Book Review

Keeper Shelf: And I Darken by Kiersten White

Squee from the Keeper Shelf is a new feature wherein we share why we love the books we love, specifically the stories which are permanent residents of our Keeper shelves. Despite flaws, despite changes in age and perspective, despite the passage of time, we love particular books beyond reason, and the only thing better than re-reading them is telling other people about them. At length.

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As the baby latched on with surprising fierceness, the nurse offered her own prayer. Let her be strong. Let her be sly. She looked over at the princess, fifteen, lovely and delicate as the first spring blossoms. Wilted and broken on the bed.

And let her be ugly.

I think this goes without saying, but life can really surprise you. When I heard about And I Darken, and realized it was basically “Vlad the Impaler, but A GIRL” I was intrigued but didn’t have any real expectations. Vlad Țepeș aka Vlad Dracul, and the historical inspiration of the Dracula vampire mythos given such a treatment could be pretty interesting, but great? A little unlikely.

So, I went into And I Darken mainly on the premise alone. I have an appreciation for books that take risks, that try something new, that cover less widely known subjects, even if they don’t always end up executed the best. There’s so much of the same thing out there, so just being unique makes me willing to be a bit more lenient than I normally would.

How did this all work out in the case of And I Darken? In short, I feel the strong urge to send Kiersten White an apology card and some chocolates. Because I went into this book expecting a novelty and nothing more, and instead got one of the best, tightly written books I’ve read all year. And I Darken was insanely good, and I’m just about ready to go out and tackle people in the streets in an effort to get word out about it.

And I Darken-the paperback cover, which I honestly think is really superior to the hardback. It's pretty rare that I like the model for a book series cover, but the girl they got to be Lada is perfect. She looks like she's going to kill me and use my bones to make a rack to dry her laundry on and I love it. Note how she's wearing the same outfit as her male counterpart.
And I Darken-the paperback cover, which I honestly think is really superior to the hardback. It’s pretty rare that I like the model for a book series cover, but the girl they got to be Lada is perfect. She looks like she’s going to kill me and use my bones to make a rack to dry her laundry on and I love it. Note how she’s wearing the same outfit as her male counterpart.

In the year of our Lord 1435, when Princess Ladislav Dragwlya is born in Sighișoara, Transylvania, to the Wallachian voivode Vlad II, there’s only one rule to life that matters: if you’re strong, you’ll survive. If you’re weak, you’ll die. For the girl called Lada, born to a family with little power and connections, to a land at the constant mercy of the greater powers around it, lacking beauty, charm, or great wealth…there is no expectation for her future.

Somehow, Lada thrives. Viciously tempered, hot blooded, and proud as the titular dragon of their family’s order, Lada gains the affection of their father in a way her gentle and sweet younger brother Radu never can. Yet neither love nor youth is enough to save them from becoming political hostages of the Ottoman Empire their homeland of Wallachia is in suzerainty to. They become captives raised in the court of the Turkish kingdom.

Lada fights life amongst the Ottomans with unceasing ferocity, ever mindful of her status as a glorified prisoner. Radu, initially adrift, finds a home in the Turkish people and the faith of Islam that he has never had in Wallachia. But it is when the siblings meet Mehmed, the young heir to the sultan-and one destined to go down in history as Mehmed the Conqueror-that their fates are truly set upon their respective courses.

Radu finds in Mehmed someone to love and be devoted to like no other, the true Hand of God on Earth. Lada finds an equal in cunning, strength and fervor. But there is no changing the fact that Mehmed is the face of Lada’s ultimate enemy, the Ottoman Empire, and the one her own brother holds allegiance to above even the land of his birth. Ties of love and loyalty strain against the call of history itself in the earliest days of Wallachia’s Impaler Lord in…And I Darken.

Everything in And I Darken was so fantastically done I know it’s going to be very hard to keep from endlessly babbling. Where to begin isn’t at all difficult, however. As you can imagine, what And I Darken lives or dies by is the way it chooses to portray the female Vlad Dracula, Lada Dragwlya. If Lada doesn’t work, the entire novel is dead on arrival. As my opinion above made clear, And I Darken obviously must have succeeded there…but by how much?

Vlad III-this one is notable because it's the only painting we have of the Impaler that was supposedly copied from one made in his own lifetime
Vlad III-this one is notable because it’s the only painting we have of the Impaler that was supposedly copied from one made in his own lifetime.

In short: Lada Dragwlya isn’t just one of the best portrayals of a historical figure I’ve ever read. She’s one of the best portrayals I’ve read in a long time, period. She is nothing less than extraordinary. I was stunned by how compelling and layered Lada was as a person, to the degree I’m still reeling over it.

