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lolajh's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Racial slurs, Torture, Racism, Violence, War, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Misogyny, Slavery, Sexism, Murder, and Colonisation
sharebear431's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, War, Violence, Murder, Racism, Classism, Colonisation, and Death
avacadosocks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Murder, and Racism
Minor: Slavery
kseret's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Hate crime, Misogyny, and Racism
anni_swanilda's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Gun violence, Cultural appropriation, Death, Body horror, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, and Gore
Moderate: Classism, Blood, Slavery, Police brutality, and Colonisation
Minor: Addiction and Alcohol
fantasticcan1475's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
The main character Fatma is a Special Investigator for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities and she’s trying to solve a mystery of who killed all the members of a cult.
I really enjoyed the plot, setting and the perspective of Cairo’s culture both magical and from that time period! There’s a lot going on in the book and I especially liked that the plot wasn’t predictable. Also it works really well as a standalone book, despite being the first in a series.
I really liked the side characters since I had a chance to really get to know them and they’re quirks, plus how they interacted with Fatma. But on the other hand, it felt like I was missing something critical about her: like why she’s an investigator, what her motives are and who she is as a person.
I didn’t realize until after reading Master of Djinn, that there’s two prequels: a novelette, A Dead Djinn in Cairo, and a novella, The Haunting of Tram Car 015). I wonder if we learn more about Fatma in those?
Lastly, the audiobook of this book is amazing and the narrator Suehyla El-Attar really captures how each of the characters speak at different paces, nuances and with different accents! I listen to a lot of audiobooks and I’m definitely going to see what else she has narrated!
Graphic: Colonisation, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: War and Sexual content
Minor: Grief
ha1yan's review
- 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
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Self harm, Violence, Murder, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Vomit, Religious bigotry, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, Racial slurs, and Sexism
discarded_dust_jacket's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
I struggled with it perhaps for the same reason that I struggled with The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida: mysteries (especially murder/crime mysteries) that deal too much with politics tend to lose my attention easily.
So the case here is once again not that the book was bad, but more that it was for me.
I kind of hoped that I wasn’t right about Abigail and that Clark was going to truly surprise me, but ended up disappointed.
Graphic: Colonisation, Slavery, Misogyny, Racism, Murder, Cultural appropriation, and Fire/Fire injury
talonsontypewriters's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, and Violence
Moderate: Sexism, Gun violence, Classism, Racism, Self harm, Death of parent, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, Murder, War, Xenophobia, Slavery, Body horror, Misogyny, and Gore
Minor: Alcohol, Sexual content, Stalking, Cultural appropriation, Addiction, Pedophilia, Kidnapping, and Racial slurs
Suffocation/strangulation. Smoking. Mind control/alteration, mild unreality.ashwaar's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
I have read Clark’s previous novel, Ring Shout, and his short stories set in the same universe as A Master of Djinn. You don’t need to read the short stories before this novel, but there are recurring characters and callbacks to previous events. I always find Clark’s worlds and ideas to be incredibly interesting, but I always end up feeling a bit left out, as it seems that everyone else adores this book and his stories, and I always end up disappointed.
My main issue with this book is the writing style. Although the premise is interesting, the descriptions and dialogue are wooden and uninspiring. Some fantasy novels I’ve read don’t provide any information about the world and still keep you hooked. In comparison, Clark feeds you spoonfuls of exposition at every opportunity, and it's just too much. Fatma describes every aspect of Cairo as we go through the novel, and it's so unrealistic. It's like if I walk past St Pauls Cathedral and say ‘ah yes, St Pauls, a Baroque-style structure built in the 17th Century by…’. Literally, no real person thinks the way Fatma does in this novel, and it really threw me off being able to connect with her.
I also found a lot of the themes to be very poorly explored. Clark brings up issues of wealth gaps, inequality, feminism, discrimination and social divides and it doesn’t seem like any of our characters really care about addressing that. It's like Clark is throwing everything at a wall and seeing what sticks and again, it's just too much going on. I know the story is about magic and djinn and investigating crimes but still... I expected more.
Overall it's a really interesting, original story, but it was just too poorly executed for me to recommend it. Clark clearly has a lot of this world thought out, not just in Egypt but across multiple countries, and he tries to introduce some of that in A Master of Djinn, but it just leaves too many loose threads. The story doesn’t feel neat, the characters don’t feel developed and Fatma isn’t someone I really want to root for. It's pretty disappointing honestly but I know what sort of fiction I enjoy, and I just couldn’t get on board with this.
Rating: 2/5
Recommendations: Build Your House Around by Body by Violet Kupersmith, Gideon the Ninth by Tamsin Muir, She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
Graphic: Misogyny, Police brutality, War, Sexism, Murder, Blood, Death, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and Racism
Minor: Alcohol