Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.47 AVERAGE
3.47 AVERAGE
This is a complicated YA book. I would give it 5 stars, as it kept my interest, but it seemed like the author intended this book to be the first of a series, but I’ve seen no indication of another book forthcoming. The ending didn't seem to me to take place at a natural spot in the action, and really left a lot unresolved, which I cannot discuss further without spoilers. If this was intended to be a stand-alone book, I feel too much was left unresolved or for the reader to make up in their own minds at the end. Perhaps the author can either make this the first in a series, or can add a bonus chapter or two in later editions.
The book is written from the perspective of Bijou Fitroy, the primary character. Speaking generally, so as to avoid spoilers, she has led a nomadic lifestyle with her secretive grandmother. Her newest hometown is the subject of a series of attacks and abductions, as she is confronted with an explosive family secret that impacts the world. The book tends to follow the popular plot line of “I didn’t know I had special powers, and now I have to save the world with them?”.
A lot of characters were introduced, which were necessary to advance the complicated, fantasy political plot within this book. I didn't have the problem some experienced with tracking the different characters, although the various clues the reader receives throughout the book of allegances might leave the reader flipping back and forth to double check their recollections. While for content purposes and topic matter this is a Young Adult/Fantasy book, due to its complexity, it might be a little advanced for some Young Adult readers.
While there is a significant amount of romance (YA with female primary character and multiple male love interests) within the book, I don't recall any sexual content. While there are references to kidnappings, assaults, and enslavement, I don't recall any gratuitous violent content, and what little description of violence there is served to advance the plot. However, this was not what I would characterize as a light read, as I read it over the course of a few days. While it maintained my interest, it is not a book to read in a quiet afternoon, but over the course of a few days.
The book is written from the perspective of Bijou Fitroy, the primary character. Speaking generally, so as to avoid spoilers, she has led a nomadic lifestyle with her secretive grandmother. Her newest hometown is the subject of a series of attacks and abductions, as she is confronted with an explosive family secret that impacts the world. The book tends to follow the popular plot line of “I didn’t know I had special powers, and now I have to save the world with them?”.
A lot of characters were introduced, which were necessary to advance the complicated, fantasy political plot within this book. I didn't have the problem some experienced with tracking the different characters, although the various clues the reader receives throughout the book of allegances might leave the reader flipping back and forth to double check their recollections. While for content purposes and topic matter this is a Young Adult/Fantasy book, due to its complexity, it might be a little advanced for some Young Adult readers.
While there is a significant amount of romance (YA with female primary character and multiple male love interests) within the book, I don't recall any sexual content. While there are references to kidnappings, assaults, and enslavement, I don't recall any gratuitous violent content, and what little description of violence there is served to advance the plot. However, this was not what I would characterize as a light read, as I read it over the course of a few days. While it maintained my interest, it is not a book to read in a quiet afternoon, but over the course of a few days.
The concept of the book was great. There were many sentences that felt forced. Some inconsistencies in the timeline that bothered me. Editorially, I feel like it needed a solid developmental and copy edit. These issues kept taking me out of the story. But generally speaking it was a nice story.
Loved Djinn! I wish I would've been able to read it faster but my reading time in 2019 so far has been sparse.
Though I never watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but I much prefer the mythology and lore Sang Kromah brought to Bijou's story. This brought back a lot of memories from high school, as well. The respect Kromah gives to problems we old folks often forget are very real for teenagers is great. It really bothers me when you can tell that writers treat teen issues like melodrama or angst and I didn't run into that issue at all. You can tell Kromah poured a lot into these characters as their own issues push the story along nicely.
Bijou's story is one for everyone. Often times we find parts of our lives seem to be determined for us before we were born, whether that's a familial legacy we are expected to continue or the people around us. Kromah's writing captured that feeling perfectly for me. Bijou is a very compelling character and I felt invested in her story after a few pages.
I highly recommend this novel and am very excited to have discovered Sang Kromah's writing. Looking forward to much more from her!
Though I never watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but I much prefer the mythology and lore Sang Kromah brought to Bijou's story. This brought back a lot of memories from high school, as well. The respect Kromah gives to problems we old folks often forget are very real for teenagers is great. It really bothers me when you can tell that writers treat teen issues like melodrama or angst and I didn't run into that issue at all. You can tell Kromah poured a lot into these characters as their own issues push the story along nicely.
Bijou's story is one for everyone. Often times we find parts of our lives seem to be determined for us before we were born, whether that's a familial legacy we are expected to continue or the people around us. Kromah's writing captured that feeling perfectly for me. Bijou is a very compelling character and I felt invested in her story after a few pages.
I highly recommend this novel and am very excited to have discovered Sang Kromah's writing. Looking forward to much more from her!