From the moment Lada comes into this world she’s viewed as lesser due to her gender. In a time where a woman’s value was based on her ability to birth sons and beauty, Lada has neither. What Lada has, though, is cunning and ferocity in droves. Incredibly intelligence, augmented by a rare level of education for women in the medieval era. Cutthroat political instincts, matched by fighting instincts that will only become more finely honed under years of training with the Janissaries of the Ottoman Empire. She’s everything a man of the medieval age would dream of for an heir…provided that heir was a son. And a major part of what drives Lada is she knows this.

Lada scowled. It was not that she feared punishment for her actions. What she feared was that her father would find out how the Janissaries viewed her and realize they were right. That she was a girl. That she was worth less than the castle dogs until the day she could be married off. She had to be the smartest, constantly surprising and delighting him. She was terrified that the day she stopped amusing him would be the day he remembered he had no use for a daughter.

And as you would expect from any destined to be known by their enemies as “Kaziklu Beg”, Turkish for ‘Impaler Lord’, Lada is badass as fuck. Lada is the particular breed of hardcore where if you knock her down she’ll just glare at you hatefully, rise up, and annihilate you and everything you’ve ever loved as a lesson to the universe in what happens when you screw with a world-class BAMF.

It isn’t her talents that make Lada such a compelling character, though. That falls to two things: her willpower, and her anger. I can’t even tell you the last time I read a female character as unapologetically, incandescently filled with rage as Lada. It’s mesmerizing. Even within the world of And I Darken, that fire and passion is what I’m convinced draws so many people to her side.

Despair welled up in her. A look of triumph shaped the assassin’s eyes into omens of death. He knew everything she would do. He only had to outlast her. She was a girl, and a child. He was stronger, and faster, and…

With a scream of rage, Lada abandoned her learned moves, her careful training. She flew at him like a wild boar, all fury and animal instinct. He did not know where to block because her blows made no sense, her movements had no grace. She slashed at his face, and when he grabbed her wrists, she bit his hand, clenching her jaw, teeth clamping onto bone. She kept her teeth in him as he shook her, slamming the dagger into his side again and again, following him as he fell away from her, trying to break free. She stayed on top, stabbing, not caring where she hit, not going for a careful, efficient blow. An animal scream, muffled by his hand, continued from her throat.

Lada speaks her mind, she fights like a man, she involves herself in matters like politics and warfare, she’s not pious, and she expresses well-earned anger at a world that has slighted her from the moment she was born. Lada is everything a woman of the time shouldn’t be. But because she is strong, because she is sly, because she is ugly, Lada forces a place for herself into existence.

Lake Snagov Monastery-Lada visits this monastery in the book, and tradition holds it was where Vlad III was laid to rest after falling in battle against the Turks. In reality though he's most likely buried at Comana Monastery, which was originally commissioned by Vlad himself.
Lake Snagov Monastery-Lada visits this monastery in the book, and tradition holds it was where Vlad III was laid to rest after falling in battle against the Turks. In reality though he’s most likely buried at Comana Monastery, which was originally commissioned by Vlad himself.

And yet what makes And I Darken such an intricate, well-done read is how Lada’s strengths ultimately hold the seeds of her own downfall. If you know even a little about life of Vlad III, you probably know he eventually took up arms against the Ottoman Empire and over the course of life filled with war and conflict met a grisly end on the battlefield. In And I Darken you’d think this would remove a lot of suspense, but instead, that knowledge of Vlad’s life gives Lada’s story the experience of a disaster that can be seen coming but not avoided.

Anguish and anger warred on Mehmed’s face as he stopped in front of Lada and grasped her shoulders. “What would you have me do?”

And, in that moment, Lada saw her future. Her past was filled with snatching what threads she could from the men around her. Her father. Ilyas Bey. Mehmed. But before her was a knife. She would cut them all.

She did not have to accept only what was offered to her.

She would take what should be hers.

What had always been hers lit on her face like the sun on the mountain peak so many summers ago. “I want Wallachia.”

Which basically brings me to Radu, Lada’s younger brother and essentially the deuteragonist of And I Darken. In every sense imaginable he’s the inverse of Lada: beautiful to the extent his historical title is “Radu the Handsome”, sweet natured, patient, thoughtful and charming. And much like her, Radu is derided for an abundance of traits considered unbefitting of his gender. His entire life Radu is ignored and derided by his father, bullied by his peers, and thought weak by Lada even though he’s the one person in the world she can really be said to love.

