BaSatai: Outside In by Suzan Battah

BaSatai: Outside In #1 by Suzan Battah
Published by Suzan Battah
Release Date: 14th April 2012
ISBN: 1468140450
Young Adult


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book was so good. It was completely different to what I was expecting. I really didn't expect to love it as much as I did and now I miss the BaSatai already. I can't wait for the next in the series.


Armani is a BaSatai who is born with a curse in her blood. If she dies, all BaSati will die with the destruction of their realm, H-trea, but humanity will also be wiped out with the destruction of the earth.


When Armani is a few days old, she is taken to earth to be raised as a human by Elijah, a 72 year old man, in the hopes of keeping her safe from their enemies, the Stequob's. When she is 17, her guardian Karhl and the BaSatai that she is meant to be with, Rafael, arrive on earth. They are to protect her and train her. Other BaSatai will soon arrive and when Armani is ready, they will all return to H-trae.


Armani is in denial. She does not want to be the one who's cursed. She just wants to be normal. A normal human that is. While she has a smart mouth and comes across as being tough, I feel she is vulnerable and just wants to be accepted. Especially by "The Primpers", the popular girls in school, who have labeled Armani a freak. Armani is a likeable character but at times she made some stupid decisions and could be childish and whiney and I just wanted to shake her it was so frustrating lol. She would go off on one and lose her temper towards someone, usually Rafael, for stupid or no reasons. She came into her own though in the end of the book and I look forward to seeing her character grow with her acceptance of her BaSati heritage in the next instalment in this series.


I really liked Karhl and Rafael. Karhl connects with Armani so he can feel her emotions. This is to help him to better protect her. They become really close and Armani soon grows to love him, in a brotherly way.


She is falling in love with Rafael, who is already crazy about her as he knew they were destined for each other. He wants to connect with her but she won't. She says the reason she won't is because he would die for her and she doesn't want anyone to die to keep her safe. I didn't like this as a reason and really couldn't see why she wouldn't just connect with him. It would have made a lot of things better for them.


This book confused me at times because things seemed to just happen and there would be no explanation as to why. Sometimes the scene would change suddenly and I felt the dialogue could be a bit off at times. Armani would ask a question that wouldn't be answered and then there would be no mention of it again. This was all very frustrating and hindered the natural flow of the book.


I didn't like the use of the BaSatai language. Armani didn't understand what they were saying and no one ever translated for her which left the reader out of the loop too.


Aside from that, this was a fantastic story. It was original and creative and I didn't want to put it down. The character number increase as more BaSatai and guardians arrive on earth and I thought the characters were really well written. The ending of the book is amazing. The action picks up, there is a twist that is completely unforeseen and something happens that made me just want to scream.


I feel the writing style also improved as the book came to an end which made the action packed ending flow much better. We don't get to see H-trae in this book but I really hope that we get to discover it in the next one. I think I have an idea of one direction the next book is going to take and a part of me really hopes that I am wrong. I'll just have to wait and see. And hope that I won't be waiting too long.


"So, we're all in agreement," Armani declared brightly into the tense atmosphere. "Good, let's get this over with. Shut up Rafael, don't say it, you would do the same for me." "That's different!" he snapped. "You shouldn't." She couldn't comprehend his reasoning. "Why?" Rafael blinked a few times. "Because you don't love me the way I love you!"


Thanks to Suzan Battah for supplying a copy of this book for review.