Okay. To preface: this is not a bad book. This is a good book. In some ways, in fact, it's great. I just want to stress this because my review might seem overly critical, but most of my reasons are really all about me and my tastes, which seem to be changing.

So what is this book about? Well, the Goodreads summary does a pretty good job explaining about 50% of the book (which is part of the problem, but I'll get to it later). So, Amani is Princess Maram's body double, she predictably falls in instalove with the Maram's fiance, and she predictably decides to spy for the rebellion. That's pretty much it (also part of the problem, but again, later).

Right, so, first, let me talk about what I loved. First, the North African culture. Y'all. Y'ALL. I have NEVER seen North African culture in a YA fantasy. I mean, yes, I'm Egyptian and not Moroccan and those two things are waaaaay more different than most people think but I still recognized a lot of stuff and it just filled me with joy to be reading about food and words and customs I was familiar with. I loved how the author played around with fantasy and reality and how she adapted Morocco's Amazigh culture. Like. You barely see vague Arab/Middle Eastern culture represented, let alone specific Amazigh things like their tradition of tattooing their faces. Loved that. And I loved how the author talked about colonialism and its effects.

Second, the writing. The writing is what initially drew me in. See, I hadn't planned on reading this book now at all. But I saw someone on here review it and I thought I'd just see how it starts and I was hooked by the writing, which was really good. It's very descriptive without overdoing anything and it's just the right amount of formal without being stilted. Third, I loved the relationship between Maram and Amani. I thought it was a really fascinating dynamic they had going on especially as they started to become friends. Whenever they had a scene together I was hooked.

Okay, now for the not so great.

First, this was boring. Like, really boring. Remember how I said the summary explains 50% of the book? Yeah. It's really slow. Barely anything actually happens in this book. Amani only meets the rebels at the 51% mark. It's just endless stretches of nothing happening, then Maram attending a party or something as Maram, and then nothing again. It was boring, and it was repetitive. By the 30% mark I was struggling to get through it. I just wasn't interested. Part of that is because the characters weren't that interesting. Maram is fascinating - I kind of wish we'd had the story from her perspective, actually. Amani is fine, but I didn't get strong vibes off her, and Idris is suuuuuuuper dull. He serves no purpose. He may as well not have existed.

Which brings me to my second point. The instalove. So, I don't actually hate romance. It might seem like I do, but I don't. I've been known to swoon over well-done romances. But this felt very much like an Inexplicable Heterosexual Romance shoehorned into an otherwise decent story for no reason at all. The first time Amani meets Idris she finds him handsome and charming, the second time they're together they make out, and the third time they're declaring their love for one another? It was dramatic and boring and predictable and it did not need to be there. Every scene these two had together was boring. Amani's interactions with literally every other character were so much more interesting.

Third, okay, I'm just gonna say it: the setting of this book is fucking weird. I don't get it. So, they're in space...there's galaxies and spaceships and androids, somehow...but they still live like it's Olden Times? What? I feel like the author was going for a Firefly-type vibe here, but it didn't work for me at all. I would start to find my groove somewhere and then the story would drove a word like "droid" or "holoreel" and it would take me right back out. It was so jarring and inconsistent. It felt like the technology that was included was just included to make certain things more convenient for the plot. I don't understand why this couldn't have just been set in Olden Times and left at that. I would have liked it way more. This way it just feels gimmicky, because the whole space/galaxy thing doesn't really come in except when the plot needs a particular technology. It's not even clear how long these people have lived here or what existed before these planets or where exactly they came from.

Finally, and here's where this review gets a lot more personal, I'm just so over this type of YA fantasy plot. I keep seeing it recycled over and over again. Country is conquered/a people are discriminated against, MC joins rebels and fights conquerors. It's been done to death. And, I mean, that's not this book's fault. Not at all. Like I said, I do think it's a good book, and, like Laura Sebastian's Ash Princess, it does the job it's meant to do, and I know there will be a lot of people who will love it. I totally get that. I might have loved it too, if I had read it in, say, 2015. But at this point, I've read this plot SO many times, with little to no new variations, that I'm just tired of it, and all the inevitable tropes that come along with it. Again, not the book's fault, and I highly recommend this to people who still do love this sort of YA fantasy, but at this point I think it's just not for me.