Radu’s experiences and struggles with his self-worth does much to shape his character and actions. The younger Drăculești has his own talents and grows in abilities in his time with the Ottomans, but still can never shake his lack of self-worth compared to his sister. He does find a measure of inner peace in converting to Islam, and his friendship with Mehmed II. But what starts as an innocent childhood bond grows to a love on Radu’s side that is unrequited and unnoticed by Mehmed, and only deepens Radu’s inner agony especially given Lada is the object of the Sultan’s affections.

Radu was quivering, fists clenched, consumed with his feelings. This love would break him. Unless Lada broke him now. It would not be the first time she had allowed him to be beaten down in order to protect him.

She spoke with all the bitterness of the truth, each word a lash against Radu’s heart. “He will never love you. He will never look at you the way he looks at me. You cannot have this, Radu.”

In the end, love and family bonds sometimes just aren’t enough. While brother and sister haven’t been ripped apart by the end of And I Darken, you can see the shape of what’s to come between the Drăculești siblings on the horizon, and it’s not good. And I Darken is merely the first of Kiersten White’s Conquerors trilogy, and there’s plenty of time for things to go to hell and beyond-and knowing the history of Vlad the Impaler, it’s practically a given.

Lada and Radu are where the heart of And I Darken rests, but trust me when I say every character in the book is layered and deep. The best among these is Mehmed II, as well as his mother Huma, but really everyone feels very genuine here, with their own hopes, fears, and ambitions. There are a lot of famous historical figures here, but they’re people, not just extended moments of “hey! It’s that guy who did something important!”

Seeing all these warring factions is another great source of suspense in And I Darken. I hear a lot of the time about books being described as “The YA version of Game of Thrones” which always gets a “sure, Jan” from me. Not so here. And I Darken is the first YA novel where I thought, “Yeah, this girl would do just fine in Westeros”. The intrigue here is incredibly well done, and the way the tension increases in this book makes it very hard to put down. Not to mention And I Darken is not afraid to go to very dark places for political gains, all in a way that was pretty faithful to how such affairs went for the Ottomans.

“You see this”—Huma gestured to the room, the building, and finally to herself—“as a prison. But you are wrong. This is my court. This is my throne. This is my kingdom. The cost was my freedom and my body.” Her fine eyebrows raised, mouth playful, eyes hard. “So the question becomes, Daughter of the Dragon, what will you sacrifice? What will you let be taken away so that you, too, can have power?”

However, as dark and gritty as And I Darken gets, there are enough moments of humor and levity that it doesn’t feel like a joyless slog. Radu is especially good for this, as he is by far the snarkiest character, although everyone has their moments. People who aren’t quick witted do not last long in the Ottoman Empire, after all. My all-time favorite is definitely Radu’s attempt to smooth things over after Lada makes clear her objections to an engagement being foisted upon her (that is, by telling the potential groom she is going to bite his tongue off and let him bleed to death on their wedding night).

“Wait!” Radu ran to catch up. He held out his hands in supplication. “Please, she did not mean any harm. She was teasing. In Wallachia, it is customary for…betrothed couples to…threaten each other. As a sign of affection. When our parents were betrothed, our mother told our father she would disembowel him and wear his intestines around her neck as jewelry.”

As mentioned, I do have an affection for books that tackle less common periods and subjects. And I Darken earns a lot of points from me just from covering the medieval Eastern Europe region as well as the Ottoman Empire and Constantinople just a few years before its fall at Mehmed’s hands. (Another 600 year old spoiler, I guess.) I can tell the author has done her research, but she’s also really good at balancing all these important historical events with…people being people and living their lives.

There is also an overall positive depiction of Islam and Muslims. In our current environment, as well as in the historical period of the book, it would be very easy to fall back into “the Ottomans were bad and their faith was bad, too”. But thankfully the story takes a much more nuanced approach. Islam is depicted as being no better or worse than the Christianity of Europe, and the kindest people in And I Darken are observant Muslims.

Edirne-The capital of the Ottoman Empire before Constantinople fell and they moved it to there. The mosque you see, Selimiye Mosque, actually wasn't built till the 1500s but it looks nice and scenic so I went with this pic anyway.
Edirne-The capital of the Ottoman Empire before Constantinople fell and they moved it to there. The mosque you see, Selimiye Mosque, actually wasn’t built till the 1500s but it looks nice and scenic so I went with this pic anyway.

Overall, And I Darken was an excellent, excellent book. If I have any complaints, they’re more along the line of quibbles.

The biggest one is as far as I can tell, Lada’s full name is wrong. In the opening pages of And I Darken, her father Vlad names her Ladislav after himself…but the correct form should actually be Ladislava, following the proper feminine version of the name. It’s like the equivalent of a girl being called Robert instead of Roberta. For a book that gets so much right and has so much research put into it, that seems like a pretty big error to miss. I mean, it’s the main character’s name! If we get nothing else right, we should get that.

