I had such high hopes for Aicha because I love angry women, mythology, and historical fiction, so this sounded like it’d be exactly my jam. Unfortunately all those expectations fell flat. I wouldn’t say this is a bad book, and there were elements I enjoyed, I just don’t know that I’d say I enjoyed the book as a whole.
Aicha is about the youngest daughter of a weapons smith, who is also a rebel, and how she also fights for her people’s liberation. But inside her is a dark force that has always been there, but she’s always been able to keep it subdued until the final siege of Portuguese in Morocco.
I liked the characters and I enjoyed Aicha’s interactions with her sister and best friend. There’s a lot of really great feelings of community and working together throughout the story, even in the face of oppression and persecution. I thought this would be a solid four-star read for me because it sometimes felt a little slow, and I was okay not immediately putting the book on when I got in my car, but the last third or so just didn’t work for me.
This was a story trying to build tension and stress in lead up to the final siege, but that tension just wasn’t there for me like I’d expect. In fact, a lot of the buildup felt slow, and then all of a sudden shit is hitting the fan, and its devastation after devastation. It was so traumatic, and yet the pacing felt odd and rushed. I did like how it tied to depictions of Aicha as a djinn with goat legs and how that was “explained,” but it was so hard to read the ending. I did also really enjoy the way Aicha’s faith was portrayed and the ways Islam played a role in how she interacted with the world and her beliefs regarding the afterlife. Again, there were elements I really dd enjoy, but the ending just had everything crashing down around me in regards to my enjoyment of the story.
This is an okay book and I think the author has a lot of potential, but Aicha just wasn’t all that for me.
