I stumbled upon this book at exactly the right moment for it to really speak to me. After seeing it many times at bookstores and thinking it sounded interesting, but not enough for me to buy it, I picked it up at the library on a whim.
This book follows two women, Nehal and Giorgina, who come from very different places but find themselves entangled with each other and a women's rights movement called the Daughters of Izdihar. At the core of this book, is a group of strong women in difficult circumstances advocating for a better place for themselves in their country, and recognition from their government.
Part of the reason this book was so impactful for me, however, is the discussion of how intersectionality deeply affects coalition movements like women's rights. Nehal and Giorgina, and the rest of the Daughters, struggle to work together and with the government, not just because of their lack of legal status as women, but because of differences in their class, and their magical abilities.
Both Nehal and Giorgina are "weavers," capable of manipulating natural elements around them. Malak, the leader of the Daughters of Izdihar is also a weaver, a very accomplished one, and in the current political climate of Alamaxa, weavers are under attack from the government and public opinion. As such, the Daughters of Izdihar becomes labeled as a pro-weaver terrorist organization, even though the movement's primary activities revolve around providing shelter, food, and medical and legal assistance to underpriviledged women and their families.
The dichotomy between Nehal and Giorgina, who each tell the story from their own points of view, exemplifies this intersectional push and pull well, and in a way that I didn't quite expect. Nehal comes from a wealthy, noble family, but despite her education and privilege, her qualm with the state of women's rights in Alamaxa is very narrowly limited to her own restricted ability to seek advanced education. She willingly flouts the "rules" in order to get what she wants. Meeting Giorgina, a working-class woman, from a poor family, challenges Nehal. Giorgina struggles with the societal rules and pressures on women, in order to protect her sisters' and her own reputation.
I think the next most impressive part of the book comes from how this women's movement becomes tied to Alamaxa's complicated foreign policy with a neighboring country. For many fantasy novels, I feel that ones that are small in scope (The Daughters of Izdihar is only 384 pages) tend to limit their story so much that they almost happen in a bubble, which suspends the reality and complexity of the issues at hand. In The Daughters of Izdihar, the characters are forced to reckon with the fact that their actions expound beyond themselves, farther than they could ever really realize.
I am very excited to read the sequel.
Sounds great! I was just wondering though – sometimes “can’t wait to read the sequel” means that the book ends on a cliffhanger or with nothing resolved, is that the case here or does it read as a satisfying novel on its own?
Maybe this is a cheating answer, but I feel like it's both. It definitely is open-ended, leaving room for what happens in the sequel, but at the same time, both of the main characters have faced and surmounted a personal challenge. As a character driven novel, I think the ending is satisfying, but if we're talking about it in the scope of an epic fantasy, then it's definitely just "the first book."
I do think it wraps up in a way that makes it clear that the second book has a different central conflict.