Reviews with content warning for Body horror - The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi

What a fun romp!! The kind of book I've been missing, even if I didn't realize it til after I'd finished reading.

This story is full of wily characters who never run out of clever quips, and surprise you with their kindness and care. Aka the perfect group to go treasure-seeking across the seas! I love a good pirate book, and it was so fun to get a glimpse of other pirate communities (besides our main group, of course). Chakraborty knows how to write charming, delightful rascals, so it was always a delight to turn the page and see what new creature might appear next.

Such a vibrant group of characters is deserving of an equally imaginative story, and Chakraborty delivers! While it did take me a bit to get into the story, once the plot picked up, I was hooked. Each chapter drew me forward, and by the end, I was rushing to turn pages and learn what would happen next. I loved the in-between chapters that gave context, through legends and character's histories—even if they technically took me away from the main plot, I was always equally intrigued by whatever tangent I was briefly led down. I also love that this story was set up as a scribe writing down a story as it was told. I think it was a great way to get to know Amina through how she speaks, and get a glimpse of the mystery scribe's personality as well.

This wasn't quite a five star read for me, but I'm hopeful for the subsequent books in the series to knock my socks off! I can't wait to adventure with the Amina and her crew again.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for my advanced digital copy of this book.

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victoriousbookworm's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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franzis_buecher's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

I really enjoyed reading this book! After a bit of a slow start, it really picked up and I loved following Amina on her adventures with lots of twists and turns.

There are heists, seafaring adventures, magical artefacts and creatures, battle scenes, and more, and depending on the situation, the mood shifts between funny, thrilling, emotional and even spooky (there were a few scenes on Socotra that had such a creepy atmosphere omg)

Also love how diverse the cast of supporting characters are when it comes to ethnicity, religion, sexuality and gender identity. (That one twist with one particular character made me circle back to the beginning and see everything in a completely new light, I thought it was very well done)

I also love

Raksh

even though he's objectively a bad person/entity, but every scene he was in was so enjoyable and often very funny due to his personality and behaviour. I hope we'll see more of him in the sequels!

Not to mention the easter eggs from the Daevabad world! There aren't too many, but one specific character appears and there are some familiar magical creatures as well.

The only thing that I struggled with a bit were the more religious aspects, which for me since I'm not religious and not Muslim didn't hit as hard as they probably would for others. But I always love learning about other religions and worldviews, so it was very interesting as well.

I also learned a lot about the 11th century Indian Ocean and about places I'd never heard about before like Socotra! The small interludes with excerpts from ancient travel reports or tales really embellished the book further and helped a lot with the worldbuilding.

I'm excited to see where this story goes, to get to know some of the side characters such as Tinbu, Dalila, Majed and Jamal even better, and maybe to see some more of Marjana's heritage in future installments!

Content Warnings

blackcatkai's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

CW: blood, violence, sexual content (not graphic, fade to black), grief, death, gore, religious bigotry, casual ableism, alcohol use, sexism, war mentioned, some body shaming, a moment with some light trans/homophobia

omg I loved this so so much. it was so much fun, tons of action, great characters with wonderful interactions with each other. exciting and heartwarming, there's even a character who's figuring out their own gender identity and I can't wait to see where we go with him and the rest of the crew in future books of the series.

oh, also a bedraggled ship cat I would die for. may payasam have more scenes going forward. all hail payasam!! 🐈🐾

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purplepenning's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Re-read for book club and loved it just as much the second time. Retired lady pirate gets the crew back together for one last job — shenanigans and legends ensue. Perfection. No notes.

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aileron's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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faduma's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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shaipanda's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This was an incredibly exciting and action filled book. I haven't been reading as much this year so I rushed to finish this before the archive date. As a result, there are still some parts of the book I have to come back to in order to call it fully finished. However, I did overall really enjoy this! I think if I'd read it at a more reasonable pace I probably would have enjoyed it slightly more but overall I really enjoyed the characters, the storyline, and the potential for more stories in this world. I also really loved the minor plot twist at the very end I found that to be really fun :)
I was personally not expecting anywhere near the amount of fantasy that ended up being in this book as I originally thought it was mostly just a pirate book, but I wasn't mad about discovering that just not what I originally expected.
Overall would definitely recommend! 4.5 stars

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