A review by rusalka
Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson

4.0

Really enjoyed this fun, engrossing contemporary fantasy read. I loved the characters (especially Dina), the way fantasy was situated within Islam, the plot and pacing, and the treatment of (fictional) Gulf state society and Arab Spring-style revolution. I felt like I learned a fair bit - for example, about the racial/ethnic tensions between Arabs and immigrant South Asians in the Gulf - without being lectured or info-dumped, and the whole story was just tremendously fun. The only people I wouldn't recommend this to are those with a very low tolerance for religion - I think on the jacket there was a quote about this being a Golden Compass for the Muslim world, but this book shows much more reverence to Islam than Philip Pullman does to, well, anything - so if rosy treatments of religious devotion really annoy you, it could get old. Everyone else should read it!