#malayna evans

[kammartinez]

Stop confusing prestige with power. Don’t wait for someone else to give you permission to be potent. The gods aren’t going to tell you what to do.

from Neferura, by Malayna Evans

[kamreadsandrecs]

Title: Neferura

Author: Malayna Evans

Genre/s: historical

Content/Trigger Warning/s: death, murder

Summary (from author's website): Neferura, princess and high priestess of Kemet, knows her duty is to her people. When your mother is the great pharaoh, it’s hard to forget. But Neferura’s unique position at court comes with high stakes for her country, especially when she’s forced to serve her vile half brother, a man determined to stop Neferura’s potential rise. 

Peace, it seems, never lasts for women who wield power in the open. Especially when they cross a vengeful man. 

When Neferura overhears Thutmose’s plot to end her mother’s rule, she knows he must be stopped, no matter the cost. The discovery of a mysterious tattooed wisewoman and her shadowy network of spies offers an uneasy alliance. But the wisewoman wields more power than Neferura knew possible—power with the potential to rival her own. Neferura must decide where her loyalties lie andhow much she’s willing to sacrifice to protect the people she loves before everything crumbles at the hands of a tyrant. 

Buy Here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/neferura-malayna-evans/19997426

Spoiler-Free Review: The word that I think best applies to this book is “adequate”, in that the characters and plot all seem to largely function as they should, and the worldbuilding also works quite well. There’s nothing about any of those things that I think functions terribly. But there’s a certain lack of depth that I was expecting to find, and didn’t.

The first contributing factor to this is the choice of narrative tone. Using Neferura to narrate the story is interesting, and telling it from her POV is also interesting, but the TONE used? Much less so, given that it reads like young adult instead of adult, which is what I expected when I picked up this novel. Nothing wrong with that age group, of course, but this book wasn’t marketed as such, and so I was expecting a higher level of maturity from the story than what I got. Maybe this is because the author writes middle grade books and hasn’t quite got the hang of writing for adults just yet? I don’t want to think this is the case, but it’s possible, given her bibliography.

Another issue is that the lead character and narrator, Neferura, seems to lack layers and nuance to make her a sufficiently compelling character and narrator. Because of this, Neferura’s concerns, while they SEEM genuinely troubling, feel narrow, because she doesn’t have enough layers to her to feel like a fully fleshed-out person. This is a problem with the other characters, as well. Hatshepsut, for example, is portrayed as a secondary villain in this novel, but her characterization feels so narrow in comparison to the historical reality of who she was. My perspective might be influenced by the fact that I read Kara Cooney’s Hatshepsut biography, but I think that there could have been more complexity and nuance in the way Hatshepsut was portrayed in this book. I’m not saying she cannot be portrayed as a villain; I’m just saying that there needs to be more nuance. The same goes for Thutmose: he’s easy to portray as unlikeable, and was portrayed as such even in Cooney’s biography, but even in his unlikability there’s room for nuance. There were moments when his behavior seemed psychopathic, which would have been an INTERESTING path to take, but the portrayal isn’t given any additional angles or nuance.

What makes this even sadder is that there are plenty of aspects in this book with immense potential. The worldbuilding, as I’ve said, is incredibly well done, and I appreciated the author using actual ancient Egyptian terms for things like the Nile and Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple. There are elements that are also really fascinating: that whole bit with the tattooed wisewoman and her spy network would have been incredibly interesting to explore vis a vis the themes of societal change and potential revolution that were touched upon (but not really explored) throughout the novel. Sadly none of these get the attention and development I think they deserved.

Overall, this book was something of a let-down. Hobbled by an underdeveloped protagonist, a juvenile narrative tone, and a lack of exploration of interesting themes, this novel left me feeling nothing much at all. This is an immense pity, given the potential of other elements in this story, but it is what it is, and perhaps other readers may find something in it to enjoy.