Born on one of the isolated moons of the Vathek Empire, 18-year-old Amani belongs to a race of conquered people. During her coming-of-age ceremony, she is kidnapped by drones of the Empire and taken to the royal palace. While a captive there, Amani discovers that she is identical in physical features to the Vathek Princess Maram, whom she was to serve as a body double in the event of assassination attempts. As Amani attempts to mimic the Princess's every mannerism, she can't help but marvel at the palace's beauty in spite of the brewing violence simmering beneath all the finery.

Story
Let me start by saying that Mirage is rich in lore and vivid mythology. If you love that type of story depth, I think you'll enjoy the rich world building and mythology developed in Mirage. If you are looking for a YA science fiction novel as Mirage is marketed to be, Mirage is probably not what you should be searching for. While Mirage does incorporate some mentions of drones, space travel, and star systems into the story, there really isn't any purpose behind their use in the overall story. Drones are mere substitutions for imperial troops capable of facial recognition. Space travel is just a method to go from a remote location to another remote location. If Mirage had taken place in a fantasy setting with imperial troops and carriages, the story could still have been the same. Simply including these technological elements doesn't make a story science fiction, because a huge portion of a good science fiction story is the pervasiveness of such technology into the character's life and the questions of morality and philosophy that arises with said technology. In Mirage, these technological elements simply sit in the backdrop until the plot needs them.

But I'm sure you'd much prefer to hear why you should give this story a chance - because there is so much more Mirage is offering in terms of writing and characters.

The story itself flows very lyrically. We follow the story of a dreamy and just came-of-age Amani as she is taken from her home world and then tortured into serving as a body double for Maram, the cruel half Vathek, half Kushaila princess. As the story progresses, more of the rich Kushaila history is revealed and Amani needs to figure out how to best save herself and those she loves - and most importantly, where her true loyalty lies.

Writing
Overall, Mirage has a lot going for it. I love the lushness of the lore behind Mirage - the poetry, the music, the folklores, the face paint, the fashion, and the anecdotes of famous historical legends. Put together, the world of the Kushaila is very rich and culturally powerful even to those conquered. As a reader, that lore accounts for a huge amount of the writing and the strength and virtue of the main character, Amani. She encapsulates both the purity and the ideals that are at the heart of her culture.

But do be aware that there is a considerable black-and-white portrayal of the Vathek culture that is very one-sided and typical of an enemy race in fantasy. In short, Kushaila is depicted to be beautiful, revered, worthy to be cherished culture, but Vathek is depicted to be the empty, evil, superficial, villainous culture. Hopefully, in future volumes, this rather black-and-white depiction between the cultures can be balanced out to add more emotional depth and layers of grey.

Characters
From this first volume, there are three developing characters: Amani, Maram, and Idris.

Amani - The point of view character who was taking from her world and forced to serve as Princess Maram's body double. A dreamer and a romantic, she wonders where her place should be in a world where she belongs to a conquered race.

Idris - Princess Maram's betrothed but, shares the same ethnicity as Amani and ends up falling for Amani.

Maram - Reputed to be cruel, vicious, and powerful, Maram has a large amount of enemies who watch her every move.

Although Amani is the point of view character, I don't find her half as interesting as the cruel and morally ambiguous half Vathek, half Kushaila Princess Maram, who I think is the more multi-dimensional character out of the three. I'm dying to know which direction the author is planning on taking Maram.

Enjoyability
While I'm not completely convinced of the direction this series is heading in, I do love the rich writing style and will look forward to the next book in the series.

Rating
Story: 3* Stars
Writing: 5* Stars
Characters: 4* Stars
Enjoyability: 4* Stars

Notes: Many thanks to Netgalley and Flatiron Books for providing a copy of this book.

A sci-fi YA novel, the first in a trilogy. Amani is a teen girl in a poor family from a small farming village, a member of an oppressed people, their world recently conquered by spacefaring outsiders. She's in the middle of her coming-of-age ceremony when she's abducted by the empire's guards. This act at first seems inexplicable, but only until Amani meets Princess Maram, heir to the ruler of the world; the two girls look exactly alike, and Amani is intended to be Maram's body-double in the case of assassination attempts. Amani succeeds in learning to walk, talk, and behave like Maram, but matters are complicated when she meets Maram's fiance, and she and he find themselves falling genuinely in love, unlike his politically motivated betrothal with Maram. A subplot sees Amani agreeing to spy for the very rebels who would like to get rid of Maram, forcing Amani to choose between her family's people and the angry, isolated princess she's beginning to care for.