My other nitpick is there’s some screwing with the historical timeline I don’t understand the reasoning behind. White has Lada born a couple years after the historical birth of Vlad III, and later on her father and brother meet their historical demises a little later than they actually did. If there was a reason behind it, I could let it slide, but I don’t see one so that’s why it sticks out for me.

But really, these are very minor things at best. And I Darken utterly blew me away with how damn good it was, and it’s easily equal in quality to my other best favorites of 2016. This is a book that will challenge you, and surprise you, and give you things you didn’t even know you wanted in a book but actually did all along. And I Darken is worth the time of everyone who appreciates excellent historical fiction and badass, well rounded, complicated female leads. And I Darken is a stunning example of the stellar kind of imagination and quality the Young Adult genre is pushing out nowadays. Give it a chance-odds are you will be just as stunned as I was, and all the happier for it.

Not Dragwlya,” she said. “Lada Dracul. I am no longer the daughter of the dragon.” She lifted her chin, sights set on the horizon. “I am the dragon.”

FUCK. YEAH.


And I Darken by Kiersten White comes from Fairywine’s Keeper Shelf. Fairywine is a longtime SBTB devotee and lover of fantasy, romance, historical fiction, and/or any permutations of those genres. Always ready for a cup of tea (black, with sugar and cream). Engage in discussions of European history at your own risk, because she will talk your ear off and possibly cry a bit about Elisabeth of Austria in the bargain.

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And I Darken by Kiersten White

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  1. Crystal says:

    I’ve been waffling on reading this baby. But when you pointed out that this girl would survive Westeros, well, that may have gotten me in. Because I love the ladies in that series long time.

  2. Patricia says:

    I loved this book

  3. Hazel says:

    I keep hearing about this book and I clearly need to have it now. This must be the third time I’ve heard it recommended this month.

  4. Rebecca says:

    Sounds like a good read, although my eyebrows went up a bit at the portrayal of Radu. (Sensitive, intelligent, not traditionally aggressive =/= gay and boys get enough toxic messages as it is.)

    But would Lada’s education have been that rare for a fifteenth century noblewoman? Beatriz Galindo, who’s only twenty years younger than Lada was both a royal councilor and an intellectual known for her commentaries on Aristotle. (She gives her nickname to the neighborhood known as “La Latina” in Madrid.) Christine de Pizan (1364-1430) is slightly earlier than Lada and she not only made a living as a professional writer, she argue fiercely in favor of women’s education. Leonardo Bruni (1370-1444) argued that women should learn Latin, history, poetry and possibly rhetoric (though he wasn’t sure of its professional use for them), essentially the humanist project for all education. He influenced More, Vives (who famously wrote “On the Education of a Christian Woman”) and Erasmus after him. The idea that late medieval noblewomen just concerned their pretty heads with sewing is an embroidery (hah!) of later centuries. Likewise the fixation on beauty. Noblewomen were valued for their FERTILITY, not their pretty faces. If Lada had spent a couple of years of marriage barren she might have no value, but as to “ugly” impeding her marriage value, I don’t think so.

  5. Amanda says:

    I agree with @Rebecca a bit here. I picked up the book after formatting this review because I’ve been in a “badass heroine” sort of mood, but Radu’s portions of the narrative were such a slog to get through. I wound up doing a lot of skimming and, at times, the pace was incredibly slow.

    Not a bad book – I enjoyed the world and cast White created – but I don’t think I’ll be continuing with the series.

  6. A heroine filled with incandescent rage?

    You have my attention. On to the library queue this goes!

  7. Heather S says:

    Positive portrayal of Muslims and Islam in fiction? Catnip!

  8. Hazel says:

    This sounds FABULOUS!!!

  9. BRNZ says:

    I liked the idea of this, but for me it ended up being nothing but joyless slog, and I gave up about 3/4 of the way thru. Just so much focus on death and destruction and how much she hated her father and was so damn angry at the world about EVERYTHING.

    Got tired of that!

  10. Kelly L. says:

    Of all the things I would have expected from the flower cover, this was…not one of them. I may have to check it out.

  11. Aliyah says:

    After reading this review and the comments I felt I had to read this book. So I finished it earlier this week and found Lada to be awesome but Huma, Memet, Radu, etc. were meh. I felt like this could have been more interesting if all of the characters were equally interesting… I can’t decide if I liked this book but I did love Lada so I’ll probably keep reading the series. Did anyone else feel like it was super long?

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