And I Darken

4.25/5 stars “Souls and thrones are irreconcilable.” I suck. I really do. I read this book two weeks ago, and only now am I sitting down to review it. My mind is starting to blank on small details. I already am horrible at writing reviews when I remember everything. Let's give this a try though. And I Darken is about Lada, who is a female version of Vlad the Impaler (aka a very cruel man from about the 1400s) and her brother Radu. The very first scene of this book is Lada's birth, and the very last is when Lada's about eighteen years old. It's an unusual move in YA, but it works so beautifully here. Instead of being told Lada's backstory, and why she is the person she is, we are shown everything that has shaped her. We follow Lada as she and her brother are practically abandoned by her to be raised in a country that isn't there own for reasons that are too intricate to explain in just a sentence. There so much drive for Lada, and [a:Kiersten White 3027554 Kiersten White https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/authors/1254205920p2/3027554.jpg] does a excellent job displaying it through her words. Going into this book, I was expecting two things: it was a historical fantasy book and it's about a gender-bent Vlad the Imapler. Historical? Yes. Fantasy? No. There has been so many historical fantasy retellings that have come out the past year (from [b:My Lady Jane 22840421 My Lady Jane Cynthia Hand https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1444923765s/22840421.jpg 42397220] to [b:Legacy of Kings 23569428 Legacy of Kings (Blood of Gods and Royals, #1) Eleanor Herman https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1425592379s/23569428.jpg 43167918]) that I just assumed this was in the category too. Now, I didn't know who Vlad the Impaler was. I think that I maybe have heard the name before, but I couldn't tell you when and where. The Ottoman Empire is one of those things I knew had existed, but never learned about. To be honest, that's the best way to go into this story. If I had known even the basics about Vlad, then I would have been trying to compare every little thing to history. My one, main problem with this book: it's in third person, why is the title in first person? “And She Darkens” would make much more sense. Am I the only person in this world who is annoyed by this so much? Probably. Lada. Lada didn't live up to my expectations. Even though I got exactly what I went in for: a strong, independent, brutal warrior, I was beyond disappointed. I love characters to be complex, and to me she wasn't. She's a strong character, yes, but I wanted there to be more to her than just violence. I understand that her entire world is violence, and she was pretty much born that way, but it also created a disconnect between me as a reader and her as the protagonists. Radu. My favorite character by far. Every time the book was focusing on Lada's POV, I longed to return to him. The first part of the book, I loved him because he was too precious for this world. Then he grew up and became this manipulative teenager and my love soared. He is such a complex character, such an opposite of Lada. I am hoping we get to see even more of him in the next book. Mehmed My feelings about him are in his name. Meh. I'm not sure how I feel about him just yet, mainly because I feel like there's something about him Keirsten White hasn't shown us yet. And I Darken was an insane read, quite unlike anything I have read before. Though technically almost everything that happens in the book has already happened in real life, I still found myself unsure of what would come next. When the second book comes out next year, I'll definitely be picking it up.