“No matter my origins, there is worth in what I am.”
Namina Forna, The Gilded Ones
Okay. First of all, can we just admire the cover of this book? I don’t really talk about the impact of a beautiful cover, but honestly I pick up a lot of books because of the cover. That was pretty much the case here. I also read the blurb and it looked interesting, but the cover was the first thing that drew me in.
The plot here is really interesting. It’s not anything super new or innovative, but it’s different enough to still feel fresh. In the land of Otera, girls are ritually cut at the age of 15 to determine the color of their blood. If their blood runs red, they are considered “pure” and are able to go on with their lives. If their blood runs gold, they’re considered to be the descendants of demons and are therefore “unclean.” There’s a nationwide death order for all “unclean” girls.
On top of all of this, monsters called deathshrieks stalk the land and kill tons of people. The emperor wants to eliminate the deathshrieks, so he allows the “unclean” girls to live so they can come and fight in his army. As the progeny of demons, the girls have some pretty intense magical skills. They’re faster and stronger than other people, and they’re almost immortal. Some good people to have on your team when you’re fighting monsters.
The protagonist, Deka, is a girl who is a bit of an outcast in her hometown, but who wants desperately to belong. As you can probably predict, her blood runs gold, and she’s given the option to fight for the emperor or die. But even as she avoids the death mandate, she faces the hate of her countrymen, who still consider her to be unnatural. Demonic. Evil. And for a long while, Deka believes it, too.
What I love about this book is the depiction of female friendship and loyalty. When Deka goes to train for combat, she’s put in a training camp with a bunch of other girls. I expected there to be a few who would be her friends and at least one who would be her rival. That’s sort of how things usually go in Young Adult fiction, isn’t it? Whenever you have a group of girls together, there’s got to be at least one who is nasty and competes with the protagonist. And to be honest, I’m sick of it. I was thrilled to discover that that’s not the case in The Gilded Ones. Namina Forna does an amazing job of creating this supportive group dynamic. The girls all watch each other’s backs. They take care of one another. There’s never any question of their loyalty to one another. When I see things like that in literature, I want to sing. Yes! This is how the majority of my female friendships have been, and I love seeing it reflected in fiction.
There’s also a love interest who brings zero drama. None. There’s none of that obnoxious “does he like me or doesn’t he?” that is usually present in YA. Keita is earnest, kind, and competent. I’m totally here for it. Love doesn’t have to be dramatic, and if it is it’s probably not going to last very long. Real love is stable, and I’m so happy that the author chose to portray it that way.
This book does have a few flaws. I felt that there was a lot character-wise that could have been explored, but wasn’t. Maybe Forna is going to get more into that in the next book in the series? I hope so. Otherwise it seems like a wasted opportunity to really get into the meat of these characters.
Also—fair warning—there’s a lot of violence in this book. There’s also discussion of sexual abuse and child abuse, though none of it happens “on screen.” If any of those things are triggering for you, I’d suggest skipping this one.
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by this debut novel. I’m definitely going to pick up the next one in the series. It’s called The Merciless Ones and it’s supposed to come out later this year.
“Give me thy hand,” said the Queen, “and let us be friends. For does not the poet say, one true-hearted friend is worth ten thousand camels laden with gold?”
This the Jinni pondered, before replying, “The poet also says, woe to the man who befriends the jinn, for he shakes hands with death.”
The Forbidden Wish (pg. 12)
While modern English has only one word for love, the ancient Greeks had several. Eros is the kind of romantic, heady, passionate love that we tend to find in YA romance novels. It’s the kind of love that is intoxicating and often dangerous. Of course, we all need a dash of eros in our lives. What’s life without a little romance? But there’s another kind of love. Philia. Philia is platonic love. Fraternal love. It’s the kind of love you feel for your closest friends. It’s the love that turns strangers into family. And though The Forbidden Wish by Jessica Khoury certainly has its share of eros, I believe that the core of this book is philia. At its heart, this is a book about friendship.
The Forbidden Wish turns the story of Aladdin on its head. It transforms the princess into a cloak-and-dagger freedom fighter. Aladdin remains the lovable thief of the Disney film, but he has a vengeful streak that I thought really rounded him out as a character. The jinni, a girl in this version of the story, is an embittered creature of smoke and flame nursing 4,000 years’ worth of pain and regret. Zahra, whose jinn name is Curl-of-the-Tiger’s-Tail, Smoke-on-the-Wind, Girl-Who-Gives-the-Stars-Away (isn’t that just lovely?), winds up bound to Aladdin when he takes possession of her lamp, and she helps him become a prince in an effort to avenge his parents. Throughout their time together, the two form a deep friendship that turns into something more. But, though Aladdin and Zahra’s romance is pivotal to the story, Zahra’s friendships with other women in the story are just as important.
