Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by S.A. Chakraborty

25 reviews

mahra's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny tense slow-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? Yes

4.5

"To be a woman is to have your story misremembered. Discarded. Twisted."

Amina Al-Sirafi, the Legend that you are.

Oh, I loved this so much. Incredible read.

Amina Al-Sirafi is a fierce pirate captain who retired and spent the past few years raising her daughter. A mysterious benefactor offers her a mission and a prize that no pirate worth their salt would refuse. She is then forced to reunite with her former crew and embarks on a long journey across the Arabian Gulf and the Indian Ocean.

This book is essentially a heist story, set on the sea, in a fantasy world.

We finally have a middle-aged female main character. She is a muslim woman, and the author does not make her turn against her religion or remove her hijab. Who would have thought this was possible? *eyeroll* And for that, S. A. Chakraborty, I thank you. How refreshing!

The prose? Immaculate. The worldbuilding? Immersive. The characters? Captivating.

The twist at the end with the narrator was very heartwarming.

Why not a five stars then? Well, the story took a crazy turn

(the bird people etc. lol)

. I was VERY worried. And while the author ultimately stuck the landing, it was really perplexing. It actually took me out of the story.

Still, it is one of my favorite reads of 2023. I cannot wait to see what happens next. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Kidnapping, Murder, and War

Moderate: Sexual content

rorikae's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? Yes

5.0

'The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi' by Shannon Chakraborty is a fun and fast paced historical fantasy novel. 
Amina al-Sirafi has put her pirate days behind her. Now she lives with her daughter and mother far away from the rumors about her younger days. But Amina's calm life is thrown into turmoil when a woman comes looking for her help and knows exactly who she is. Her granddaughter has been kidnapped and she offers Amina a pretty sum to go rescue her. Amina has no interest until she learns who the granddaughter is and how she's tied to Amina's past. She'll have to get the band back together if she has any hope of completing her quest. 
Chakraborty has created such a fun historical fantasy novel full of great characters, peril, and a dash of the fantastic. I love pirate stories and this one does not disappoint. This novel is also a breath of fresh air among the troves of novels centered on character in their 20s. Amina and her crew are nearing middle age with a number of adventures behind them. Chakraborty does an excellent job of slowing rolling out information about Amina and her crew's past. 
The audiobook of this is fantastic and actually leans into the frame story of Amina telling this tale herself. I'm so excited that this is the start of a series because I can't wait to go sailing with Amina and her crew again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Torture, Toxic relationship, and Xenophobia

Minor: Rape and Sexual violence

walkie_check's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring tense 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Cursing, Deadnaming, Genocide, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

arantzazureads's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing 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? It's complicated

5.0

I’ll have to write more later, but suffice it to say this was the best book I’ve read in a long-ass time. Funny and witty and smart and fascinating, this reading experience felt like I was on an empowering D&D adventure. I loved that the colonizer was the bad guy and the research that went into the culture and lore and history and geography. It all felt so vividly real and rich without being purple prose or world building info dumps. I loved loved loved it. I hope we get more Amina! Maybe with Marjana in tow…! And OMG JAMAL!!!!! Seriously. New favorite author unlocked. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury and Colonisation

Moderate: Violence, Grief, and Classism

Minor: Gore, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent

sunnydale's review against another edition

adventurous funny informative inspiring 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? Yes

4.0

what a delightful read. the world was so rich, i immediately wanted to learn more about the historical context, and fortunately the author provided a bibliography! the audiobook is very well-produced, with two voice actors, sound effects in the "present-day" chapters, and adjustments made to address listeners instead of readers. 

i love that the protagonist's faith is central to her character, and we're also able to see how it's developed throughout her life. her faith is sometimes messy, sometimes self-contradicting, but she also never doubts her core beliefs, and she's a more authentic character because of it.

irrelevant to the quality of the book, i noticed that "midnight" is the author's favorite adjective for anything dark. "midnight beach," "midnight ocean," "midnight fabric," etc. it felt like a scavenger hunt trying to find the word in each chapter, lol.

i would recommend this to fans of fantasy, especially those who are looking for non-western fantasy settings. i definitely recommend the audiobook, although you might want a print or ebook copy for the helpful bibliography.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cursing, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Murder, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Alcoholism, Body horror, Death, Sexual violence, Slavery, Transphobia, Islamophobia, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Violence and sexual content are at a PG-13 rating. There is a lot of swearing. The cat is fine.

miraileah's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious slow-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? Yes

5.0

5.0. I loved The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi. It was adventurous, thoughtful, and fun to read. The beginning did drag a touch, but I didn’t mind that at all listening to the audiobook. The performance of the audio was fantastic, and I found myself tearing up when I know I would not have just reading, due to the excellent vocal performances. The characters are absolutely where this book shines. I adored Amina, her crew, Jamal, and Marjana. Once I got to about the 40-50% mark, this book was captivating and I was thinking about it even when I wasn’t reading it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Xenophobia

Moderate: Alcoholism and Alcohol

kappafrog's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny informative mysterious tense slow-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? Yes

4.25

The historical setting was 10/10. I loved how rich the details were and how immersed I felt in the world of the 12th century Indian Ocean. Amina was also a great protagonist, very complex and easy to root for. The choice of setting and characters was exciting and refreshing.

The book got too violent for my tastes at times. Some of the plot armour the main characters had got pretty convoluted. Still, I look forward to seeing more in this series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Genocide, Slavery, Torture, Transphobia, Vomit, Islamophobia, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, and War

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Pregnancy

edamamebean's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny inspiring mysterious reflective tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

I loved this book so much that without even realizing what I was doing, I kissed the very last page affectionately. No one writes fantasy like Shannon Chakraborty, and this book is no exception. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, and War

Moderate: Child abuse, Islamophobia, and Death of parent

boglord's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, and Classism

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Deadnaming, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Trafficking, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Dysphoria

purplepenning's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Re-read for book club and loved it just as much the second time. Retired lady pirate gets the crew back together for one last job — shenanigans and legends ensue.  Perfection. No notes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, Rape, Slavery, and Abandonment