Rating: two and a half lotus blossoms

[inabooknook]

Neferura by Malayna Evans

I can't help myself, I read this book so fast. I am a huge Egyptology nerd, so finding out there was an interesting and new take on someone for whom there is very little historical information immediately piqued my interest. The story involves the daughter of Hatshepsut and Thutmose II, Neferura. There is little information historically about her life, so imagining that is something that is so intriguing to me. Add to that the author has a PhD in Egyptology, has meticulously researched every detail of the book, AND made it compelling to read? A+++. I loved this book. It brought strong and interesting historical women to life, and also had an interesting storyline as well. I would very much recommend this book if you want a GREAT story, wonderful descriptions of an interesting time period, and also a history lesson while you're at it.

This ebook was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[wondereads]

Weekly Reading Update (02/12/24)

Reviews and thoughts under the cut

Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor (8/10)

I've always been very interested in Nnedi Okorafor, but, unfortunately, my first foray into her books, Binti, was a bit of a letdown. Remote Control was my second go, and I had a much better time. Remote Control is technically set in the world of another of Okorafor's books, but the worldbuilding is still fairly well-established. Also, the writing does a good job of skirting around the larger questions, developing a story that is more about the characters than the answer of what is actually happening. There are certain things that I would appreciate clarification on, but I can mostly look past that since Okorafor does a stellar job of developing Sankofa/Fatima and her relationships.

Knot My Reality by Miranda May (4/10)

I was in the mood for a spicy, fun romance, but this one seems to mistake a fun romance for one that doesn't really make sense or have any semblance of pacing. This book is essentially the Bachelorette in the omegaverse, and we're a good 150-200 pages into a 500 page book before the introductions are finished. The first week takes another 200 pages or so before there is a major time skip and the final decision takes only around 50 pages or so. There's bad pacing, and then there's this. On top of that, while there's definitely some decent chemistry, almost all of the suitors are instantly in love with the main character for seemingly no reason other than she's pretty and an omega. Overall, it was a disappointment, especially with such a potentially fun premise.

The Odyssey by Homer, trans. by Emily Wilson (CR, 42%)

This is technically for a class, but you bet I'm counting it. I've never read The Odyssey before, and it's incredibly interesting to read about all these mythological events and people that I knew of before, but now I get to see their roots. The writing is a bit odd because Homeric epic comes from oral tradition, not a single person writing it down, so there's a lot of meandering, repetition, and even inconsistency.

Island of Shipwrecks by Lisa McMann (CR, 21%)

Finally, I have the next book in The Unwanteds. I technically own all these books, but I'm listening to them all as audiobooks, which means waiting for them in the library. So far the story has kind of stagnated. There's a lot of planning for things without actually doing them, though I am starting to see something other than bratty, annoying child with psychopathic tendencies in Aaron.

Neferura by Malayna Evans (CR, 10%)

This is actually the first purely historical fiction novel I've ever read, as I usually prefer to have a side of fantasy or mystery with it, so we'll see how I like it. So far, the writing, specifically the language, feels oddly modern and is kind of ruining the immersion for me.

Forced Bonds by J. Bree (CR, 8%)

Maybe someday I will finish The Bonds That Tie. It's been a while since I read Blood Bonds, the previous installment, so I have forgotten some things, but we're starting off with a pretty big betrayal which gives a lot of room for large, emotional reactions.

[bookcoversonly]

Title: Neferura | Author: Malayna Evans | Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark (2024)

[kamreadsandrecs]

If you’re creative enough, options are out there. Choices you haven’t dared dream might be spun from nothing but air, intellect, and courage. And where there are choices, there is power.

from Neferura, by Malayna Evans

[kamreadsandrecs]

Stop confusing prestige with power. Don’t wait for someone else to give you permission to be potent. The gods aren’t going to tell you what to do.

from Neferura, by Malayna Evans

[kammartinez]

If you’re creative enough, options are out there. Choices you haven’t dared dream might be spun from nothing but air, intellect, and courage. And where there are choices, there is power.

from Neferura, by Malayna Evans