fiery passion already.

But what I loved is Kiersten White’s writing. Every book I pick up by the author, blows me away with one-liner after one-liner. Such a beautiful and lyrical writing style, and I gobble it up every book. And it makes me even more excited to pick up Slayer.

“Perhaps she had never stopped being that girl lost in a place where she could never have power.”

Overall, I think most people would enjoy this series. Hell, I think most people do enjoy this series. And there really are so many good themes and a lot of representation. So, for sure take my review with a grain of salt. And, again, make sure you check out the reviews of the people I linked in the top paragraph. This series just isn’t for me, and that’s okay. Mehmed is legit the worst character in the history of YA. But Nazira and Fatima are worthy of five stars, though.

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