A review by mycupoftealcsw
A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark

Did not finish book. Stopped at 54%.

DNF at 54%

I tried, but was constantly having to make myself read this one, and that’s not how I like to enjoy books. 

I really liked the world, the magic system, and the main mystery of this one. And if the story had been tighter and focused on this, I think I would have enjoyed it. However, when it focused more on the characters, I lost interest. They are very generic, stereotypical characters I’ve seen a million times  - a unconventional, loner detective who doesn’t think she needs a partner and has an unnecessarily complicated/on again/off again romantic relationship, a plucky and eager partner that just wants to prove herself, and the on again/off again love interest who has slightly more personality than the main character but is primarily there just to be horny for the main character, and so on. If I had to describe the characters (especially Fatma) in much more detail than this, I would be hard pressed to do so because they are so forgettable (Fatma does wear English/American style men’s suits as a personality, so there is that, I guess). This book is the equivalent of if you took a potentially interesting, flavorful main dish and served it on a limp, paper plate with a lot of vaguely related side dishes- still a good main dish, but hard to appreciate because the overall meal doesn’t really make sense and the presentation is so blah. If I wasn’t such a character reader, I could have powered through, but I am so I had to quit.