Rebel of the Sands

I work in a primary school library and one of my 10 year old readers asked me to look at this series because he didn’t think it was appropriate for his age range. He was right. I really enjoyed this book and story line. The author crafts a detailed and exciting world that younger readers would enjoy but the mature themes pitch this book squarely for teens and up. Use of words such as “whore”, the sale of young women to men and allusions to rape by soldiers and other men are frequent throughout the story. The are several scenes of excessive drinking an the budding feelings between the two main characters lead to loaded moments, looks lingering on bodies, a few steamy kisses etc All in all I enjoyed this book but I’ll be removing the series from our primary school library!

I gave this book 4 stars because I thought it was very creative in its world-building and the build up to its bigger plot twists. CommonSense Media asks for an age and up, so I chose 15. To be honest, thought I would say an 11 or 12 year old could read it, but then skip kids age 13 - 15 who will understand a lot more of the unspoken subtext of how the women are being treated and leared at. As an Orthodox Jewish mother who pre-reads a lot of YA fantasy before handing them over to my 15 year old son, I wouldn't run to give this to him because there is a lot of that very exciting sensual sense of something almost, which I think is possibly more of a challenge for kids then mentioning a kiss outright. As far as plot, I really did like the story. I will say that I felt, toward the end, that the fantasy side took over a bit too much and I would have liked it to have managed a little more of a "mixed cast" so to speak, but I would still pick up the sequel at the library.