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QueenBoadicea
Oct 07, 2015QueenBoadicea rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
Alternating between viewpoints, we get a male and a female view of just what goes on when we strive to articulate our desires or even just to find out what to wish for. This is an amusing and heartfelt tale of what happens when an impatient but decent jinn meets a girl with tons of wishes but no clue as to what will make her happy. Having read enough stories about the terrible consequences of wish making, I was neither surprised to see how Viola’s wish began to backfire nor that her genie began to care for her beyond his duties as a wish granter (this is YA fiction, after all). So what stand out are Viola’s efforts to resurrect herself after her wishes rebound on her and her jinn’s altering feelings. We get an inside peek into the world of genii that you might not expect in a book like this, so that we understand Jinn’s longing to return as well as the gradually dawning realization that his perfect world may not be the paradise he’s always thought it to be. However, we don’t get to see any other denizens of this world, save an ifrit and the mysterious Ancients. The motivation of the Ancients is a bit unclear. They want more jinn in the world so they urge them to reproduce, to the extent that female jinn are encouraged to attend parties half naked. But, since they don’t want jinn to be at the beck and call of greedy mortals forever making wishes, you don’t know why they want them to reproduce so badly. A question that may be answered in the sequel, no doubt. All in all, this is a sweet YA romance with an unusual supernatural element thrown into it. Save for one or two scenes where Viola angrily confronts Jinn and her ex-boyfriend, it lacks a decided edge. There are no mean girls here, no snide high school attacks, no cyberbullying and little in the way of imposing parental attention. Even the token punk kid makes little or no impact. This novel has the standard message—learn to be yourself and others will appreciate the real you for it—and doesn’t rise much above that. While there is a climactic scene wherein Viola confronts a manipulative ifrit, the tension is too little and too late. Read this only if you like your YA fiction without bite.