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simoneandherbooks 's review for:
The Map of Salt and Stars
by Zeyn Joukhadar
I read this one for my Words Between Worlds book club and despite my brain not really getting into the story (for personal reasons, I promise you), I felt like I went on a grand and terrifying adventure with Nour and Rawiya.
I absolutely loved Rawiya's story. As almost a fairytale, it's something I would read more about. With mythical beasts, fighting, magical items, and a plan to map all of the Middle East, this is the kind of fantasy that gets me super excited. However, when paired with Nour's story, it feels like more of a fantasy than anything happening in reality.
I really felt like Rawiya's story was like a fairy tale Nour's been told hundreds of times. She's memorized the story. She knows exactly where Rawiya and the mapmaker travels. In that sense, Rawiya is Nour's personal Disney princess. She goes on this grand adventure with mythical beasts, magic, and romance. It's definitely the kind of story you would want a young girl to listen to and admire. It's the kind of story that maps out the choices and person you want to become. Rawiya is a hero in her own right and I think Nour knows that too.
I also think that Rawiya's story was used to give Nour an idea of what Syria and the Middle East is like. She's constantly looking for the roc's eye. She's constantly referring back to Rawiya and how she's not her. She even tries to sling a rock at someone attacking her sister like Rawiya does in the story. Nour is this Syrian American girl born in New York and knows little about her ancestral home. She doesn't know as much Arabic as her sisters and she almost seems lost in this fantasy of Rawiya and the mapmaker. However, I think Nour's fantasy of this beautiful landscape was changed after their home in Syria was destroyed by a bombing.
Perhaps the use of Rawiya's story was there to give something Nour to think of. She had been following the same route Rawiya took from Hom to Ceuta and meeting her own challenges which were more frightening and less fantastical than a mythical bird. Things like smuggling into another country on a refrigerated truck, surviving two ferry bombings, surviving the bombing of her Syrian home, and being split up from her entire family.
I think the only thing I wasn't a fan of was how everything kind of came together at the end. Nour had already lost a few people along her journey and them all finding each other in the same place at the same time felt a little cheesy and out of character. I mean, we were already seeing people die, families pulled apart by the fighting in the Middle East, so I wouldn't have been surprised by more casualties. It just seemed a little too neatly packaged at the end.
The last thing I want to bring up is Nour's father; the person who told her the story of Rawiya. While he wasn't a live character in the story, his presence seemed very obvious throughout. It was like Nour needed the faint presence of her father to help her survive. It was his story, his brother, and his country that transported her from New York to Syria, and it makes sense for him to be such a vital component to who Nour becomes.
I absolutely loved Rawiya's story. As almost a fairytale, it's something I would read more about. With mythical beasts, fighting, magical items, and a plan to map all of the Middle East, this is the kind of fantasy that gets me super excited. However, when paired with Nour's story, it feels like more of a fantasy than anything happening in reality.
I really felt like Rawiya's story was like a fairy tale Nour's been told hundreds of times. She's memorized the story. She knows exactly where Rawiya and the mapmaker travels. In that sense, Rawiya is Nour's personal Disney princess. She goes on this grand adventure with mythical beasts, magic, and romance. It's definitely the kind of story you would want a young girl to listen to and admire. It's the kind of story that maps out the choices and person you want to become. Rawiya is a hero in her own right and I think Nour knows that too.
I also think that Rawiya's story was used to give Nour an idea of what Syria and the Middle East is like. She's constantly looking for the roc's eye. She's constantly referring back to Rawiya and how she's not her. She even tries to sling a rock at someone attacking her sister like Rawiya does in the story. Nour is this Syrian American girl born in New York and knows little about her ancestral home. She doesn't know as much Arabic as her sisters and she almost seems lost in this fantasy of Rawiya and the mapmaker. However, I think Nour's fantasy of this beautiful landscape was changed after their home in Syria was destroyed by a bombing.
Perhaps the use of Rawiya's story was there to give something Nour to think of. She had been following the same route Rawiya took from Hom to Ceuta and meeting her own challenges which were more frightening and less fantastical than a mythical bird. Things like smuggling into another country on a refrigerated truck, surviving two ferry bombings, surviving the bombing of her Syrian home, and being split up from her entire family.
I think the only thing I wasn't a fan of was how everything kind of came together at the end. Nour had already lost a few people along her journey and them all finding each other in the same place at the same time felt a little cheesy and out of character. I mean, we were already seeing people die, families pulled apart by the fighting in the Middle East, so I wouldn't have been surprised by more casualties. It just seemed a little too neatly packaged at the end.
The last thing I want to bring up is Nour's father; the person who told her the story of Rawiya. While he wasn't a live character in the story, his presence seemed very obvious throughout. It was like Nour needed the faint presence of her father to help her survive. It was his story, his brother, and his country that transported her from New York to Syria, and it makes sense for him to be such a vital component to who Nour becomes.