A review by atrailofpages
Nura and the Immortal Palace by M.T. Khan

5.0

I LOVE this story! If you love Spirited Away as much as I do, then you will also adore this story! a

This book follows Nura, a young girl who mines for mica to help her family survive and get food. One evening, her mother tells her tomorrow is the last day she will mine because it is just too dangerous. So, on that next day Nura is determined to find the mythical Demon's Tongue. Unfortunately, she digs too far, and a cave in is caused collapsing on other kids that are in the caves including her best friend, Faisal. After searching the rubble, they only find one kid. Nura knows it's her fault this happened and so she starts digging to find her best friend and ends up in the world of jinn, and at the Sijj Palace, a hotel for jinn to stay in. She becomes distracted by the opulence of this world and ends up crossing the palace's owner's son who banishes her to the working quarters where she finds other humans who are now bound to the hotel forever. She does not want this to happen to her or Faisal, so with the help of the other children and a mysterious jinn, they work together to find a way out before they are bound to the hotel forever.

This gave me such Spirited Away vibes I was practically crying from the nostalgia of it all! It's so similar in ways, and yet so different. Nura is similar to Chihiro in that she's rather headstrong and maybe thinks about herself a little too much. They both grow in the story so much though. Nura used her headstrongness and stubbornness to work against the jinn, and she learns so much along the way to be a better person and more caring about others and the feelings of others.

The world is as you would expect. It's opulent, glittery, colorful, and just sounds like a lot of fun! But those tricksy jinn! They can be a lot of fun, but boy are they manipulative and tricky! They reminded me of some of the works in Spirited Away, their focus is on the wealthy jinn and taking care of them, and they don't care about humans and instead try to take advantage of them.

This story also dealt with a heavy subject, which the author does mention at the end of the book about child labor. This book just showed how greed can effect others, and how there are children who are just too young to work are forced to work in order to help provide for their families, and the work is generally dangerous, and these kids should have the opportunity to go to school, not work. I also loved how it did focus on the fact that even if you don't come from much, that does not mean your future is not bright, especially when you work for it.

"Sometimes if you dig hard enough, you can find sparkles in the dirt". Love this quote!

I really, really, REALLY love this book! I highly recommend it! 5 glowing stars for me! Thank you to the author and NetGalley for the free digital copy to read. All thoughts and opinions are my own.