Before Jafar became Agrabah’s grand vizier, there were two brothers wishing for a different life.

Living in the shadow of their mother’s death and their father’s cruel whims, Jafar only longs to protect one person–his soft-hearted younger brother, Rohan. But Jafar knows he is destined for more, and if he has his way, he’ll soon be an apprentice at Maghriz’s elite House of Wisdom, studying alchemy.

Then a fire destroys the remains of their shattered life, and Jafar has no choice but to resort to ruses and trickery, including convincing Rohan that the House of Wisdom is their only chance at rebuilding their lives. But Maghriz holds more danger and intrigue than either brother can imagine. Its powerful Sultana is plotting a grand deception that could shape the nation’s future, and she believes the brothers are the missing piece of her scheme.

For the first time, Jafar can envision a future where he puts his own desires before Rohan’s–and Rohan feels ready to escape his brother’s shadow. As the brothers contend with their darkest impulses, they must decide: is their ambition worth their brotherhood?

As usual, this series does not disappoint in delving deeper into the twisted origins of Disney’s dasterdly villains in a way that allows you to feel sympathy while seeding the dark traits that are already there.

You can see this from the first chapter where Jafar is a street rat, stealing food so his little family can survive. He’s the protector of his little brother, Rohan, who is two years younger than him and in his opinion, too coddled and wishes he’d keep up instead of Jafar having to save him all the time. Then again, Jafar loves his brother and will do anything to keep his vow to their mother to keep Rohan safe. Plus he likes having someone idolize him.

Like all the other book in the series, this is a dual POV between siblings and Rohan has an equal amount of chapters as his brother. While ou can see the seeds of Jafar’s descent, his ambition, his ruthlessness, his desire to be recognized as the smartest person in the room, the feeling there is something a little bit empty in Jafar; Rohan is the idealistic, good kid.

At least at first.

Faizal realy digs into the reality of toxic families and inheritance of these traits. Their father, Baba, is abusive to Jafar physically and emotionally because his pride won’t allow that Jafar is smarter than him, and he uses Rohan as the golden child to scrapegoat Jafar. Rohan is understandable too scared to stand up to Baba, but once they leave home, he starts to grow more of a backbone. Initially, it is to stop being a burdan to Jafar. But as time goes on, it is because he wants to step out of Jafar’s shadow and prove his brother and the stupid parrot wrong.

Ah yes, Iago is here! What is a good Jafar origin without revealing how Iago came to be a talking bird. He’s hilarious and I love that Faizal doesn’t hold back on Iago’s snarky humor as well as little callbacks to the original movie like “He has a sword!” “You idiot, we all have swords!” Their friendship is what evil friendships are made of, they’re both insincere and greedy and that’s what makes them tight.

Anyway, back to Rohan. He’s insecure about being a burdan yet he also has a bit of Baba in him in his anger. He acts out of emotional impulsive when he realizes his brother has lied to him about his intentions and uses him, angry at himself for being so predictable, and yeah, when he gets a taste of power, he really really enjoys the feeling.

But at least Rohan has some boundaries when it comes to human life and suffering, and he is willing to apologize.

As one can imagine when it comes to Jafar that isn’t enough. He’s a sociopath despite his moments of sympathy and the fanatical love of learning. He admits it that he has a need for control rather than power, but he comes to see the upsides to being the power pulling the strings as the book goes on.

He sees Rohan’s actions in the worst light (also kinda prodded by Iago) that Rohan is like their father, taking the credit for Jafar’s successes. Once again, he’s holding him back, and he begins to wonder what is the point of being good when you still don’t get anything out of it?

This kind of thinking extends to everyone Jafar comes into contact with, resenting anyone who tries to use him even as he manipulates them or doesn’t immediately recognize his intelligence and give him what he thinks he deserves. Other factors or contexts don’t matter, if Jafar feels he’s been wronged, he ruins you.

Faizal’s writing is addictive (I read it in 2 1/2 hours, I don’t think I blinked) as the “good”/”bad” brother flips back and forth between Rohan and Jafar. I had some predictions of what was going to happen but even then Faizal managed to pull off a big twist in how it relates to the movie. She was wonderful in demonstrating the price of greed and how that might be the true rift between the brother’s, they always wanted something more, moving the goal posts of what would make them satisfied until you realize there is nothing.

Plus Faizal’s skill in describing the delicious foods, glittering jewels, sandy settings, and the emotions of the characters were poetic, diving from grief, emptiness, wrath and even lust (Not like the Jasmine scene from the movie but I got flashbacks to it).

A great book adding to Jafar’s characterization and imbuing lore into other artificats in the Aladdin universe like the scarab, the rubies, and more.

5 ruby eyes.