Djinn is a book that mixes different folklore stories and presents you a unique not-read-before story.
You follow Bijou blindly and will be intrigued what is actually going on and why some people around her act strange. However, I was not prepared that the mystery about Djinn's will be wrapped up in a new mantel which I really enjoyed.
You follow Bijou blindly and will be intrigued what is actually going on and why some people around her act strange. However, I was not prepared that the mystery about Djinn's will be wrapped up in a new mantel which I really enjoyed.
Thanks to the author for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This book was on my "soon-to-read" list for a while. I didn't really feel connected to either the cover or the blurb, but when I started reading it went pretty fast. This book is written very well and I was able to get through it on a nice pace.
A longer review can be found at Bite Into Books
I did not know this author and I do feel the story is well written with a nice pacing and easy to read. The explanation for all the mystery is satisfying and I do feel a lot of people who like YA/Fantasy will like this book. But.. You know...
Maybe I'm a bit too old for it....?! Did I just say that? Yup...
This book was on my "soon-to-read" list for a while. I didn't really feel connected to either the cover or the blurb, but when I started reading it went pretty fast. This book is written very well and I was able to get through it on a nice pace.
A longer review can be found at Bite Into Books
I did not know this author and I do feel the story is well written with a nice pacing and easy to read. The explanation for all the mystery is satisfying and I do feel a lot of people who like YA/Fantasy will like this book. But.. You know...
Maybe I'm a bit too old for it....?! Did I just say that? Yup...
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-arc of this book!
I've always had a fascination for Middle Eastern history and folklore. I was very excited to start this book called 'Djinn', expecting a story about this particular mythical creature I've read about in myths.
This book, however, is not specifically about those djinns. Here, djinn is the name for all creatures from the Otherworld, like the well-known fae. This story is based on Liberian folklore.
We meet Bijou, who lives with her grandmother Gigi. They've been moving around a lot, but have now settled in the small town of Sykesville. Bijou is not any regular girl - she can sense the emotions of most people. All of these emotions can overwhelm her quickly, so she's been home schooled for a long time. But now she's 16 and it's time to meet new people, make friends, and go to school.
At school she meets Sebastian, who is supposed to help her get familiar with her new school. He is one of the Others though - someone whose emotions cannot be distinguished by Bijou. When Bijou, Sebastian and his twin sister become friends, strange things start happening. Why can Bijou feel all these things? What do her visions mean and why do they seem to come true?
This book kept me guessing on who could be trusted all the way to the end of the story. Along the way we meet a lot of characters who are more than they seem and I loved how it came together in the end. All of those names and their loyalties were a bit too confusing for me at times though.
This book deserves to be read if you're into djinn, the fae or a midsummer night's dream! For me it was a 3,5 star read.
I've always had a fascination for Middle Eastern history and folklore. I was very excited to start this book called 'Djinn', expecting a story about this particular mythical creature I've read about in myths.
This book, however, is not specifically about those djinns. Here, djinn is the name for all creatures from the Otherworld, like the well-known fae. This story is based on Liberian folklore.
We meet Bijou, who lives with her grandmother Gigi. They've been moving around a lot, but have now settled in the small town of Sykesville. Bijou is not any regular girl - she can sense the emotions of most people. All of these emotions can overwhelm her quickly, so she's been home schooled for a long time. But now she's 16 and it's time to meet new people, make friends, and go to school.
At school she meets Sebastian, who is supposed to help her get familiar with her new school. He is one of the Others though - someone whose emotions cannot be distinguished by Bijou. When Bijou, Sebastian and his twin sister become friends, strange things start happening. Why can Bijou feel all these things? What do her visions mean and why do they seem to come true?
This book kept me guessing on who could be trusted all the way to the end of the story. Along the way we meet a lot of characters who are more than they seem and I loved how it came together in the end. All of those names and their loyalties were a bit too confusing for me at times though.
This book deserves to be read if you're into djinn, the fae or a midsummer night's dream! For me it was a 3,5 star read.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a copy for review,
I flew through this book. I ended up really enjoying it. I found Bijou to be an interesting character. I also think the author did an excellent job of capturing the general essence of djinn, beings who are devious and tricky. You never really know who you can trust, which characters are human and which ones aren't. The only issue I had is that we never really get to see the extent of what or who Bijou really is. The cliffhanger leaves a lot of questions unanswered. I really hope we get a sequel, because I think the world and characters are well developed and intriguing. I also would like to see more of the dynamic between Bijou, Sebastian, and Nicholai.