When Aladdin first meets Zahra, he quickly learns that she is known in the annals of history as the Fair Betrayer, a jinni who double-crossed a mighty queen and brought about the ruin of an entire civilization. We find out, of course, that there’s more to the story, but Zahra was involved in the death of her dearest friend, and the pain and joy of that friendship are as central to Zahra’s character as her status as a jinni. It is the love she bore Roshana, the queen, that makes Zahra wary of becoming attached to Aladdin. She has hurt a human she loved before, and she lives in fear of destroying another. It was a nice departure from the tired YA trope of a young woman who doesn’t believe in love because she doesn’t have time for it or doesn’t think it’s important. How many YA protagonists have we read who are “different from other girls” because they think romance is stupid? That isn’t Zahra. She believes in the power of love and she is terrified of that power. In her 4,000 years of experience, love has only ever resulted in destruction.
The other beautiful example of philia is the love between the princess, Caspida, and her “Watchmaidens.” They’re a group of young women who serve a dual purpose as her handmaidens and bodyguards. They fight fiercely and they love fiercely. The bone-deep friendship they show for one another, and for the princess, struck me as the kind of thing I wish I could see more of in literature, especially YA literature. There’s no competition among these friends. They don’t begrudge Caspida her role as princess, nor do they jockey for position at her side. These are friends that have lived their whole lives together and, if they die, they will die together. The author makes it clear that their trust in one another is absolute. In media, female friendship is often portrayed with a healthy dose of gossip and backstabbing. In The Forbidden Wish, every example of female friendship is pure and unadulterated. It was a joy to see.
In the end, Zahra is able to triumph, and she gains the strength to do so through love for Aladdin and love for her friends. Having once failed her dearest friend, Roshana, she finds the power within herself now to save herself and everyone she cares about. The friendship she lost, once the source of so much bitterness, becomes the catalyst for her to make different choices this time around.
I enjoyed this refreshing take on the Aladdin story. There’s a lot more to it than what I’ve talked about here. There’s political intrigue, magic, terrific world building, and adventure. But most of all, there’s philia.
A fall through time. A reckless witch. A war of monsters.
“The cauldron’s rattling intensified until a small funnel cloud formed within, swirling the ingredients into a sickening tornado. Thunder roared overhead, and a flash of lightning elicited a startled shriek from my lips. More flashes of lightning. It grew closer and closer until I swore the next bolt would electrify me.
White light consumed me. Thunder blasted in my ears and into my skull. I couldn’t see or hear anything. Wind tore at my skin and hair and clothes until I was so dizzy I knew I would collapse.
I screamed, but it was lost in the storm.”
R.L. Perez, Twisted by Time
I was lucky enough to be an early reader forthe first novel in R.L. Perez’s new Young Adult Fantasy series, the Timecaster Chronicles. Twisted by Time follows Desi Campbell, a young witch who wants nothing at all to do with the magical world. When she tries an unfamiliar spell to sneak away to Miami for spring break, she accidentally sends herself to Cuba, one hundred years in the past. In trying to figure out how to return home, she finds herself embroiled in a war on two fronts – The Spanish-American War, and a war between witches and demons.
Twisted by Time is a fun, fast-paced young adult novel. There’s a little bit of everything – action, romance, monsters, betrayal, and even a bit of history. It’s pretty clean with regards to language and sexuality, but be aware that it can get a bit dark at times. I mean, there are two wars going on.
I reached out to R.L. Perez to tell us more about her debut novel and its sequel, Devoured by Darkness.
Timecaster Chronicles author R.L. Perez
How long have you been writing, and what got you started?
Ever since I learned how to write as a kid, I’ve written stories. It started as stacks of notebook paper folded over and stapled. I usually retold whatever fairy tale or Disney movie I was currently obsessed with, and it always had hysterically awful drawings to go with it. As I grew older, the stories became more mature but were also loosely based on whatever I was reading at the time. In high school, I finally created my own unique stories and participated in my first NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month – and I’ve been doing it almost every year since then.
Where did you get the ideas for the Timecaster Chronicles from, and why was it important to you to tell this story?
The bare bones idea I had was to write about a witch who time traveled (this was inspired by an episode of Charmed). I didn’t know what time period to write about, so I asked my husband (the Cuban), and he suggested Cuba during the Spanish-American War.
So many time travel stories involve European settings or highlander romances, and I wanted this one to be different. I’ve never heard of a Cuban time travel story before, so I knew this one would be pretty original. I was also excited to write about it because my husband’s family is Cuban, so it gave me the opportunity to explore his culture.
