A young witch forced to play concubine for her empirical captor, finally breaks free to find a life of her own, but even those with the power to call Death cannot outrun their past…
All witches must serve the cruel and immortal Emperor Yacatl. But after four years of terror and abuse, Khana not only kills one of his favorite courtiers with her magic, but also discovers the secret of his power and he’s been making deals with Death. And now, so is she.
Armed with magic that she doesn’t fully understand, Khana flees the empire and stumbles into a small mountain town filled with fierce warriors that ostracize her for being a witch, despite using her abilities to heal their sick and injured. There, her magic and courage are put to the test as she is forced to stop running and fight back against the emperor that wants her dead.
But every deal she makes with Death takes another piece of her soul. And there’s only so much Khana can give before she turns into the very monster she’s trying to destroy.
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First line:
It wasn't yet winter, but it was still colder than anything Khana had experienced in her twenty years.
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Source:
Source:
eARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
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Rating:
2 Aji out of 5
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I liked this story in the beginning, but around halfway through it really started to go downhill for me. I don't think this magic system was thought out too much; it just felt way too simplistic and without any real rules. It allowed the characters to do crazy things that didn't feel realistic to the story. Starting around halfway through, it just felt like Alongi gave up with the writing and just kept throwing the weirdest things out into the story. There's a scene where Khana is literally running through an army by walking on the soldiers' shoulders and there is another scene where the whole town is chanting "fuck off" to the emperor.
I also felt like Alongi's dialogue from the characters who sign was disrespectful to the deaf and signing community. I know that in signing, there are a lot of smaller words that are just not signed and grammar is different in sign, but when someone is interpreting, they are able to add those words in to make a cohesive English sentence with proper grammar. The way it was written, to me, felt like these characters were almost being portrayed as less intelligent. I have worked with ASL interpreters and they would never interpret something the way it is written in this book from my experience.
I can't really recommend this book because it just didn't feel fleshed out to me. I like the concepts Alongi was trying to tackle here, but the world and the magic system were not well thought out and the book really fell flat for me at the end.
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