I flew through this book. I ended up really enjoying it. I found Bijou to be an interesting character. I also think the author did an excellent job of capturing the general essence of djinn, beings who are devious and tricky. You never really know who you can trust, which characters are human and which ones aren't. The only issue I had is that we never really get to see the extent of what or who Bijou really is. The cliffhanger leaves a lot of questions unanswered. I really hope we get a sequel, because I think the world and characters are well developed and intriguing. I also would like to see more of the dynamic between Bijou, Sebastian, and Nicholai.
I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley but that in no way impacts my review.
It’s hard to rate this book because it started out so strong but it went downhill so quickly. My rating currently reflects my thoughts on this book but I may change it later.
Djinn is a young adult fantasy novel infused with folklore and it had strong connections to A Midsummer Night’s Dream (which I only faintly remember reading when I was younger). When I found Djinn in the Read Now section on NetGalley, I immediately jumped on the opportunity to read it because the cover was so gorgeous. I shouldn’t have been so quick to add it to my shelf though because as they say, don’t judge a book by its cover.
The first 25% of this book was phenomenal. I take notes as I was reading and I wrote “would make a good movie,” which is something I only say for spectacular books. This book seemed very similar to Twilight in the beginning and I was enjoying the similarities. It had the new girl going to a new school in a small town, it had a very similar mysterious atmosphere, and the characters were very similar to the Twilight characters. Amina was like Alice (which I love because Alice is an absolute queen), Bijou was like Bella, Sebastian was like Edward, Mandy = Jessica, Roland = Mike, Kim = Angela, etc. There was even my favorite trope in this book: the chosen one. I know it’s cliche, but it’s always so fun to read chosen one stories. My only complaint for the first 25% of the book was that there was way too many pop culture references. I don’t mind a Buffy reference every once in a while, but having references on what felt like every page was a bit much.
But then things changed. I didn’t record when my feelings exactly changed as the change was subtle until about the 45% mark when everything went down to the trash chute.
For most of this book, Bijou is unaware of the complexity of the fantasy elements in this story. Sometimes this is done successfully in books, but when every single character besides the main character is talking about this fantasy world and shocked when the main character doesn’t know what they’re talking about, it gets really annoying really fast. I was rolling my eyes and hoping that this ridiculous “everyone knows except her thing would stop.”
And then it sort of did stop and I wished that the ridiculous charade would’ve kept up because the revelations were worse. There’s several long chapters of info dumping for the revelations but it’s not done well. I got so confused and couldn’t keep track of the world because that much info was being thrown at me at once. It made it so that it was impossible to enjoy the story anymore because it was impossible to keep track of the characters or the fantasy elements anymore. Maybe if I had a spreadsheet and wrote each thing down it would’ve been easier but doing that takes the fun out of reading.
The world building turned into Alice in Wonderland vibes at the middle of the book, which is something I don’t vibe with. I’m not talking about the fun Disney movies. I’m talking about the book where it seems like the author was so high on drugs that he wrote random things for random reasons that don’t entirely make sense. Some of the things that began to happen in this book didn’t feel like it fit with the fantasy system that was set up in this world. It instead felt like it was happening just for convenience. I’m not sure how to describe this perfectly but it’s basically things that don’t fit with the described fantasy world that are randomly thrown in there that just make you think “what the frick was that. That doesn’t make sense.”
The ending crushed whatever little sliver of enjoyment I had left in this book because I was hoping that at least it would wrap up nicely, but instead it left on a cliff hanger with a rushed love triangle.
I’m so frustrated with this whole book. Everything was set up so well but the last half of the book was a train wreck that made me nearly quit reading it. I love Amina and nothing will change that, but I can’t say that I’ll be looking back on this book fondly since the majority of this book wasn’t enjoyable for me.
It’s hard to rate this book because it started out so strong but it went downhill so quickly. My rating currently reflects my thoughts on this book but I may change it later.
Djinn is a young adult fantasy novel infused with folklore and it had strong connections to A Midsummer Night’s Dream (which I only faintly remember reading when I was younger). When I found Djinn in the Read Now section on NetGalley, I immediately jumped on the opportunity to read it because the cover was so gorgeous. I shouldn’t have been so quick to add it to my shelf though because as they say, don’t judge a book by its cover.
The first 25% of this book was phenomenal. I take notes as I was reading and I wrote “would make a good movie,” which is something I only say for spectacular books. This book seemed very similar to Twilight in the beginning and I was enjoying the similarities. It had the new girl going to a new school in a small town, it had a very similar mysterious atmosphere, and the characters were very similar to the Twilight characters. Amina was like Alice (which I love because Alice is an absolute queen), Bijou was like Bella, Sebastian was like Edward, Mandy = Jessica, Roland = Mike, Kim = Angela, etc. There was even my favorite trope in this book: the chosen one. I know it’s cliche, but it’s always so fun to read chosen one stories. My only complaint for the first 25% of the book was that there was way too many pop culture references. I don’t mind a Buffy reference every once in a while, but having references on what felt like every page was a bit much.
