obviousthings 's review for:

The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud

4.25

adventurous dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

---

I first read this as a kid, & it holds up fairly well.  The story is notably well-constructed - nothing is ever made easy for the characters, and from what I remember of the rest of the trilogy, some future character development is foreshadowed in this book. There's a bit of a magical heist element to the story, which is fun, & the footnotes are very funny. I'm not usually one for audiobooks, but I enjoyed Simon Jones's reading of it, and I thought his acting was quite good (and the footnotes are kept in, don't worry).

I would like to note, though,  that the way cultures from outside England are incorporated into the worldbuilding is... not particularly respectful, as far as I can tell. Bartimaeus makes a few offhand mentions of places he's been summoned in the past, and some of it comes off as very stereotypical. None of it is really in-depth or relevant to the main setting or plot, though.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Grief

Minor: Body horror, Confinement