And I Darken by Kiersten White Full Book Review

Spoiler Free Review:

And I Darken by Kiersten White
My rating: ❤❤❤❤❤

With fantastic characters, beautiful scenery, and an epic storyline, And I Darken by Kiersten White brings a whole new perspective to young adult historical fiction. There is nothing Lada Dragwlya loves more than her homeland of Wallachia. So when she and her brother Radu are ripped away from their father, the prince of Wallachia, in order to become prisoners of the Ottoman Courts, Lada makes a promise that she will one day return home. The one thing Lada hates more than the Ottoman Empire is being underestimated for being a girl. Lada knows she is stronger than all the men combined, so she sets herself to plotting her revenge. That is, until she meets Mehmed, the intriguing son of the Sultan. In Mehmed, Radu finally has a friend and Lada someone to give her heart too. Can Lada open up her love to more than Wallachia? I can not completely describe how amazing this book was. I picked it up because I am a terrible person who totally judges books by their covers. When I read the synopsis I expected something along the lines of My Lady Jane or The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue, historical fiction with more contemporary characters. This book was so much more. I happen to love history and god do I wish a history text book was written like this! Of course a lot of the history in this book is from the author's mind, but the basis was so well researched and historically accurate. This book actually inspired me to do further research into the Ottoman Empire, which earlier in the year I had found totally boring. The three best things in the book are; the characters, the history, and the incorporation of Islam into the book. That of course can fit both into the characters and the history categories, but it was so fascinating that I think it needs it's own shout out. This is not a religious book, please don't stop reading this review because you think it is, it is a historical book. Islam was a major part of the Ottoman empire and the author handled it really well and completely enriched the story. The characters in this book are horrible and I love it! I can not say any more without spoiling the book, so go read it! This book is perfect for lovers of history and intense characters, though it is not for everyone. I would not recommend this book for people who want a basic storyline, a quick read, a comedy, or a basic romance novel, because this book is none of those things.

Recommended Mindset For Reading

And I Darken is not the kind of thing you can pick up, set down, and pick back up again a month later. The storyline is complex and detailed, requiring a lot of focus. This also isn't something that you can read all in one sitting. I would make sure you have a week where there is adequate time for reading each day. Not that you will have a hard time getting yourself to read, as this book is extremely engaging. While you do not have to love history to enjoy this book, you have to have some respect for it. The plot and the characters can not single-handedly hold up the book, the history is a big part, so if you hate it, this book is not for you. Also, if you want a cute romance novel, go pick up P.S. I Like You by Kaise West (I have a spoiler free review of this on my spoiler free review page!) and leave this book be. There is nothing cute about this book. So I hope I didn't scare you off because this novel is phenomenal!

Full Review: 

Initial Reaction

My initial reaction to this book was "Oh My God this is so good I can't believe I am not going to be able to read it for a whole week!" Once I got about halfway through the book, I left for a cruise where I had no time to read, which basically killed me. From the first page of this book I loved it! The history was mesmerizing and the characters were so darkly fascinating. It was exactly what I wanted at the time and I had no idea when I picked it up. I spent like the whole book internally screaming that I just wanted Radu to find love and abandon all the other characters because they suck. (Can you tell who my favorite character was?) I can not wait to read the sequel!

Character Analysis

All the characters in this book were terrible, but in an awesome way. I loved to hate them. I especially loved to hate Lada. Lada was my least favorite character as I have absolutely nothing in common with her, but at the same time she was my favorite character to read about. Lada is vicious and not open to love. She hates the fact that she is a woman. Hell, if I was in her position I would probably hate to be a woman too. She has no rights, she is not respected, she is expected to be married off and used for the benefit of someone else. That is a pretty horrible life. Lada is really hard to analyze because I have never met anyone as cruel and bloodthirsty as her. The author was trying to make a point by making Lada a girl. Women are not expected to be vicious, or violent, or bloodthirsty. Creating a female character with those traits makes her seem almost unreal, compared to the other characters. I loved how the author decided to have Lada turn her back on everyone in the end. This is unexpected, yet completely realistic. People do not change, and Lada is not immune to this. There is no way she would give up Wallachia for someone who was not going to except her as she is and be faithful. Radu is also not immune to not changing. He can not turn his back on Mehmed, he loves him too much. This makes me sad because Mehmed will never love him back and I just want Radu to find someone who loves him unconditionally. Radu is completely underestimated by Lada, even though he saves her life just as many times as she saves his. Radu is beautiful and it has made him manipulative, though he only uses it to help Mehmed. Mehemed sucks. He is a spoiled brat who just expects that just because something is a societal standard that everyone should go along with it. Radu is way too good for him and needs to find some other hot guy to fawn over. I had really hoped that he and Lazar would end up together, but the author had other plans. Speaking of Lazar and the numerous other minor characters in this book, I can't remember any of their names. In fact not even a month after reading this book I could barely remember any of the characters names. Besides the fact that the names are very weird because they are historical and from across the world, I couldn't remember the names because there were to many characters. There were so many minor character in this book. Some of them were helpful, others were not. The issue was that a lot of the characters were very similar in personality and I got them very mixed up. I have no ability to analyze these minor characters because they were too confusing, which also gets in the way of understanding the major characters. Other than being very confusing, the major characters were done really, really well. As I said before, I love to hate them!

