RATING: 4.5/5
And I Darken
Author: Kiersten White
Date of Publication: June 28, 2016
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Pages: 475
From Goodreads
No one expects a princess to be brutal. And Lada Dragwlya likes it that way. Ever since she and her gentle younger brother, Radu, were wrenched from their homeland of Wallachia and abandoned by their father to be raised in the Ottoman courts, Lada has known that being ruthless is the key to survival. She and Radu are doomed to act as pawns in a vicious game, an unseen sword hovering over their every move. For the lineage that makes them special also makes them targets.
Lada despises the Ottomans and bides her time, planning her vengeance for the day when she can return to Wallachia and claim her birthright. Radu longs only for a place where he feels safe. And when they meet Mehmed, the defiant and lonely son of the sultan, Radu feels that he’s made a true friend—and Lada wonders if she’s finally found someone worthy of her passion.
But Mehmed is heir to the very empire that Lada has sworn to fight against—and that Radu now considers home. Together, Lada, Radu, and Mehmed form a toxic triangle that strains the bonds of love and loyalty to the breaking point.
Oh my.
This book... was something.
It was amazing and gritty and so not delicate in all the right ways. It wrapped you, tied you, bound you as you watched the threads connect characters and witnessed the balance of passion and hatred. It was beautifully brutal. I loved it.
It was almost hypnotic to read, with the different relationships so unique to each of the characters. Lada, with her fierce love for her brother yet her harsh lessons on being strong, Radu, with his soft-spokenness and his complicated feelings for Prince Mehmed, and the Prince himself, heart torn between the two. The three of them had such an interestingly passionate -- yet toxic -- dynamic that really grounded them, that made them seem real. All the emotions were very raw and human, with resentment building up between them that White doesn’t shy away from. There’s plenty of sweet moments throughout the story, but there are also dark and dirty moments where their viciousness begins to show.
I, personally, loved that there were cracks in their relationships. All the flaws in them made the entire thing feel so real, and really made my heart hurt for each of them.
And the premise of the book… gosh, it’s so fascinating. Vlad the Impaler changed to Lada the Impaler, the female terror of the Ottoman Empire. I was absolutely thrilled to realise that even though the character had been changed to female, the same viciousness and brutality remained and wasn’t toned down to fit the ‘female’ part of her.
Everything seems to just go back the characters, doesn’t it? That’s probably because the characters -- all three of them -- were the highlight in this book for me.
If you’re looking for a brutal, honest, and raw type of story set in the epic age of the Ottoman Empire, by all means pick this book up. Immediately. But if that kind of thing turns you off, then maybe it’s better for you to skip this one.