But then things changed. I didn’t record when my feelings exactly changed as the change was subtle until about the 45% mark when everything went down to the trash chute.
For most of this book, Bijou is unaware of the complexity of the fantasy elements in this story. Sometimes this is done successfully in books, but when every single character besides the main character is talking about this fantasy world and shocked when the main character doesn’t know what they’re talking about, it gets really annoying really fast. I was rolling my eyes and hoping that this ridiculous “everyone knows except her thing would stop.”
And then it sort of did stop and I wished that the ridiculous charade would’ve kept up because the revelations were worse. There’s several long chapters of info dumping for the revelations but it’s not done well. I got so confused and couldn’t keep track of the world because that much info was being thrown at me at once. It made it so that it was impossible to enjoy the story anymore because it was impossible to keep track of the characters or the fantasy elements anymore. Maybe if I had a spreadsheet and wrote each thing down it would’ve been easier but doing that takes the fun out of reading.
The world building turned into Alice in Wonderland vibes at the middle of the book, which is something I don’t vibe with. I’m not talking about the fun Disney movies. I’m talking about the book where it seems like the author was so high on drugs that he wrote random things for random reasons that don’t entirely make sense. Some of the things that began to happen in this book didn’t feel like it fit with the fantasy system that was set up in this world. It instead felt like it was happening just for convenience. I’m not sure how to describe this perfectly but it’s basically things that don’t fit with the described fantasy world that are randomly thrown in there that just make you think “what the frick was that. That doesn’t make sense.”
The ending crushed whatever little sliver of enjoyment I had left in this book because I was hoping that at least it would wrap up nicely, but instead it left on a cliff hanger with a rushed love triangle.
I’m so frustrated with this whole book. Everything was set up so well but the last half of the book was a train wreck that made me nearly quit reading it. I love Amina and nothing will change that, but I can’t say that I’ll be looking back on this book fondly since the majority of this book wasn’t enjoyable for me.
You know a book is good, when you can't stop thinking about it. That is Djinn for me. This book was an easy 5 stars! This book was fast paced, beautifully written, and has characters that you just can't help but love.
Djinn, follows sixteen year old Bijou, Bijou is not your ordinary teenage girl. She is an empath, who was raised and home schooled by her Gigi, who didn't let them stay in one place for too long. That is until she moved them to Sykesville, Maryland, and she was enrolled in public school. While she is there, strange things start to happen. With the help of some new friends, Bijou is trying to figure out what is going on, and in the process she finds herself.
This book was phenomenal. I could not put it down. I went into Djinn, thinking that I would separate the book into a few sections, and read a section a day. However, once I started reading it, I could not stop. I fell down the rabbit hole, so to speak.
I love how unique the story was. I have not come across a lot of books that have Liberian folklore, let alone Liberian folklore with a bit of Shakespeare mixed in. I thought the author did a phenomenal job weaving it all together seamlessly. Sang's writing and the plot really draws in the reader and makes them want to keep reading to see how the dots will connect and the story will unfold.
I also really loved the characters. It was really great seeing Bijou go from an awkward teenage girl, to someone who was strong and not afraid to fight back. It was also wonderful see how her relationships with Gigi, Sebastian and Amina evolved throughout the story.
All in all, if you are a fan of fantasy and folklore, I would highly recommend this book! I can't wait for the author to announce when the sequel will be out. I look forward to getting immersed in this magical world, once again!
Djinn, follows sixteen year old Bijou, Bijou is not your ordinary teenage girl. She is an empath, who was raised and home schooled by her Gigi, who didn't let them stay in one place for too long. That is until she moved them to Sykesville, Maryland, and she was enrolled in public school. While she is there, strange things start to happen. With the help of some new friends, Bijou is trying to figure out what is going on, and in the process she finds herself.
This book was phenomenal. I could not put it down. I went into Djinn, thinking that I would separate the book into a few sections, and read a section a day. However, once I started reading it, I could not stop. I fell down the rabbit hole, so to speak.
I love how unique the story was. I have not come across a lot of books that have Liberian folklore, let alone Liberian folklore with a bit of Shakespeare mixed in. I thought the author did a phenomenal job weaving it all together seamlessly. Sang's writing and the plot really draws in the reader and makes them want to keep reading to see how the dots will connect and the story will unfold.
I also really loved the characters. It was really great seeing Bijou go from an awkward teenage girl, to someone who was strong and not afraid to fight back. It was also wonderful see how her relationships with Gigi, Sebastian and Amina evolved throughout the story.
All in all, if you are a fan of fantasy and folklore, I would highly recommend this book! I can't wait for the author to announce when the sequel will be out. I look forward to getting immersed in this magical world, once again!