BOOK REVIEW : DJINN BY SANG KROMAH

TITLE : Djinn

AUTHOR : 

GENRE : YA, Urban Fantasy

FR RATING : ⭐⭐ 2.5 Stars

FR REVIEW

DISCLAIMER : Thank you, NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for providing me with an ARC of this book. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Djinn is a YA urban fantasy with Djinns as the fantastical creatures. The story is told from Bijou a young teenager’s perspective. We follow her move to the new town filled with new beginnings. Bijou has been following her grandmother from place to place uprooting her life. The new town where they planned to settle hoping for a normal life gets turned upside down when supernatural events happen. Bijou finds herself finding truths about herself and her past making her question her whole life.

The entire experience of being homeschooled and lack of friends and connections have made Bijou feel less confident in social situations. Being empath on top of being a social outcast makes her weird. She is also hoping to experience regular school life as a teenager. I found Bijou’s character to be quite interesting. Her family dynamics and her relationship with her grandmother had a lot of red flags.

The story started out being promising and then somewhere down the line went downhill for me. I was extremely intrigued by the concept of Djinns and how they were being portrayed in the story. The Djinns had a lot in common with the Muslim narrative found in the Quran. This was one of the reasons why I was drawn to the story in the first place. Djinns and their backstory were pretty fascinating and the smaller stories that we get to see in the book were all fantastic and had the creepy and weird vibe done remarkably well. While the first half was interesting and engaging the second half felt rushed and brought in more confusion than clarity to the storyline.

The romantic relationships were happening way too quickly for my taste and the few characters that were introduced in the second half brought the conflict without any resolution. I wished the author had tried to focus on the storyline from the first half, than adding too many plot points that didn’t land. The story ended way too quickly and I felt that it was not a very good conclusion to the overall story. I hope the author is planning a second book to explain some of the events in this book that were left incomplete.

The high school setting and drama that ensues there were stereotypical. The main character cast was interesting and had some unique elements to their personality. The setting and the world itself was fun to read about. The pacing was also good and the story was easily readable and I was invested in the story and how things were going to be concluded.

Overall the story was fun but lacked clarity. The stories within the book and lore were intriguing. The dark and creepy vibe is set successfully for the first half. I am sad that I didn’t enjoy the second half as much as the first half. I am giving 2.5 stars to this story. If you enjoy stories of paranormal creatures and Djinns, you might wanna check this book out.

SYNOPSIS

Some believe that at birth, we’re each born with a guardian attached to us, watching from afar, but never seen. Truth is, there are certain people, special people, born of this world and of the other, who need that extra protection. They go their entire lives, unaware of the other world, and unaware of the existence of their own personal watcher, watching from afar. But what happens when fate takes a turn for the worse, and The One who needs the aid of a watcher most can’t be found to be protected?

Bijou Fitzroy is strange. With the unwanted gift of being an empath, she has spent her entire life as a sheltered recluse, homeschooled by her secretive and overprotective grandmother, who never allows them to stay in one place long enough for Bijou to settle and make friends. When Bijou and her grandmother move to Sykesville and she starts to attend the local high school, Bijou’s world begins to crumble. Town locals begin to disappear and the creatures from her nightmares begin to take shape in her reality. She finds herself at the center of a war she never knew was being fought all around her. 

Buy DJINN BY SANG KROMAH here.