I was excited for this book. I love reading about court intrigues and behind-the-scenes politicking, and Daud bases her worldbuilding on Moroccan and Islamic mythology, architecture, language, and history, which is a nice change from the usual European-inspired setting. Unfortunately the reality didn't live up to my expectations. There's not really any court intrigues at all, since Amani is too isolated and powerless to influence decisions, and the potentially-fascinating process of her transformation from village girl to princess is mostly skipped over. Instead the majority of the plot is focused on her relationship with Maram's fiance and, sorry, but he's just not that interesting, and their love story is the sort of thing you can find in a thousand other YA novels.

Mirage isn't a bad book, but there's nothing particularly noteworthy about it. I'm not invested enough to want to read the sequels.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2647154865

Everyone Amani knows is struggling to survive under a brutal occupation by the Vathek Empire, they are punished for the slightest thing, their culture is slowly being stripped from them and they have become little more than slaves who work hard only to have their crops and produce taken from them by the Vathek elite. Life is hard and although Amani has always dreamed of adventure the last thing she ever wanted was to be forced away from her family and taken to the Vathek capital. It's only when she arrives at the palace that she realises why she was taken, Amani is a perfect double for the Vathek princess and she is there to take over Maram's public appearances. Maram is extremely disliked even among her own people and in constant danger so Amani is going to be the one who takes all the risks putting her own life on the line to protect Maram. So now Amani must learn to mimic her enemy and all it will take is one tiny slip up and her life will be forfeit.

Mirage is a beautifully written debut by Somaiya Daud, the Moroccan inspired setting is rich in detail and described so well you'll feel like you're actually there. The story itself is a fairly slow paced one but with writing this lovely that really doesn't matter and I enjoyed getting the chance to really get to know the characters well. It's very easy to relate to Amani but I was surprised at how interesting Maram's character is too. She's a very angry and bitter girl who has a mean streak a mile wide and I'm never going to be rooting for her as a hero but she's far more complex than most bad guys and the slowly building alliance between her and Amani was really interesting to see. Then you have Idris, Maram's fiancé, whom Amani is forced to spend a lot of time with at public appearances. There seems to be the start of a slow build romance there but he has his own motives for everything he does so it's hard to tell what the outcome will be.

I really enjoyed this story and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing where Somaiya Daud takes things throughout the rest of the series.

MIRAGE was a really enjoyable read!

1. I felt like this read more like fantasy, not sci-fi. And that's a good thing, in my opinion! I loved that it was based in space / on planets, but didn't feel like a huge space fic.

2. The relationships in this are lovely. I really grew to care about Maram and Amani, and I loved that a "sister" bond formed between those. Idris grew on me, although it took a little while.

3. The first chapter / the prologue confused the heck out of me. I didn't feel like it connected very well with the rest of the story.

This was a great read! Poor villager Amani becomes a stand in for the hated Vathek princess. During that time she learns about palace life and falls in love with the prince.

It was a quick read, and kept this reader engaged. I can't wait for the follow-up. I will be recommending this book to my students.

Thank you for the advanced copy.

Mirage is a character driven sci-fi fantasy. I really liked the premise but I didn't end up loving the book. Partly I think because it seemed like fantasy with or without magic and then all of a sudden there are droids and technology. The science fiction felt like a last addition and I didn't really feel like it added anything to the story.

The relationship between Maram and Amani was the most interesting point of the book. I struggled with everything else. I wanted Amani to do more and be more and stop being manipulated so easily. I wanted a bit fast pace. I kept picking it up and putting it down. So mostly I wanted to feel more urgency about Amani's situation and what she's going to do about it.

**I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

OMG!!! I LOVED this book!!!! Seriously, I can't get enough of it and I can't wait for the next one! Somaiya Daud has created such unique, interesting, and engaging characters that I can't wait to see what happens next.

Originally I went into reading this book with pretty mediocre expectations, I've never really been to into the sci-fi/fantasy genre before. I should say, I've read science-fiction and I've read fantasy before, but I've never read a book that blended the two together so well!

I love that the author created a world and characters that made me feel so much. I always wanted to know what happened to our heroine, but at the same time I didn't want the story to end. I wanted to vanquish the villain, but at the same time wanted to know more of why there were like they were. The characters had such depth, that you couldn't help but feel for each and every one of them.

