A Promising Start with Room for Improvement — The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem

The Jasad Heir, Sara Hashem‘s first novel in The Scorched Throne series, depicts a fantasy world rich in Arabic-inspired features and a complex mythology focused on magical beings known as the Awaleen. While the plot has amazing promise, there are a few things that took away from my overall enjoyment.

The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem
Series: The Scorched Throne #1
Published: 07/15/2023 by Orbit
Format: Hardcover, 485 pages/minutes
Genre: Egyptian, High Fantasy, Magic, Mythology, Romance
Language: English
Audience: Adult
Shelve: Read 2024
Source: Illumicrate
Link to Goodreads
Rating:

At ten-years-old, the Heir of Jasad flees a massacre that takes her entire family.

At fifteen, she buries her first body.

At twenty, the clock is ticking on Sylvia's third attempt at a home. Nizahl's armies have laid waste to Jasad and banned magic across the four remaining kingdoms. Fortunately, Sylvia's magic is as good at playing dead as she is.

When the Nizahl Heir tracks a group of Jasadis to Sylvia’s village, the quiet life she's crafted unravels. Calculating and cold, Arin's tactical brilliance is surpassed only by his hatred for magic. After a mistake exposes Sylvia’s magic to Arin, he offers her an escape: compete as Nizahl’s Champion in the Alcalah tournament and win immunity from persecution. In exchange, Arin will use her as bait to draw out the Jasadis he’s hunting.

To win the deadly Alcalah, Sylvia must work with Arin to free her trapped magic, all while staying a step ahead of his efforts to uncover her identity. As the two grow closer, Sylvia is thrust into the world of cunning royals and double-dealing politics. The Jasadi groups escalate the fight to make Sylvia the face of their movement, and Sylvia realizes winning her freedom as Nizahl’s Champion means destroying any chance of reuniting Jasad under her banner.

The scorched kingdom is rising again, and Sylvia will have to choose between the life she's earned, and the one she left behind.

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Opinion

I found myself struggling to immerse myself in the narrative until about 35% of the way through the book. This initial issue resulted from a lack of explanations for many Arabic-origin words and phrases, which made elements of the storyline opaque for much of the story. As a reader, I believe it is critical for the author to provide context for such terms rather than expecting readers to independently investigate their definitions. A glossary would have been extremely helpful in better comprehending the elaborate world-building.

Furthermore, the mythology surrounding the Awaleen might have been more fully explained. While the idea of these supernatural people with magical skills piqued my interest, I frequently found myself perplexed regarding their roles and significance in the plot.

Another challenge I had was the writing style itself. It felt all over the place and confusing at points, especially during dialogue-heavy sequences in the first half of the work, in which some characters’ motivations and relationships remained unclear even after I finished the book. This lack of clarity limited my ability to completely interact with the plot.

However, once I got beyond these first challenges, I was hooked by the plot. The use of the enemies-to-lovers trope, albeit in a slow burn way, deepened Sylvia and Arin‘s character development. While the romance was not completely required, it did contribute to their development and the general direction of the story.

In terms of character development, Sylvia and Arin endure fascinating alterations throughout the novel, albeit with space for improvement. Their changing relationships and personal journeys kept me interested in their outcomes, and I enjoyed Sylvia‘s acceptance of her fate and legacy in the conclusion.

The ending left me interested for the sequel, as I’m curious to see how Arin‘s search for vengeance or love plays out. Despite its weaknesses, The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem establishes a strong basis for the series, and I eagerly await the author’s development and further investigation of this fascinating fantasy realm.

Conclusion

Finally, Sara Hashem‘s The Jasad Heir is a promising start to The Scorched Throne series, despite certain faults in clarity and writing style. While the novel may take some patience to fully comprehend, its engaging characters and intriguing idea make it a must-read for fantasy lovers.

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