I really wanted to love this one. The blurb sounded way rad: A gunslinger girl, a rebellion, magic... what's not to be excited about? Sadly, I found myself disappointed in this one. I know a lot of people loved it but I'm just not one of them. I kept reading because I kept thinking "Ok... this has to get better eventually." It gained some traction by the end but it just wasn't enough to make the previous 75% of the book worth it. I'll explain... 
 I think one of the main issues was that I wasn't overly fond of the heroine, Amani. I really wanted to be but I couldn't force myself to love her. I thought by the end that she was brave (albeit foolishly so) and even a little sarcastically funny. The problem is she's just such a dimwit sometimes. For example, she wants to get to the city of Izman because this aunt she's never met allegedly lives there. Mind you, she doesn't even know for sure if that's still the case since she hasn't even gotten a letter from her aunt in years. Girl, what are you thinking? Often times I was wondering out loud "This girl is acting so dumb that it's unfathomable that she hasn't been murdered yet." This exchange below pretty much summed up how I felt about Amani: 
 "Do you have a death wish?" Jin sounded almost impressed, his voice returning to a normal volume as he sat up. 
 "If I did, I wouldn't be very good at it, seeing as I'm still alive," I said, holstering my pistol. 
 "God knows how." Jin scrubbed his hands over his face, tiredly. 
 The setting sometimes threw me a bit. It's kind of an iconic Western but with Middle Eastern mythology and political atmosphere. I'm not entirely sure these two ideas necessarily meshed well. I suppose there was a "Western" era in the Middle East but something just felt off about it. However, this may be an opinion entirely unique to me. Also, speaking of the mythology, they had these magic horses called "Buraki" which I kept reading as "Bukake" because I'm a giant pervert. But still... those are pretty similar sounding words so I just kept getting thrown by it. Any other pervs out there? O just me... Ok, nevermind. 
 The story structure itself was also an issue for me. There just didn't seem to be any set goals in mind to move the plot forward. Things keep occurring in a linear fashion but why were they doing anything? There isn't really any set plan of action here. People are after them so they're on the run... and then what? Amani wants to go to this city Izman... and then what? What's her ultimate goal? Freedom? Just live there on her own? Let's say she gets to Izman and gets her "freedom" what next? What is the plan she needs to follow in order to get her freedom? "Freedom" is just an abstract idea to achieve. I can't think of any real plan of action she had besides a want for "freedom." It made the story seem meandering and pointless. Why are they doing this? Why should I care? It just really disconnected me from the story. On a positive note, the story does pick up toward the end when it completely changes into a new story but it's too little too late. (view spoiler)[ New story as in there are people with powers because one of their parents was a Djinni and the rebel Prince Ahmed is trying to overthrow his evil father. Ahmed wants to create a new desert where people are free, women aren't treated as garbage, and all that great happy utopia stuff. THIS IS AN ACTUAL PLAN WITH SET GOALS TO ACHIEVE! (hide spoiler)] Sadly, I'm not crazy interested in continuing with this series.