A review by skylarkblue1
Nura and the Immortal Palace by M.T. Khan
5.0
Content warnings: child slavery/labor, loss of a loved one, manipulation
A spellbinding tale of magic, friendship, poverty and knowing the true meaning of education.
12 year old Nura works in the Mica mines in Pakistan, scrapping together what money she can make to help support her mother and siblings. Digging too deep one day, she causes the mine to collapse, trapping many of the children inside. Desperate to find her friend, Nura digs and digs until she eventually falls into a magical world of Muslim mythology - The Jinn realm.
I'll be honest, I don't know too much about Muslim tales and stories, so this book was extra interesting to me! I loved to hear the tales about the Jinn and seeing M. T. Khan's visualisation of a super ghibli (for a rare occasion the "x meets y" was actually super accurate!!) and hotel magnifique mash up that still is dripping with so much charm and uniqueness.
I loved Nura and Faisal's relationship. Nura's stubbornness mixed with Faisal's quiet shyness contrasted wonderfully and the dynamic of them playing off of each other was fun to read.
The other characters, honestly most of the other children were.. Not as well fleshed out? Aroofa and her sister, Sadia, are the other main 2 children I feel had any character development, but even then its very little I feel. Most of the Jinn introduced though are quite nicely developed which I feel balances that out. Going through the realisation of the rich pitching the poor against each other and growing from that. The contrast of those born into money, and those who didn't.
I would honestly love to see this be turned into a series! I want to see how Nura does after that ending, what everyone does and such :3
A spellbinding tale of magic, friendship, poverty and knowing the true meaning of education.
12 year old Nura works in the Mica mines in Pakistan, scrapping together what money she can make to help support her mother and siblings. Digging too deep one day, she causes the mine to collapse, trapping many of the children inside. Desperate to find her friend, Nura digs and digs until she eventually falls into a magical world of Muslim mythology - The Jinn realm.
I'll be honest, I don't know too much about Muslim tales and stories, so this book was extra interesting to me! I loved to hear the tales about the Jinn and seeing M. T. Khan's visualisation of a super ghibli (for a rare occasion the "x meets y" was actually super accurate!!) and hotel magnifique mash up that still is dripping with so much charm and uniqueness.
I loved Nura and Faisal's relationship. Nura's stubbornness mixed with Faisal's quiet shyness contrasted wonderfully and the dynamic of them playing off of each other was fun to read.
The other characters, honestly most of the other children were.. Not as well fleshed out? Aroofa and her sister, Sadia, are the other main 2 children I feel had any character development, but even then its very little I feel. Most of the Jinn introduced though are quite nicely developed which I feel balances that out. Going through the realisation of the rich pitching the poor against each other and growing from that. The contrast of those born into money, and those who didn't.
I would honestly love to see this be turned into a series! I want to see how Nura does after that ending, what everyone does and such :3