By Meghan Mazzaferro
Content warning: colonization, animal death, violence, grief, torture, war, threat of sexual assault, addiction, death
Spice Road by Maiya Ibrahim is a YA fantasy novel following Imani, a Shield in the thriving, hidden desert city of Qalia. Her people were chosen by the gods to protect the world from monsters in exchange for misra, a spice that, when consumed as tea, gives the Shields magical affinities. Imani’s family is one of the most prestigious in Qalia, but a year ago her brother disgraced her family and disappeared. Now there is news that her brother may be alive and fighting in the kingdoms outside of Qalia. Imani will do whatever it takes to save him, including allying herself with a boy she hates, and a djinn she cannot trust.
Spice Road had a really interesting premise and magic system. I found the idea compelling, and the further I got into the book, the more the complexities of the plot spoke to me. This book is all about colonization and the ways in which people could overcome social divides in order to help each other, and the second half of the book explored those well.
Unfortunately, the first half of the book was really difficult for me to get through. I struggled with the writing style that is very flowery with overused metaphors, which made it hard for me to get into the story. I also found the beginning rather jarring, which led to some difficulties later in the book. A major part of the plot is the supposed and real differences between Qalia and Alqibah, the outside world, but because Qalia isn’t described in any great detail, the full emotional impact of those differences doesn’t have the same weight it could have had. That being said, I did find the descriptions of Alqibah and the struggles of its people to be really powerful and impactful.
Likewise, Imani’s relationship with her family, particularly her brother, is told to the reader rather than shown. While the latter half of the book does a good job of exploring Imani’s relationship with her sister, who, in my opinion, is the most fleshed-out and interesting character, the bond Imani feels towards her brother felt shallow. Imani’s love for her brother is the driving force of this book and leads Imani’s growth and character development, and that falling flat took away from the impact of the rest of the story for me. We see all the characters through Imani’s eyes in this book, and while I appreciate that the story shows her as an unreliable narrator, we still get the story through her lens and that took away from my ability to connect to any of the other characters in this book.
Imani’s own character development also falls a bit flat; we didn’t learn enough about why she was who she was at the beginning of the story, so the changes she experiences towards the end don’t have the impact they could have. I think this is my biggest issue with this story. Aside from the writing style being a bit overwritten for my tastes, the beginning of the story doesn’t explore the most important things to this plot, particularly the settings and character dynamics that drive the rest of the story. While the second half of the book is much more interesting and deals with some complex and emotional themes, this book lacks the foundations it needed to really give those things the full impact they could have had.
Overall, this book fell flat for me. I do think the story is heading in a promising direction, I found the second half of the book much more interesting and entertaining to read, and I enjoyed what the book was trying to do, but the writing style and weakness of the first half impacted my reading experience.
Thank you, Penguin Random House Canada, for the complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.