And I Darken by Kiersten White (2016)

In 1448, Lada and her younger brother, Radu, are given to the Ottoman Empire in return for protection of their homeland. Walachia. She is thirteen and he is eleven. There, they meet Prince Mehmed, who is next in line for the throne. Right away, Mehmed and Radu connect, becoming best friends, but Lada know the truth, that they are Mehmed’s property. As they become young adults, they follow Mehmed throughout the Empire, but Lada’s drive to get back to Walachia doesn’t fade. While she becomes the most ruthless soldier in the land, Radu becomes committed to Islam, and both of them become infatuated with Mehmed. Still, as Mehmed becomes closer to ruling, he receives more and more threats, until both Lada and Radu are protecting him. However, even in their tight but tensioned filled triangle, nothing can stop there from the violence and political puzzle that is to come. And no one is getting out in one piece.

I should start by clearing some common misconceptions about As I Darken. First, this is not a fantasy book, even though I went into the book thinking it was. More or less, it’s a

historical fiction, and I’ve heard it more or less a retelling of Vlad the Impaler except that Vlad is a girl, and her name is Lada. Second, this is a young adult book, but I think the first half could be considered middle grade. Again, I thought that this book started when Lada was at least seventeen, but it actually starts when Lada is born. Because of that, there are topics brought up that were really juvenile, and really didn’t interest me.

As I stated before, this is historical fiction, specifically around the Ottoman Empire, which I have almost no knowledge of. So, going into this, I had no idea what the story could entail. However, I feel like Kierstan White wrote this expecting the reader to have background knowledge. I was fairly confused with most of the politics, and I still don’t really know what the Ottoman Empire is all about. It was especially difficult because of how the storyline was set up. Basically, because the book covers such a long period of time, it does skip over gaps of Mehmed’s, Lada’s, and Radu’s life, the most relevant gap being 3 years during their teen years. Therefore, the story would leave off in one political setting, and come back with another, all the while having no explanation of how the politics progressed.

However, in general, I think the progression of the character’s life was not necessary. Overall, there wasn’t a lot of character growth between Mehmed, Lada, and Radu. They kept repeating the same scenarios in their life, just with different problems. Lada, specifically, didn’t really change at all from the day she was born, till now. She was born into the world angry, and if anything, got more bitter and heartless when she grew up. I also found her character, as well as others, to act unrealistically for their situation.  For example, there is a situation where Radu and Lada are both under the age of thirteen, but still manage to play a major political move that ends up affecting wars. But, I did find Radu to be realistic to some extent, and he was my favorite character. I loved how open he was with his emotions and that he was so tender hearted. Still, I had a problem with the character layout itself. There was a major overload of characters (over twenty), and I could keep track of them. I should note that I was reading an ARC, so I did not have the character list that was in the final copy. So, it’s possible that the character layout improves.

Despite all the problems I had with And I Darken, I really liked that it talked about two things: a woman’s capability and sexuality. Obviously, since it takes place in the 1400s, there’s a fair amount of sexism, and Lada ended up experiencing the core of it, as well as sexual assault. And she totally recognized  that she had an unfair situation, and used every possible outlet to make it clear that she was just as strong and deserved just as much respect as a male. I also think the topic of sexuality was handled really well, and it makes sense that it was talked about, because Mehmed, Lada, and Radu were at a really good age to start recognizing their sexuality. The greatest part was that it didn’t just deal with heterosexuality, but a broad umbrella of sexualities.

Not my favorite, but certainly not a book to be overlooked, As I Darken offers a very complicated tale of growing up.

Three Stars