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tamara_joy's review
adventurous
dark
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism
Moderate: Addiction
Minor: Vomit, Body shaming, Dementia, Drug abuse, and Excrement
bex_knighthunterbooks's review
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This was a wild ride, featuring so many elements that I adored. The world building was fantastic with a futuristic Bangladesh struggling with a changed climate and encroaching seas. Their cities is run by an AI called Karma, which just works wonderfully for the storytelling, helping to explore themes of class and inequality and also what that might look like even when everyone's minimum needs are met. Oh, and also that gives wonderful wordplay opportunities (e.g. Karma's a B*tch), which got me every time. If it wasn't enough to have this cleverly created cyberpunk future world, it also contains djinn and fantastical elements. The plot has a mystery structure, with Kundo (our MC) on a search for his wife who left him under slightly suspicious circumstances. The story also heavily features video games, which I enjoyed. Kundo was not a likable protagonist for me at the start, being selfish, cowardly and by his own admission not seeing his wife as a person with a rich and complex inner life. I was ready to DNF the first time he was thinking about his wife's sexual interactions with other men, but thankfully this only happened a couple of times. However, he does grow as a person over the story, and at least he recognises these things about himself and the other side characters give him some grief too. Side characters were generally fantastic and formed a wonderful motley crew (as well as giving me confidence that the author can write women and it is a choice to have the wife have so little personality). The group featured: Kundo a well-off artist who is lacking purpose, a geriatric ex-crime boss with dementia, a gamer struggling single mum and her toddler, a 'dead to the system' hacker junkie. This novella really worked for me and I am really excited to try the author's other stories set in this universe.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Terminal illness, Dementia, Addiction, Abandonment, and Chronic illness
Moderate: Sexual content, Stalking, Drug abuse, and Drug use
Minor: Suicide, Infidelity, Vomit, Violence, Excrement, Gun violence, Police brutality, and Alcohol
aardwyrm's review
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Proof that even a novel about a middle aged divorced guy being sad can work out if it's also about cyberpunk djinn. Though I don't know how well it'd work without having read not just The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday but also Djinn City without the last third just being a confusing series of cameos.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Vomit, Violence, Trafficking, Addiction, Alcohol, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Suicide, Police brutality, Infidelity, Drug use, Excrement, Gun violence, Classism, Sexual content, Dementia, Drug abuse, and Fatphobia
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