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A review by myjourneywithbooks
The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years by Shubnum Khan
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.75
Fifteen-year-old Sana and her father have just moved into their new place of residence, the once grand Akbar Manzil on the coast of South Africa, now a boardinghouse that is home to a ragtag group of tenants. Unlike the others, who are dismissive of the mysterious aspect of the large house that seems to hold many secrets, Sana is curious to uncover everything it is hiding. This is how she chances upon the locked room that decades ago belonged to the wife of the man who built the house, a room that now houses a djinn who had a strong connection to the woman. Haunted (literally) by her own past, Sana tries to work out what happened to the original inhabitants of the house.
After Sana's discovery of the locked room, the story alternates between the past, when the house was first built, and the present, Sana's time. I was much more invested in the telling of the story from the past and wouldn't even have minded if the whole book had been about that. There was something about the detached narrative style, especially when it came to the present timeline, that kept me from getting as immersed in the book as I would have liked.
I also expected the djinn to have played a much more prominent role in the story, given that its name is splashed out across the title but instead it felt more like a character who was thrown in as an afterthought and the story would have worked just as well without it. The author did nail the atmospheric bit though, with all the descriptions of the house exuding that nice chilling gothic vibe.
After Sana's discovery of the locked room, the story alternates between the past, when the house was first built, and the present, Sana's time. I was much more invested in the telling of the story from the past and wouldn't even have minded if the whole book had been about that. There was something about the detached narrative style, especially when it came to the present timeline, that kept me from getting as immersed in the book as I would have liked.
I also expected the djinn to have played a much more prominent role in the story, given that its name is splashed out across the title but instead it felt more like a character who was thrown in as an afterthought and the story would have worked just as well without it. The author did nail the atmospheric bit though, with all the descriptions of the house exuding that nice chilling gothic vibe.