Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark

8 reviews

alisonvh's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This book is so much fun! Djinn, angels, power-hungry mortals who refuse to understand the kind of power they’re really dealing with. Oh, and a super-cute lesbian love story. I had so much fun listening to this audiobook and I can’t wait for the sequel!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

emily_mh's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I was absolutely thrilled, 100% of the time, to be reading this book. It literally felt like I was Fatma and Hadia’s cat sidekick (which they don’t actually have in the story), rubbing my paws together after investigating a lead and asking “where to next, ladies?” I was just enthralled. I absolutely adored the alt-history, steampunk, supernatural Cairo the novel’s events are set in. You’ve got mechanical, thinking buildings, airships and aerial trams, secret bars, and in the midst of it all, a Ministry that is trying to keep all hell from breaking loose (literally). What is so compelling is that general knowledge of the existence of magic and its spread in society only happened 40 years prior to the events of the novel; it is still super new to everyone and not everything is known, so this Ministry doesn’t really know what it’s doing or what it’s up against - kind of like the reader!

I also loved the characters. Our MC Fatma is this prodigal agent who is super capable and practical, and goes around wearing outlandish English suits. She’s in a relationship with SC Siti, who is this unpredictable, confident woman with some mysterious otherworldly powers. Fatma is assigned a partner at the Ministry, Hadia, who is steadfast, passionate, and kind. Fatma’s development is about her relationships with Siti and Hadia; in the former they aren’t communicating well, while Fatma wants nothing to do with the latter. Both relationships end in a much, much better place than they began.

The fault with this book lies partially in some lines of cliche dialogue, and occasionally some clumsy world-building (”I think it’s X!” “X? You mean [insert exactly what X is here]”), that perhaps indicated the level of craft could have been improved overall. But it mostly lies in the fact that Clark could have introduced more suspects and hidden the perpetrator better, as the writing of the clues was heavy-handed for an adult mystery. The combination of these factors meant I guessed who the perpetrator was very early on. HOWEVER, I didn’t guess the motive or the mechanics of their crimes, which ended up being interestingly tied into the world-building. I would say I’d rate this book 4.25 for quality (still super solid!), but overall I couldn’t rate it less than 5 stars because I enjoyed it so damn much. I can easily see this series as a whole making my top 10 of 2024 list.

Rep: Muslim Egyptian MC, Sudanese LI, Muslim Egyptian SCs

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racism, Police brutality, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide, Blood, Vomit, Islamophobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Major: six uses of the Arabic anti-Black a-slur, self-injury, body control, mind control, blackface Moderate: two uses of the archaic anti-Black n-slur, colourism, bomb Minor: gambling, apartheid, fainting, one use of the archaic anti-Black b-slur, imprisonment

asahome's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious

3.5

TL;DR: A young woman must solve a mass murder case where she discovers the supernatural is closer than she thinks. In the end, people challenge the status quo and they are not wrong when discussing the way power is distributed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Colonisation

Moderate: Body horror, Drug use, Gore, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Self harm, Slavery, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

novella42's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This book was beautiful, the worldbuilding was excellent, the characters were multi-dimensional, their problems and responses were believable, and Clark explored social issues with nuance. I loved so much of this book!

The story began a little slow for me because I'm not into mysteries, but by the second half I was having a hard time putting it down as the pacing built more and more. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Hate crime, Homophobia, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Death of parent, and War

Minor: Sexual content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol

fantasticcan1475's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This book is really interesting because it ties in magical beings from fairy tales from all of the world. It’s set in 1912 in Cairo, where in recent years the magical creatures called the Djinn, and others, have recently been brought from the magical realm by someone and the world is still adjusting to magic being real. Cairo is fast becoming the next big international hub and is on par with cities such as London. The story brings in historical perspectives and politics from the time period, with a magical twist!

The main character Fatma is a Special Investigator for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities and she’s trying to solve a mystery of who killed all the members of a cult. 

I really enjoyed the plot, setting and the perspective of Cairo’s culture both magical and from that time period! There’s a lot going on in the book and I especially liked that the plot wasn’t predictable. Also it works really well as a standalone book, despite being the first in a series. 

I really liked the side characters since I had a chance to really get to know them and they’re quirks, plus how they interacted with Fatma. But on the other hand, it felt like I was missing something critical about her: like why she’s an investigator, what her motives are and who she is as a person. 

I didn’t realize until after reading Master of Djinn, that there’s two prequels: a novelette, A Dead Djinn in Cairo, and a novella, The Haunting of Tram Car 015). I wonder if we learn more about Fatma in those?

Lastly, the audiobook of this book is amazing and the narrator Suehyla El-Attar really captures how each of the characters speak at different paces, nuances and with different accents! I listen to a lot of audiobooks and I’m definitely going to see what else she has narrated!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, and Colonisation

Moderate: Sexual content and War

Minor: Grief

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Slavery, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Minor: Addiction, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Stalking, Cultural appropriation, and Alcohol

Suffocation/strangulation. Smoking. Mind control/alteration, mild unreality.

booksthatburn's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Racism, Violence, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Sexism and Sexual content

uranaishi's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful inspiring mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Blood, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Sexual content, Violence, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Outing, Alcohol, and War