Fledgling The Keeper's Records of Revolution

🦇 Fledgling Book Review 🦇

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

❓ #QOTD Describe the book you're currently reading only using emojis (reveal the book's identity with a follow-up comment).

🦇 Raisa of Upper Earth has only lived a life of privilege & acquiescence. Ever dutiful, she accepts her father’s arrangement of her marriage to Lein, Crown Prince of the corrupt, volatile lands of Lower Earth. Though Lein is a stranger, Raisa knows the wedding will unite their vastly different worlds in a pact of peace: an infusion of Upper Earth technology will usher in the final age of enlightenment, ending war between humans forever.
Newly released from imprisonment, Nada of Lower Earth has found her own calling: disrupting the royal wedding. Convinced her cousin Lein’s alliance with Upper Earth will launch an invasive, terrifying form of tyranny, Nada sets out undercover to light the spark of revolution. When Raisa goes missing a week before the wedding, all eyes turn to the rebels, including Nayf, Nada’s twin brother, a fugitive on the run. Can the revolutionaries take action before this new age of enlightenment steals free thought & will from all?

💜 S. K. Ali has single-handedly revived the YA dystopian genre with this fantastical fantasy novel. The author's first step into the genre is layered with subtext, making it a revolutionary, relevant story for our time.

💜 Since there's SO much going on in this story, I've decided to change my review format (let me know if you prefer this breakdown or my usually lengthy paragraphs!):
✨ Characters - 4: There are almost too many POVs, but each character has a distinct voice, purpose, & drive. I would have preferred more time with Nada & Raisa together; their friendship, while short-lived, had the strongest potential for sparking change between the factions & character growth between both women.
✨ Plot & Pacing - 4: The beginning is a bit slow, namely due to flashbacks, but once it gains momentum, it's a rush. I know some people would have preferred chronological order (focused on the twins & Musaid), but I think the flashbacks revealed pieces of information as needed, which better builds suspense & intrigue.
✨ World-Building - 4: More detailed explanations would have been helpful, especially in defining certain terms & tech. Context clues only help so much in a sci-fi/fantasy novel.
✨ Romance - 4: One primary romance drives the story, with the possibility for others. The romance between Nada & Musaid is beautifully heartfelt, the flashbacks demonstrating the build from the moment they first met. Some small part of me hoped for a Nada/Raisa romance instead (sorry not sorry!), but I do think they found their friendship when it was needed most. I'm a bit confused by Lein's sudden focus on Raisa as his fiancee at the end, when his previous intent was to use her as a puppet.
✨ Mystery/Suspense - 4: There are a few mysterious left for the second book, & while there's suspense, it's not as heavy as I'd hoped. It seems like everyone's parents are holding onto secrets yet to be revealed...that, & Lein's hint at a fire he potentially caused.
✨ Tone/Prose - 4: There are a few awkward sentences, namely at the story's start, that nearly threw me out of the story. That, combined with a few awkward switches to passive voice, seemed out of place for this writer.

Can we talk about, "The marvel of being unprogrammed. The marvel of tracking your own thoughts, arriving at your own beliefs, seeing for your own self what the truth really is." Also “Of course everyone is programmed; of course we are shaped by what exists around us. But at some point, when we fledge, when we seek freedom, we should decide on our programming. We should choose who writes our code.” This is a book that needs to be discussed in schools. Do you realize how much we've already been 'programmed?'

🦇 Recommended for fans of The Lunar Chronicles, An Ember in the Ashes, & Uglies.

✨ The Vibes ✨
🐦 Sci-Fi/Futuristic Dystopian
🐦‍⬛ Duology
🧣 Muslim Coded
❤ Multi POV
🧣Colonization & Repression
🐦‍⬛ Resistance & Revolution
🐦 Political Intrigue

🦇 Major thanks to the author and publisher for providing an ARC of this book via Netgalley. 🥰 This does not affect my opinion regarding the book. #OneLastWord

💬 Quotes
❝ By our records, shall we resist. ❞
❝ A bird flies to us in the midst of war & desolation, bringing a seed of peace. For, while it is true that within every civilization are seeds of its destruction, there are also seeds of its upliftment scattered in the chaos— but only some can find & carry those seeds. ❞
❝ She knew he’d learned the song for her. She knew the performance had been for her. It spoke words he couldn’t say clearly. That’s what love poems are for. ❞
❝ None of us asked to be born into the circumstances of our lives. ❞
❝ “Of course everyone is programmed; of course we are shaped by what exists around us. But at some point, when we fledge, when we seek freedom, we should decide on our programming. We should choose who writes our code.” ❞
❝ The marvel of being unprogrammed. The marvel of tracking your own thoughts, arriving at your own beliefs, seeing for your own self what the truth really is. ❞