
Goodreads Project, Part 9: YA Fantasy
I’m working on a Goodreads project, reading a semi-finalist from each of the fifteen categories Goodreads uses for its Best Book of the Year Award. If you click back through my last eight blog entries, you can see reviews of the books I read in Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery and Thriller, Romance, Romantasy, Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror. When I started, readers were still voting. Since then, Goodreads has announced the winners.
I was dismayed to realize I hadn’t read any of the finalists in the YA Fantasy category. Since I write YA fantasy, that’s a sign I’m out of touch. Time to fix that.
I chose What the River Knows by Isabel Ibanez because I was intrigued by its Egyptian setting.
The Story
Set in the late 1800s, this is the story of Inez, the daughter of two Egyptologists who have disappeared and are presumed dead. Against all decorum, she manages to travel from Argentina to Egypt by herself, intending to discover what happened to them. Her uncle keeps trying to send her home, so she has to fight to stay. There’s a romance. There’s ancient magic caught in objects, including one that belonged to Cleopatra. And there’s treachery. What more could you ask for?
What I liked
I admired Inez’s determination and resourcefulness. She bravely throws herself into unfamiliar surroundings and actions. As someone who worries when I don’t know exactly what highway exit to take, I doff my hat to her.
I chose the book because I was drawn to the idea of Egypt as a setting and to the act of excavating ancient artifacts. The book delivered on both those counts. Ibanez has done her homework on how Cairo, Shepheard’s Hotel, and parts of the Nile looked in the late 1800s. She convincingly puts the reader there. She also takes us into tombs and other ancient buildings. It’s fascinating.
For me, some of the most interesting material was the indictment of the English men ruling Egypt at the time. They believed Egyptians were not capable of excavating their own history. They allowed the export of historic artifacts, claiming European museums could care for them better. Not incidentally, they made money off the sales. And some of the artifacts wound up in places such as lawn ornaments on estates. Egypt has not seen those items since.
What didn’t work for me
Some of the plot and some of the page-to-page tension is created by characters withholding information from one another. That makes sense in many cases, but not in others. For instance, on the Nile, their boat hits a rough patch, and when Inez asks what’s up, her love interest just orders her to go to her cabin. At another point, she receives a letter from her aunt and when he asks her who it’s from, she refuses to tell him. As far as I can see, there’s no reason for not answering questions like these. It’s artificial tension, not real story conflict.
I realize that Inez is seventeen and has led a sheltered life, which makes her determination to set off for Egypt on her own all the more impressive. But late in the book it also leads to her acting in a way that made me roll my eyes. Come on, girl! You’re smarter than that.
I’m an impatient reader, and for my taste, this book sometimes feels overwritten. Here’s an example of a moment when I felt that: “My uncle’s shoulders stiffened. He gave a minute shake of his head and then half turned in his chair. He lifted his chin and met my gaze.” I think those three details would be better cut to two. Other readers may not feel the same way.
Finally, (pet peeve here) there’s a point where Inez rips the hem off her dress to bandage a wound. I challenge you to rip the hem off an intact piece of clothing with your bare hands.
Overall
I know I’m complaining, but when I ask myself if I’d read the next book in the series, the answer is a tentative yes. That’s a sign that, for me, this book’s strong points outweighed its weak ones.
Next
Up next is YA fiction.
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The Wind Reader
Marooned in a city far from home, street kid Doniver struggles to earn enough to live without selling his soul. Unfortunately someone wants him dead. He’ll need all his courage—and glib tongue—to survive.
Bookshop (alliance of independent bookstores)
Inspired Quill (UK small press that makes more money if you buy from their site)
