Somaiya Daud is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Washington. She is passionate about Arabic poetry and the cosmos. Mirage is her debut. You can find her on Twitter @somaiyadaud or on Instagram @somaiiiya.
In a world dominated by the brutal Vathek Empire, eighteen-year-old Amani is a dreamer. She dreams of what life was like before the occupation, of writing poetry, of receiving a sign from Dihya that one day she, too, will had adventure and travel beyond her isolated moon. But when adventure comes for Amani, it is not what she expects. She is kidnapped by the regime and taken in secret to the royal palace, where she discovers that she looks nearly identical to the cruel half-Vathek princess Maram. The princess is so hated by her conquered people that she requires a body double: someone to appear in public as Maram, ready to die in her place. As Amani is forced into her new role, she knows she is a prisoner in all but name. Even so, she can't help enjoying the palace's beauty—and her time with the princess's fiancé Idris. But the glitter of the royal court belies a world of violence and fear. If Amani ever wishes to see her family again, she must play the princess to perfection ... because one wrong move could lead to her death.
Mirage was such a refreshing read, for a few reasons! Firstly, because of the female relationships, Mirage comes out stronger than any other young adult fantasy I've ever read. Amani has such an important relationship with her mother, which colors how she discusses her culture and her love of poetry with other characters in the book, despite how physically distant she is from her mother. Amani and Maram also have such a complex and important relationship—more than anything, the way their relationship evolved throughout the book was believable to me, and is what made me keep flipping the pages. You could really believe, at the end, that Maram wanted to grow, and that Amani saw her as a younger sister, despite the cruelty that defines the beginning of the relationship. Amani also formed powerful relationships with the Dowager, Tala, and Arinaas. These three were less prevalent, but no less powerful, and are ones I hope Daud expands upon in the sequel.
I also loved the addition of poetry and poetry books. It is clear that in this world, love poetry is written by women for men; in this world, it's usually the other way around. This switch was super fun, and empowering. It heightened the experience of understanding the female relationships in this book tenfold. On its own, the addition of poetry gives power and credibility to poetry itself. The language of the novel was poetic, and powerful, and breathes life into what poetry can be for young people. Mostly, poetry can be seen as inaccessible, and thus boring to young adults who don't understand it. Daud turns poetry into this accessible, powerful form that young adults can fall in love with, and that young adults can find peace in. Amani finds power and peace in poetry, and that's just not something we see often enough! Giving poetry a voice, and giving people who love poetry a presence in young adult literature, is another reason why I found Mirage to be so refreshing and necessary.
The world of this novel existed in two ways to me. The first was the science fiction element: the star system, the droids, the fast travel to other places were all elements of science fiction that I identified. Yet, there were other elements of fantasy as well: the different languages and developed cultures, and the otherworldliness of a star system to begin with all screamed fantasy to me. What was slightly off for me was the marriage between these two. While I felt that the world felt fully conceptualized for the author, I had trouble picturing the world properly and fully in my head. There was a clear blend of these genres, which I champion, because that is just fantastic. But I just wasn't able to always connect the dots between the different places. Even if I couldn't understand it, I still really enjoyed how fully conceptualized the world felt, and how I felt like if I spent more time with the novel, I could have started to pick the world apart and put it back together.
Lastly, I loved the concept of this novel. A girl who is kidnapped from her home to be the body double of the much-hated princess, who ends up falling in love with her fiancé and working for the rebels? How wonderfully bizarre, and powerful and poetic in and of itself. The way the concept already calls questions of identity and loyalty into question were the perfect foundations for the ways in which Amani's character grows. While I hope the sequel dives even deeper, I can easily see why so many have fallen in love with Somaiya Daud's debut, and I think she can be on track to be a great name in young adult fiction.
For more Somaiya Daud, you can find her on Twitter @somaiyadaud or on Instagram @somaiiiya.
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
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