The Spanish-American War was such a short moment in history that it’s not often touched on. To me it seemed like a pivotal event, especially for my husband’s ancestors, that deserved to be told.
What made you want to make the Timecaster Chronicles your first published series?
I have several finished novels, but none of them resonated quite so much with me as the Timecaster Chronicles. I dabbled in science fiction, but it wasn’t a good fit for me. I had other stories that weren’t quite so fleshed out. But I’ve always loved fantasy and time travel, and when this idea came to me, I couldn’t shove it to the side like I had all my other stories. It was practically begging to be published.
Why did you decide to publish indie instead of traditional?
I struggled with this decision for a long time. I always assumed if I went indie, I wouldn’t be successful. I’m an introvert and didn’t know the first thing about marketing. I assumed I would fail. I worked on my science fiction novel and tried getting that picked up by an agent. For two years, I polished my novel and sent it to beta readers and critique partners and editors. I attended writing conferences and met with several agents. So many liked the idea of my story, but when I sent it to them, they decided it “wasn’t for them”. It was such a lengthy process – most agents take 6 months or more to respond after you send a manuscript.
At some point, I realized I might never get published if I kept this up. I found a group on Facebook called 20booksto50k and was astounded by the success I saw there. Thousands of authors are wildly successful at publishing and make a comfortable income – some make even more than traditional authors do because they don’t have to pay the publisher or agent a cut of the royalties. I was inspired. I liked the idea of having complete control and doing things my way – the book title, the cover, the story, the characters, the publishing timeline, etc.
So I took the plunge, and I’m so glad I did. I might not be filthy rich (yet haha), but I have a strict timeline and I’ll be pumping out books ten times faster than a traditional publisher would. Eventually, it’ll make me a lovely income. But for now, I’m happy to have my story out there and make my dream come true.
What is your favorite part about the writing process?
The writing! Outlining is fun and gets me excited, but the really fun part is writing those juicy, heart-stopping scenes and then reading it over and thinking, “Did I write that?”
Did you plot the entire series out from the beginning, or did you have a general outline and let the characters lead you?
A little bit of both. In general, I’m a fierce outliner. I usually have an extensive overall outline as well as several chapters mapped out before I get started. But as I write, sometimes the story changes and I find myself altering the outline. But I can’t write if I don’t have a direction to go, so that first outline is critical.
Twisted by Time was set in Cuba, but Devoured by Darkness will take place in the Philippines. Why the Philippines?
During my research, I discovered that the Spanish-American War began in the Philippines and then moved to Cuba. Then the U.S. returned to the Philippines to claim the country as a result of the treaty after the war with Spain. I thought it was fascinating and a little-known tidbit of history that I wanted to touch on. Cuba and the Philippines were both under Spanish rule for about five centuries, and they were both fighting for their own independence. But the U.S. fought with Cuba and against the Philippines, and I wanted to highlight that contrast.
Who was your favorite character to create, and why?
My favorite character is Kismet. I didn’t expect her to play such a monumental role, but as I wrote the story, I knew she had secrets and a dark past. The more the mystery unfolded, the more her backstory came to light. She just has the coolest timeline. I wrote a prequel novelette about her and I plan to write another at the end of the series as well.
In the series, Desi is a dancer. Why did you choose dance as her creative outlet?
A critique partner read an early draft of mine and pointed out that Desi needed a hobby – her character was too stale and didn’t have enough of a drive. I made her a dancer because she needed a hobby that was physical so she could apply it to hunting demons. It also helped her to be more carefree, which in turn helped Oliver to let loose as well.
What do you think readers will enjoy most about the Timecaster Chronicles?
I think readers will enjoy the time travel. It takes you for a wild ride! More than one occurrence of time travel takes place, and as the mysteries unfold it all comes together and makes for a pretty incredible adventure.
Lastly, when does Devoured by Darkness launch?
Devoured by Darkness launches on August 7!
Thanks to R.L. Perez for taking the time to share her thoughts about her new series, publication, and the writing process. I’m looking forward to grabbing a copy of Devoured by Darkness in August! If you enjoy the Young Adult Fantasy genre, go ahead and check it out!
Twisted by Time is available now as an eBook. You can find it on Amazon here, and it’s free with Kindle Unlimited.
Devoured by Darkness will arrive both as an eBook and in paperback on August 7, 2020! It’s available for pre-order now.
Bound by Blood, the final book in the series, will be published on September 6, 2020. Check it out here.
And, if you want to keep up with R.L. Perez and her future publications, you can follow her on Facebook and Instagram.
Did you read Twisted by Time? Let me know what you thought about it in the comments!
