Tags
author, book reviews, becoming jinn, becoming jinn by Lori Goldstein, book, books, characters, fantasy, fiction, literature, Lori Goldstein, novel, plot, read, reader, review, stories, story, write, writer, writing, young adult
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary Fantasy
Pages: 384
Point of View: First (Azra)
Released: April 21th 2015
Series: Becoming Jinn 1
Predictability: 4 out of 5 (Where 1 is totally unpredictable and 5 is I knew what was going to happen way ahead of time.)
Source: Netgalley
My Rating: 6/10 Stars
My Summary:
Azra wakes up on her sixteenth birthday transformed. She’s a Jinn and she’s come into her magic, but as far as she’s concerned that’s the worst thing ever.
Azra blames magic for not being able to save her best friend when she was little. Ever since then she’s closed herself off and not allowed herself to have another friend, not even the members of her Zar. (The other Jinn members of her group which are supposed to be like sisters to her.)
Azra might hate magic, but she doesn’t have a choice. She has to learn how to control her magic and grant wishes or the Afrit (the over controlling leaders of the Jinn) will punish her.
My Review:
This is more of a contemporary book where one of her problems happens to be magic than a fantasy book. There were hints of fighting back against the evil Afrits, but most of the conflict was with Azra’s relationships.
The good:
I enjoyed the culture and idiosyncrasies of the Jinn. (Like how they ate sweets constantly and didn’t like the cold.) These were cute touches.
There is a love triangle! (I wish the one boy only liked her as a friend and she didn’t go into the jealousy thing,) But it wasn’t a totally obnoxious triangle. Both of her love interests were good, sweet guys. Her friend was my favorite character, but then again I have a thing for geeky guys. 😉
Most of the fun parts of this book were between her and her geeky friend. I also liked the relationship between her Zar sisters. (Like when three of them wore mismatched bikinis but they all went together)
The Bad:
Jinn magic is pretty unlimited and Azra learns everything really quickly. Any problem she had with magic she created by acting stupidly.
Though I liked Azra in this book I didn’t like her past self. (Her actions before the story takes place.) How she’d separated herself from everyone. That was part of the theme of this book though.
How do you feel about themes in books? I don’t mind them when they come naturally, but they can easily take over the book. (Which it did a bit here.)
Becoming Jinn has a strong theme concerning death and acceptance.
This is sort of a spoiler (but I had to mention it) I don’t agree with the message of the ending, Spoiler part next. when she magically erased grief. (I really need to figure out how to do hidey tags)
Woven Magic Books 