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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review
I was super excited for Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know because I absolutely loved Love, Hate, and Other Filters. However, this book just didn't do it for me.
I can't even provide a comprehensive summary of this story because most of the text left my brain immediately after I read it. There really wasn't anything I cared about: the characters, the plot, the writing style, the dialogue, the contemporary and historical perspectives, the romance--nothing. I was extremely disappointed because Samira Ahmed's writing has definitely made me feel intense emotions and has made me feel a strong liking towards her characters, but I felt nothing but bored while reading this novel. I struggled to finish and felt like I still didn't exactly know what Ahmed's goal was by the time I reached the last page. The romance and mystery, which drove this story, never caught my attention at any point. I can't even remember the characters' names even though I finished the novel a few minutes ago.
Overall, I found Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know to be terribly disappointing--however, I'll be looking out for future works by Samira Ahmed because I know she's capable of so much more!
I was super excited for Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know because I absolutely loved Love, Hate, and Other Filters. However, this book just didn't do it for me.
I can't even provide a comprehensive summary of this story because most of the text left my brain immediately after I read it. There really wasn't anything I cared about: the characters, the plot, the writing style, the dialogue, the contemporary and historical perspectives, the romance--nothing. I was extremely disappointed because Samira Ahmed's writing has definitely made me feel intense emotions and has made me feel a strong liking towards her characters, but I felt nothing but bored while reading this novel. I struggled to finish and felt like I still didn't exactly know what Ahmed's goal was by the time I reached the last page. The romance and mystery, which drove this story, never caught my attention at any point. I can't even remember the characters' names even though I finished the novel a few minutes ago.
Overall, I found Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know to be terribly disappointing--however, I'll be looking out for future works by Samira Ahmed because I know she's capable of so much more!
The teenage emotions of the main character were tiring and melodramatic but is that not true of teenagers? Overall, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to others.
I read Mad Bad and Dangerous to Know by Samira Ahmed without really knowing that it was about. I'd read a previous book by the same author and figured I'd request it on a whim and take my chances. I'm so glad that I did as Mad Bad and Dangerous to Know was really fascinating and unravelling this mystery of Leila and also navigating Khayyam's love life really kept me on the edge of my seat.
I loved that this book was set in Paris, I loved the descriptions of different foods and pastries, the swoony flirting with a cute French boy gave me heart palpitations, and it was just really interesting to discover this link between Byron, Alexandre Dumas and the artist Delacroix. Extra points for all the points made about POC and about finding a way to give a voice to a woman who history had silenced.
I loved that this book was set in Paris, I loved the descriptions of different foods and pastries, the swoony flirting with a cute French boy gave me heart palpitations, and it was just really interesting to discover this link between Byron, Alexandre Dumas and the artist Delacroix. Extra points for all the points made about POC and about finding a way to give a voice to a woman who history had silenced.
This was an absorbing and entertaining literary mystery. Kayyam is spending the summer in Paris with her parents. After meeting a young descendent of Alexandre Dumas, she becomes involved in the hunt for a treasure: literary, artistic or personal. Interwoven with her story is that of Laila, a young Muslim woman who may have influenced the work of Byron, Dumas and Eugene Delacroix. As a scholar of this period, I found the imaginative connection between these characters intriguing and not impossible, and I enjoyed the treasure hunt and the relationship between the young present-day protagonists. I admired the way the author allowed complexity into the modern-day relationships: all is not resolved neatly and motives are unclear on all sides. I liked the quite strongly feminist slant. Perhaps my one complaint - ironic, given one of the major themes of the book, that women in history have no voice - is that the historical story-line is given considerably less attention and depth than the modern-day plot line. I would have like to have heard more from Laila's own voice. On the whole, though, I would recommend this as a well-written, thoughtful, and enjoyable novel.
I was given an ARC of this novel by NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for an honest review.
I was given an ARC of this novel by NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for an honest review.
This one wasn't for me. I finished it, but the tone and the main character irritated me the entire time.
This book!! If you had given this to me 25 years ago I would have been hopping around the streets of my city in France saying “THIS THIS THIS!!” Obsessed with Baudelaire, Gautier, and Nerval, I was even more obsessed with the women they wrote about but whose importance was erased. So reading Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know took me right back to those times and had me feeling all kinds of nostalgic. Samira Ahmed did it: she wrote a novel that circles around historical and literary figures and their stories, but she manages to center the two main women and highlight their stories, their lived stories, not the imagined and embellished ones that are stolen from them. It’s a layered and beautiful novel that highlights many issues past and present, where women are erased and stereotyped, never allowed to reap the benefits of their hard work.
Khayyam is spending August in Paris with her parents, an annual tradition in the homeland of her father. American, French, Indian, and Muslim, she navigates her heritage and homelands, while also navigating the end of a relationship, and the embarrassment of failing to prove her worth as a budding art historian. She meets Alexandre Dumas, ancestor of the famous French novelist, and the two embark on a literary treasure hunt, searching for a lost Delacroix painting, and the story of the woman with the raven tresses, a woman who appears in the famous works of Byron, Dumas, and Gautier to name but a few. (Side note that poem in question is pure Byron beauty). Nestled next to Khayyam’s story, is Leila’s story, one that has been concealed and erased, waiting for the right person to unravel it.
Honestly, this is one of my favorite reads this year: it contains a part of myself, the France that I grew up in and still consider my home, the literature I grew up reading and yearning for, and, finally, the right stories being elevated, read, and portrayed in the light of reality, not some kind of imagined, stereotypical awe. Also: I love Khayyam, and I love her parents and their wonderful relationship. 5 million stars!!
Khayyam is spending August in Paris with her parents, an annual tradition in the homeland of her father. American, French, Indian, and Muslim, she navigates her heritage and homelands, while also navigating the end of a relationship, and the embarrassment of failing to prove her worth as a budding art historian. She meets Alexandre Dumas, ancestor of the famous French novelist, and the two embark on a literary treasure hunt, searching for a lost Delacroix painting, and the story of the woman with the raven tresses, a woman who appears in the famous works of Byron, Dumas, and Gautier to name but a few. (Side note that poem in question is pure Byron beauty). Nestled next to Khayyam’s story, is Leila’s story, one that has been concealed and erased, waiting for the right person to unravel it.
Honestly, this is one of my favorite reads this year: it contains a part of myself, the France that I grew up in and still consider my home, the literature I grew up reading and yearning for, and, finally, the right stories being elevated, read, and portrayed in the light of reality, not some kind of imagined, stereotypical awe. Also: I love Khayyam, and I love her parents and their wonderful relationship. 5 million stars!!
3.5, rounded up. Although the writing style is a little disjointed and gets bogged down by some of the historical details, I enjoyed solving the mystery of the "lady with raven tresses" along with Khayyam (excellent interfaith/intercultural representation here) and Alexandre Dumas (yes, he is a descendant of THE Alexandre Dumas).
Ahmed describes the streets of Paris so vividly and with a lot of love--it gave me wanderlust, which is not ideal under social isolation during the current pandemic! I also appreciated that all the characters (even the side characters, aside from the mysterious uncle) have depth and are well developed.
Ahmed describes the streets of Paris so vividly and with a lot of love--it gave me wanderlust, which is not ideal under social isolation during the current pandemic! I also appreciated that all the characters (even the side characters, aside from the mysterious uncle) have depth and are well developed.