I seriously have recommended this book to pretty much everyone that I know. If you want to really get into the story, I'd also recommend the audio book as well!

★★★★★ (4.7 / 5)
This was such a great work of fiction. I am extremely attached to our two leading ladies, and I can’t wait for the sequel(s). I first heard about this book from Veronica Roth when she RAVED about it on Instagram (and probably everywhere else she could get the word out). Roth is an author I adore, admire, and trust the opinion of, so when I when I got approved to read this ahead of release on NetGalley, I was BEYOND excited. I read the whole book in one sitting, and honestly, my biggest complaint is that I wish it were longer. There’s just so much story, action, and growth just waiting to happen, and I wish I could gulp it all in at once.

Nevertheless, here are some more detailed notes on plot and such (spoiler-free):
• I love the sister-brother relationship Amani has from the start. I hope we get to see more of this later in the series (but maybe I’m just a sucker for some solid brotherly love).
• The romance came suddenly, and it all seemed to escalate quickly and without many obstacles. It feels thrown in simply so the book would have romance at all. I was much more interested in Amani’s development with the other main character, so these pieces felt more like a distraction from the main event. However!! the scenes, the apprehension, the heartache, all written very well! I just wish we’d spent more time with them as a *budding* romance.
• Amazing development between Amani and Maram. It felt realistic based on the setting and circumstances, and there’s a great cliffhanger at the end that makes me desperate for more.
• The poetry and religious themes are really intriguing and add a great quality to the world-building, which by the way is fantastic! There is clear dissonance between two races, and every setting is just so clear to me. Plus, I loved the depictions of each moon/planet we got to travel to alongside Amani.
• I hope we get to see more of the rebellion and buildup of tension in upcoming books. There’s a clear lead-in for that, and I’m eager to see how all of the characters move about on the *shatranj board* Daud has set for us. ;)

I got a copy of this book from NetGalley. Mirage seemed like it was going to be an interesting and diverse story. And while it gets major points for diversity the story itself did not interest me. 

The story is super slow, it takes a long time to get into the main story point and even once it does it's still slow. And sadly cliche. The characters Amani and Maram are both fairly stereotypical for YA characters and I couldn't find them interesting. Nor was could I sympathize with Amani. I really wanted to. 

I think the best part of the story was the world, which was very well developed and intricate. The culture of the world was unique and I liked it, and I wanted to keep reading the book because of it. But just couldn't bring myself to. 

In the end I gave the book 2 stars on Goodreads.

I enjoyed the story. Unfortunately, the galactic world building was hard to follow with all the planets, moons and cultures.

I REALLY wanted to like this book. I was expecting some outer-space epic, in the vein of Star Wars or Firefly. Instead, even though the book was branded as an outer space fantasy, for all intents and purposes it could have taken place on Earth. There's actually very little space travel or space colonization in the book, which could've been fine if I hadn't been hoping for it. I went into the book expecting a good chunk of the setting to take place in outer space and kept paging through the book wondering when that part of the book was actually going to take off. I think if the author/publishers hadn't marketed the outer space nature of the book so much, readers wouldn't have been as disappointed.

Anyway, a girl named Amani is largely a peasant who enjoys poetry. She is kidnapped by the leaders of the nation that rules her planet to serve as a body-double for the princess. The princess, Maram, is a spiky, hateful creature who was nasty but oh-so-fun. While working as Maram's body-double, Amani must learn the ways of the court and keep herself from getting killed.

One positive from this book was the characters. I found Amani and Maram to both be believable and likable through all of their flaws (and probably because of them). They're both strong in their own ways and are a refreshing take on female protagonists in a YA novel.

The thing that really brought this book down for me was the plot. I felt that the book dragged on without much of importance happening. I ended up getting very bored in a number of places and started paging through the book to find when the real action would kick in. As I previously mentioned, I was also fairly underwhelmed by the world-building, but this was largely because I was expecting something else. I would recommend this to some of my students, especially those who prefer a slower read.

This is a fantasy sci-fi with planet travel, drones, and technological advances, which was a really cool combination. I loved the mythology, the heritage, and tradition that this story wove. It is a story much like a lot we have seen before, a girl put in an impossible position and making the most of it, taking comfort and making friends however she can.

