The premise behind Zulekha A. Afzal’s Dancers of the Dawn is pleasingly high-concept. In a fantasy kingdom ravaged in political intrigue and war, a troop of dancers traverse the desert on secret assignations. The twist? The dancers are secretly assassins hunting down rebellion and using their magical abilities to do so.
This inventive cross between Avatar: The Last Airbender and Tumanbay pitches readers head-first into the world of Aasira, our heroine and wielder of magical flames who is dealing with her own issues, namely family secrets come to roost, a budding love connection (or two?) and an unsettling feeling that her allegiances might be tied to the wrong person.
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Afzal shows an impressive skill throughout Dancers of the Dawn, primarily of crafting an intriguing concept and keeping it running throughout the novel’s duration. Dancers of the Dawn is full of political suspense, budding romance, engaging friendship dynamics, and well-plotted action beats, whether that’s wider-scale assaults or more intimate one-on-one magical battles with a friend-turned-nemesis.
Dancers of the Dawn doesn’t seek to reinvent or upend the template of the young-adult book, but instead sits as a confident, strongly-realised example of the genre’s best novels. Ending on a pleasingly intriguing cliff-hanger, Dancers of the Dawn assures Afzal that her debut succeeds to be a standout page-turner and that a new legion of fans will eagerly awaiting the next books to come…
Dancers of the Dawn is out on 6th June from Rock the Boat.
