Squire is about a teenage girl named Aiza who lives in Bayt-Saji. Aiza is of the Ornu people but she lives with her family amongst the rest of Bayt-Saji. Aiza isn’t fulfilled by her life in Bayt-Saji and hounds her parents to be able to enlist for Squiredom. When Aiza gets permission, she sets off to begin her training. There, she meets Husni and Sahar with whom she becomes fast friends. Aiza keeps working harder and harder up until the day of her first Squire exam. She goes into it confidently but somehow ends up failing. After failing, General Hende puts Aiza on armory night watch, where she begins night training with the groundskeeper, Doruk. She keeps training with him and improving so much that she gets sent out on a 24-hour patrol with 5 other cadets. While out there, they are attacked by an Ornu ambush and Husni gets badly injured. To save Husni, Aiza has to reveal that she is also Ornu. In a twisted turn of events, she gets immediately promoted to Squire. As a result, all of her friends no longer trust or like her. On her first day as a Squire, she patrols with a Knight in an Ornu village where she meets one of the boys from the ambush. When she gets too angry and attacks him in the woods, she learns some things about the General that make Aiza rethink whether or not she wants the Squire’s life.
I really enjoyed Squire. I don’t usually read graphic novels, but I found that having pictures to put with the names was really helpful. When reading, I come up with my own imagining of what characters look like and sometimes I get upset the author’s actual design is different than mine. The story itself was wonderful. When you look at the story from a baseline perspective, there is a narrative of racism that I think is an excellent focus for the plot. There should be more and more books like this that show it is possible to overcome racism and prove that kids should fight for what they believe in, even if the adults around them tell them otherwise. I appreciated the fact that there wasn’t any romance in this book. I’m not usually looking for it in what I read but it’s usually there anyways. I enjoy stories that are more about building strong positive friendships instead of about romance and sex.
I loved some characters, but I also hated others. I really liked Husni. I thought he was funny and there was more to him than his first impressions. However, I hated Husni’s friend Basem, who operated on blind faith even after being proven wrong. There wasn’t anything wrong with how the characters were written but there are always heroes and villains in the story and quite often I find myself hating the villains. General Hende was another character I didn’t like because she messed with the kids’ perceptions of each other and manipulated all of them, Doruk included. I also loved the pacing of the book. A lot of time passed by the end of the story but with the way the scenes were created, there weren’t boring details dragging down the story. I genuinely felt like I didn’t have any problems with the writing in this book. Every character felt like they had their own reason for existing within the story and there were no unnecessary details that were wasting time.
I would recommend this to anyone who likes coming-of-age stories. The story felt like it was Aiza’s time of maturing and realizing what was actually going on in the world around her. I think that this book is pretty suited for anybody to read. There isn’t any gore, sexual activity, or heavy topics unsuited for younger readers. This isn’t really a fantasy novel but rather more of a historical fiction, so this isn’t the book for anyone who is a fantasy enthusiast. This is also not the book to read if you are looking for romance. The book is solely about Aiza and her friends taking control of the oppression that they are facing.
Young Adult Historical Fiction readers will enjoy a fast-paced graphic novel by Sara Alfageeh and Nadia Shammas. Those who often are disappointed by the overwhelming amount of romance in most YA literature will be delighted by Squire, which has absolutely none. Anyone looking for a coming-of-age story based around dealing with racism and making it better will love this one.