Review by Frank Plowright
Aiza is among the deprived Ornu minority who live in a campsite well away from town, looked down on by the citizens of the Bayt-Sajji empire. A way to advance her status, though, is to join the military as part of the training program to become a squire to a knight, and if she’s successful she may even end up a citizen. On leaving for the recruitment camp she’s joined by Husni, and when they arrive they’re bunkered with Sahar, and Squire progresses via the viewpoints and experiences of these three characters. Later arrival Basem also features, under pressure to succeed.
It’ll pass most young adult readers by, but co-writers Sara Alfageeh and Nadia Shammas have a few points to make about real world situations for Palestinians in the early pages, but beyond that Squire moves toward the more standard deprivations endured by trainees in armies anywhere in the world. All three main characters have something to prove, united by a desire to escape from poverty, and rivalry and camaraderie play out from those desires, giving readers something to invest in as the pages turn.
Alfageeh ensures the characters remain visually sympathetic, subtly drawing attention to Aiza being smaller than other squire candidates, and good at showing the characters twisting and moving. She generally keeps the backgrounds simple, although there’s an early sequence where she uses Jordan’s stunning Petra as an inspiration, but her random placement of panels on pages leaving large areas of white space is an unconventional choice.
Telling Squire with reference to Earth’s Middle-Eastern culture is a welcome change from the usual European stories of knights, and the progression of challenges until halfway maintain a level of excitement. However, it all seems formulaic until Aiza’s Ornu heritage becomes relevant. Before signing up she wrapped her arm to hide the traditional tribal markings, and her first mission is against Ornu people. On her second she learns information that causes her to fundamentally question the values she’s fighting for, and the message implanted from the start begins to escalate.
Squire’s coming of age story clocks in at an impressive three hundred pages, and while it could do with an injection of pace early on, most younger readers are likely to overlook that for being caught up with the characters. Alfageeh and Shammas leave the door open for a sequel, and most readers will probably want to see it.
