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

Did not finish book. Stopped at 52%.

I suspect other folks may find this book more enjoyable than me and I encourage you to read it yourself if it interests you. I just couldn't push on any further against some of the writing habits - animesque explanations of the character's every thought, exclamations of incredulity that undermine the characters' purported intelligence and hypercompetency. These things are much more suited to stylized visual storytelling. I'm fascinated by the story concept, and I hope the book ends with some clever finale rather than just giving al-Jahiz the Magneto treatment (ie he makes too many good points for a villain gotta make him genocidal) but I won't be sticking around to find out.

Also the "conflicts" written between Fatma and Siti or Fatma and Hadia are just irksome. Resolved too quickly and too easily, robbed of any character or narrative significance.