Overall, I have to say problematic in the plotting department, but even more than that problematic in the way that people acted. The motivations and actions of the characters were muddled, even to themselves. The romance didn’t feel organic to either Leon or Ibrahim, there was no sexual tension between them, and finally I had no idea why Leon said they were in love - I couldn’t imagine it at all. The setting was lush and richly imagined, the secondary characters were more fleshed out than the two MCs, and ultimately I think I’d have preferred reading a book about them. Leon and Ibrahim felt like ideas of characters the author had, who refused to behave in the way she wanted. Leon as a damaged, broken man who finds peace and the beginning of happiness in a foreign place among people who have different values than those of the people he grew up with, could have been interesting. Instead he turns out to be rather sillier than the ‘silly’ girls he disparages, and ultimately tstl. His discussions with Charlie, which I think are definitely written to fall more on the skewed reality side of things than the supernatural one, are tailor written for my personal preferences, but ended up not working for me at all, mostly because Leon doesn’t do anything with these conversations except use them as a kind of sounding board for ideas Black wants us to have. There was also the early bit about the malaria drugs causing hallucinations that was totally thrown away - like Black planted that there with an early idea of having Leon have to deal with his sense of reality becoming further unmoored in a strange place, but then changed her mind as she kept writing and never went back to take that bit out. Leon also does an abrupt heel-face-turn towards the end in his ideas about justice involving Piers’ murder, and it was at that point I realized that it had to be one of the sympathetic characters that had done it, and Black had to find a way to get out of punishing that character. And Ibrahim as a Tuareg chief trying to syncretize his role in the modern business world with his traditional responsibilities and way of life could have been a fascinating character, but instead he reads as a wooden, controlling alphole only traditional of the Harlequin category romance persuasion. I always thought that Sarah Black is brilliant writer of the shorter stories, but I always wanted to read longer work from her. Tuareg qualifies and yes, I enjoyed it as much as I loved pretty much everything I read by her so far. I love that she takes me to different places, I love that she writes the characters who belong to different races, different ethnicities, sadly I find the diverse characters to be lacking in this genre. Although I can see that it does changes, hopefully we will see even more and soon.I loved that I got to travel to Zanzibar together with the main character of this story, I loved that I got to "see" and "feel" the community which is so very different in some ways from what I get to observe on every day basis. I loved that I was choking up several times while reading and at the same times smiling in the most unexpected places (smiley sunny faces on yellow toenails). I was also amused at how easily this writer makes me fell in love with her guys even if usually big difference in ages and virginal 26 year old hero is something that I usually do not like. But the reason for his virginity is so believable and makes so much sense that all I could do is ache for him and cheer when I saw that he is healing. And Ibragim? OMG I love Ibragim and she did not make him a walking stereotype of another trope, and that could have happened so easily.I have not found the mystery to be too mysterious though. I mean it was well crafted, but the revelation was not a shock if that makes sense, in a sense it did not matter to me who it was, because the feeling would have been the same, since the victim was so unsympathetic.I want to visit Zanzibar so much now.
What do You think about Tuareg (2011)?
Book was ok - read a bit like an old mills and boon romance story only with men as love interest.
—theworm
I love every bit of it and really hope that will be a sequel for this one!
—chris
This book was awesome. I was totally sucked into it from the start.
—rajesh
