Tribal Affairs
By Matt Dallmann
Genre: YA Fantasy
Synopsis:
Dahlia, a centuries old genie, lies hopelessly trapped in a damaged golden locket charm attached to an ankle bracelet. Its owner, sixteen-year-old Liana, wears it for the first time during her father Jamison’s opening night illusion spectacular. Not only does its presence cause Jamison to folly his performance, but it also starts a chain of bizarre events that lead to a showdown with Dahlia’s mortal enemy, Stefan, and an unsuspecting romance between Liana and his son.
About the Author:
Matt Dallmann has a background in acting and holds a BFA from Marymount Manhattan College in New York City. His films and screenplays have been featured at film festivals across the United States including Cinequest, Big Apple Film Festival, Seattle’s True Independent Film Festival, DragonCon and Zero Independent Film Festival. His piano compositions have been published for commercial use and he is a member of ASCAP. Matt is also the Co-Founder and Vice President of the boutique medical billing firm VGA Billing Services, Inc. in New York City. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and two daughters.
On Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/genietribalaffairs/
On Goodreads: http://bit.ly/2HSKUXt
On Amazon: http://amzn.to/2G3pAhn On BookGrabbr: https://bookgrabbr.com/books/62137-tribal-affairs
The author is hosting a Goodreads Giveaway (50 kindle copies) from 5/3 to 5/31! Enter here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36547842
My Review (Warning May Contain Spoilers!):
I was hesitant to like Tribal Affairs at first, but as I continued reading, the characters and writing style grew on me.
I was hesitant at first for a few reasons. The point of view in this novel is difficult to follow; in the beginning the reader is given very little context, and so I assumed it was mainly Liana’s POV, that sometimes switched to this other unknown at the time character, only to find out it was the unknown’s POV the entire time. It made it very confusing at certain points. Another thing I found difficult (regardless of what I say further down), is that you have to be careful writing about individuals with lived experience of mental health, especially in the world of fantasy fiction as it can almost seem mocking or making fun of. This is a sensitive topic for many people, including myself, so authors should be careful with some of the language they use, and not talk about them lightly. I would also like to know what became of Liana’s mother. She is mentioned having been admitted to a mental health unit, but that was it. And I feel like it was a little childish in the end when Liana chose a clean house rather than anything relating to her mother who was taken from her life to a severe illness. I would understand if this wish was not able to be granted if the mother had passed away, but at no point is this conclusion made.
I want to mention the underlying themes of the novel that I absolutely love, and want to say kudos to the author for incorporating them into a novel that is targeted towards young adults. Self-worth, feminism, and mental-health advocacy were the three big themes that stood out to me. Even though the execution of these themes at times were a bit wobbly, I think in the end just having acknowledged them as such big factors in the story-line is great!
Liana is a young adult herself who starts exhibiting signs similar to that of her mom before her, and the diagnosis of schizophrenia comes up, as well as depression. Not enough novels in today’s society try to incorporate these topics and others into the stories, because, for some unknown reason, a lot about mental health is a taboo topic (let me be real for a second, nothing about mental health should be taboo, it is experienced by so many people and there should be complete support for these individuals, as there is for other health conditions); so I love that Dallmann decided to approach mental health in a way that may help younger (and older) adults understand what some of these conditions are like for individuals with lived experience; I would caution authors and readers that this is a fictional novel and does not really exemplify what schizophrenia or depression are really like, and none of the characters actually suffer from either (the magic and visions that are experienced by the lead characters are not experienced by other humans, and the villain tries to “break the leads mind” and trick her into believing she has a mental health illness). That being said, its opening the door for people to start talking about and being supportive to those with lived experiences of mental health.
Later into the novel, the ideas of being a strong and independent female start to develop, and it’s absolutely awesome. I actually found myself cheering when Liana started questioning her abilities and need for protection from “stronger” men in her life. It was great! I find a lot of young adult novels and even many adult fiction novels have the lead female as the damsel-in-distress character, with a hunky male lead coming to save the day (don’t get me wrong, sometimes these are a guilty pleasure of mine), but this is not being supportive to the independent and strong females that are fully capable of fending for themselves. I’d like to see more support for feminism being written about in our fantasy and fiction genres (well all genres, but these are the ones I read the most ;) ), especially young adult novels because these individuals are still developing into themselves, and should be surrounded by positive influence. (Sometimes the male character is the one that needs saving, and the female is the one doing the saving).
Finally, self-worth. Liana struggles throughout the novel with self-directed negativity and demeaning thoughts, as we all do at times. However, it was great to see her character develop into this strong person who was able to forgive herself for her failures and downfalls, and use them to her advantage. I know from personal experience that these negative thoughts surrounding relationships, and self-worth are very exhausting and diminishing to one’s self-esteem. I loved having her character learn to overcome those difficulties.
Overall, it was a good read!