History

History played a very large role in this book as it is set in the time of the Ottoman Empire. The history was one of my favorite things in this book. I loved how, without the amount of detail about the time period, this story would unravel. In a lot of historical fiction books, it feels like a contemporary story where the characters were just plopped into the time period. I also love how the story was not just history. You get plenty of historical fiction books where the characters are not well developed and the book is basically just historical events. This book is the perfect middle ground between this. Earlier in the year, when I was learning about the Ottoman Empire in History class, you would have never heard me say that I thought it was interesting. This book made it fascinating! The details were so well done that I felt like I was actually there. This is pretty impressive because usually it is hard for books to transport me!

Romance

As per usual, I wish there was more romance. Not for Lada and Mehmed, but for Radu. We get one scene where Radu branches out from Mehmed and it does not go well. Is it wrong that I want Radu to be happy and find love! But no, we have to watch him pine for Mehmed who will never love him. Oh well, maybe Radu will find love in the second book. (Which I have yet to read because I promised myself I would not buy any more books in August and my library does not have it yet.) I actually loved Lada and Mehmed's romance. It totally pushed the boundaries on Lada's character. Though I do not want her to end up with Mehmed, I want her to end up with Bogdan. He is definitely in love with her. Of course this is just typical fangirl Becca, shipping the characters together. Watch me read the second book and none of what I want to happen, ends up happening.

Religion

Religion, more specifically Islam, played a large role in this book. I have always been fascinated by religion in books. Most of the time, it is not handled well and it is the author trying to push their religious beliefs on the reader. I hate that. This book on the other hand, was exploring a religion, without pushing it onto the reader. Radu's journey with Islam was extremely interesting to read and made the book feel all the more realistic. I also loved how Lada had no ties to religion because it fits with her character. Overall, the author did an amazing job enriching the book with religion.

Plot

Is it weird to say that I felt the plot in this book was pretty mild? I loved it and it was perfect for the story, but it felt mild. Every part of this book had lots of events going on as the characters are at war. There is no down time or build up. Everything is intense, which gives the overall feeling of a mild plot. The ending was climactic in some ways, but I wasn't surprised when it happens. While I didn't predict it happening, I did expect the characters to turn on each other. There are very few good people in this book, so it was no surprise when a trusted one tried to assassinate Mehmed. I really liked this mild feeling because it allowed the reader to become more absorbed in the drama of the characters, as opposed to the drama of the plot. This is interesting for me because I usually really like an all over the place plot, but I guess my reading habits are expanding!

Family

One major theme in this book is family and what it means to each character. When their father and brother die, neither Lada or Radu are particularly saddened. Their father gave up on them, so they gave up on him. Mehmed's mother spent a good portion of her life plotting to help Mehmed. Mehmed comes to almost resent his mother for the things she has done in the name of family. Comparing this to my family who I love so much is almost comical. No one in my family has killed for each other, nor do any of us plan too. When the characters in this book say they are doing something for their family, it is really just an excuse to do something selfish, usually for political gain. If these characters were not so focused on being powerful, they would live a much happier life. Of course, if they were living a happy normal life, they would be too boring to write a book about!

Final Thoughts

This book was fantastic and I can not wait to read the next one. I loved the writing and I will definitely be checking out the author's other books! Happy reading and make sure to comment and subscribe!