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molang_madrigal 's review for:
DID NOT FINISH: 28%
I found this book very boring and too complicated, with too many elements introduced suddenly and overlapping each other. It starts with Aliya, who lives in Cairo with her grandad because her parents died (that storyline again!) in a fire. Although even though she’s supposed to be Egyptian and lived there all her life, she doesn’t seem to know very much about her own country other than bits from documentaries about ancient Egypt, which is very weird and suspicious. Which is a shame, because being set in Africa with African characters was one of the main things that attracted me to buying it. And Aliya doesn’t really have much personality or anything likeable about her anyway.
So Aliya normally lives in Cairo (which sadly isn’t really described), but recently her grandad has been acting weird and suddenly sent them away to a flat and disappeared and left her with an abusive evil butler who really doesn’t like children. But then she suddenly gets a magic green necklace that can produce images of her parents, and open the door of her grandad’s study which is how she jumps, way too quickly, from being completely normal to being the granddaughter of a time traveller.
Then her grandad’s sister immediately shows up out of nowhere with some police robots?!? The grandad’s sister and the grandad fight because the grandad pretended Aliya had also died with her parents just because he knew she wasn’t good enough to be a time traveller (!), despite never telling her about time travelling ever. I mean this is a 12 year old girl! It seemed like you were supposed to be on the grandad’s side but you don’t want to be because he’s clearly a major twit. Even more so when his sister suggests to him counselling (shock horror!) over losing Aliya’s parents, and he replies, and I quote: “I’ll be damned if I let some nitwit poke around in my brain! My son died, my daughter-in-law… and little Aliya (who isn’t dead). No blasted treatment will change that.” I mean yeah, thanks for that. There’s enough stupid stigma about counselling in the real world, why bring in into children’s books too??
Then they argue about whether some evil genie exists or not (I mean, genies? I thought this was just about time travelling) and then the grandad is abducted by the police robots (whose existence still hasn’t been explained) and Aliya’s great aunt whisks her off to the Infinite City, a place for time travellers that combines all historical eras of Cairo into one city. Which sounds really nice and interesting. Except there’s also ghouls, genies, flying carpets, sentient sphinxes, sentient bedposts, other sentient furniture features and weird magic potions. Why? I have no idea!
So they ride on a magic carpet that keeps threatening to kill them, and the whole experience of flying on a magic carpet is described like it’s the most horrific experience in the world. Then they arrive at a boarding school for young time travellers, that Aliya should be attending but is late for the academic year and will have to pass exams about stuff she knows nothing about. The school is for some reason ran by a cannabilistic ghoul matron who doesn’t do anything other than threaten to eat everyone’s innards. (Apparently it’s just a joke and she never does really!) It’s a bit Hogwarts-esque with sentient furniture and portraits, and the bedposts even spy on the kids while they’re sleeping (which is totally inappropriate). The next morning Aliya meets some of the other students who all come from different eras of Cairo’s history. This causes trouble because one of the girls is from the era when Egypt was part of the British Empire and has been brought up to think Britain is superior. The cook is from the British imperial era too, but she doesn’t agree with girl; however, the cook does succeed in making the lamest excuse ever for the British Empire: “We British are a proud people, although sometimes we forget ourselves and… well, try to take over the world.”
Shortly after this I just couldn’t take anymore! The story just had way too many random elements to be engaging and was very lacking in likeable characters. I really couldn’t be bothered to see what happened next.
So Aliya normally lives in Cairo (which sadly isn’t really described), but recently her grandad has been acting weird and suddenly sent them away to a flat and disappeared and left her with an abusive evil butler who really doesn’t like children. But then she suddenly gets a magic green necklace that can produce images of her parents, and open the door of her grandad’s study which is how she jumps, way too quickly, from being completely normal to being the granddaughter of a time traveller.
Then her grandad’s sister immediately shows up out of nowhere with some police robots?!? The grandad’s sister and the grandad fight because the grandad pretended Aliya had also died with her parents just because he knew she wasn’t good enough to be a time traveller (!), despite never telling her about time travelling ever. I mean this is a 12 year old girl! It seemed like you were supposed to be on the grandad’s side but you don’t want to be because he’s clearly a major twit. Even more so when his sister suggests to him counselling (shock horror!) over losing Aliya’s parents, and he replies, and I quote: “I’ll be damned if I let some nitwit poke around in my brain! My son died, my daughter-in-law… and little Aliya (who isn’t dead). No blasted treatment will change that.” I mean yeah, thanks for that. There’s enough stupid stigma about counselling in the real world, why bring in into children’s books too??
Then they argue about whether some evil genie exists or not (I mean, genies? I thought this was just about time travelling) and then the grandad is abducted by the police robots (whose existence still hasn’t been explained) and Aliya’s great aunt whisks her off to the Infinite City, a place for time travellers that combines all historical eras of Cairo into one city. Which sounds really nice and interesting. Except there’s also ghouls, genies, flying carpets, sentient sphinxes, sentient bedposts, other sentient furniture features and weird magic potions. Why? I have no idea!
So they ride on a magic carpet that keeps threatening to kill them, and the whole experience of flying on a magic carpet is described like it’s the most horrific experience in the world. Then they arrive at a boarding school for young time travellers, that Aliya should be attending but is late for the academic year and will have to pass exams about stuff she knows nothing about. The school is for some reason ran by a cannabilistic ghoul matron who doesn’t do anything other than threaten to eat everyone’s innards. (Apparently it’s just a joke and she never does really!) It’s a bit Hogwarts-esque with sentient furniture and portraits, and the bedposts even spy on the kids while they’re sleeping (which is totally inappropriate). The next morning Aliya meets some of the other students who all come from different eras of Cairo’s history. This causes trouble because one of the girls is from the era when Egypt was part of the British Empire and has been brought up to think Britain is superior. The cook is from the British imperial era too, but she doesn’t agree with girl; however, the cook does succeed in making the lamest excuse ever for the British Empire: “We British are a proud people, although sometimes we forget ourselves and… well, try to take over the world.”
Shortly after this I just couldn’t take anymore! The story just had way too many random elements to be engaging and was very lacking in likeable characters. I really couldn’t be bothered to see what happened next.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation
Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Racism, Xenophobia, Grief, Stalking, Fire/Fire injury
Stigma against mental health care/counselling, pretence that a child is dead because they aren’t good enough, self esteem issues, bedposts that watch children while they sleep, exam pressure