Mirage is a simply beautiful novel. Daud paints a vivid tale of a girl torn from her family to serve her conquering oppressors, but it has so much more than that; Mirage is about hope and resilience, about myth and religion and tradition, about power and duty and sacrifice. Above all else, it is the simple beauty of the writing that elevates this book to one of my favourites of the year.

Really compelling story set in a Middle Eastern-inspired interplanetary world... the setting is sci-fi light, kind of like Star Wars. Strong characters, interesting conflicts, and I loved the worldbuilding!

wow I really liked this. There were so many elements that I am obsessed with. The best thing was hands down the amazing and complex relationship between Amani and Maram. Despite looking identical, they are as different as two people can be. But the bond that they form was so powerful.
Maram is definitely becoming one of my fave characters. She has been forced to wear a mask of cruelty her whole life. Being hated by all her people and ignored by her family, she has had no one and it made her hard.
The only thing I didn't like about this book was the romance. It was really unnecessary and far too insta-lovey for my taste.
I really can't wait to read the next book and see what happened with Amani and Maram because this ending destroyed me.

Mirage is the first book in a series by the same name by Somaiya Daud. Mirage is a young adult fantasy/ sci fi series about a world that is actually the moon of another planet, called Andal. I loved the set up. Immediately it had a star wars type vibe, but the comparison does not go very far. Because Mirage is a masterpiece all of its’ own. Somaiya Daud did such a fantastic job weaving this story! I am seriously still mesmerized by it.

As I said before, Mirage is set on a moon world, called Cadiz. Here we meet Amani, who is kidnapped and taken to the planet Andal, where she is forced to train to become the princess’ Body Double. I was completely swept up in this story, and a large part of that was due to the intricate world building. Cadiz is heavily Moroccan inspired and Somaiya Daud really did a fantastic job creating this vast world. She immediately sucked me in and held me captive for the entire novel. By the end, I was practically begging for more!

There is also a really interesting romance developing in Mirage between Amani and Idris caught me right from he very start. (Idris the the princess’ betrothed. scandalous!) It was a bit rushed and a bit predictable but I loved it nonetheless. Mirage is a character building journey for Amani. I loved watching her develop into the young lady she was at the end of the book. And I know she is going to be even more kick butt in the next installment. The rebellious under current is a very strong theme brewing throughout. I cannot wait to see where this duology takes us and I cannot wait to see how it concludes. Honestly, I loved Mirage so much that I am kind of bummed it is only going to be a duology. I am not ready to say goodbye to these characters and this world yet.

I liked the idea of a Middle Eastern-inspired fantasy sci-fi, but I found it pretty meh. The romance was very insta-lovey, and I found the eventual friendship between Amani and the princess to be super predictable. I also thought nothing really happened until the end? Every time she did something that could have been dangerous it turned out basically fine. I also wanted to hear more about the rebel leader who may have been a goddess reincarnated, but we didn't really get much of her.

Beautifully written debut novel with a distinctive Moroccan flavor, filled with lush prose and solid world building. The characters are wonderfully fleshed out, and the relationship between the two main characters is especially interesting to see grow. The romance that develops isn't a surprise, you can see it coming, but it's sweet and swoonworthy and who really cares if we know what going to happen if it's done well? The ending will tug at your heartstrings, and I'm looking forward to the next book so I can see what happens!

I was provided an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was an incredible book. For this to be Somaiya Daud's debut book is astonishing!

Mirage is a multidemensional narrative about about Amani, who is a fantastic lady lead, I gotta say. She has a hard, confusing relationship with Maram, a spoiled rotten princess who Amani has been kidnapped to be her body double. Amani's whole life is ripped from her and she is forced to become a mirror image of Maram; she has to talk like her, walk like her, be her. It is life or death for Amani if she messes this up. I was in such awe while reading this book. Somaiya took romance, religion and struggling with your own culture, colonization and came out with an incredible book that does not disappoint for one second!

It's not just a sappy love story, though the romance was well done beautifully. It is about so much more than that. It's about Maram wanting to make her father accept her, so she hates and forgets her Kushaila heritage, and in doing so making her people she will one day rule over hate her. It's about Amani who is struggling to stay true to herself, to still be her own person but yet still fully become Maram.

I truly devoured this book. It is a brilliant story with so much dimension. I have definitely not read anything like it.

Such a fun read! I don't read a lot of sci-fi but I really enjoyed reading this one! With Middle Eastern influences I was excited to see this world, and am so happy I did!