Book Club: The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty
Aladdin meets Pirates of the Caribbean
Read This Book If: You want to be on a boat somewhere and wouldn’t mind if you had to run from a sea creature and encounter a few gods for the chance to bring home a million dollars
The following post contains spoilers. This is a fantastic book with many twists and turns. If you plan to read it, stop reading now.
Before picking up this book, I had been in a reading slump. Well, that’s not quite true. I’ve read many books I’ve loved recently, but few, if any, fantasy. I’ve been craving a book full of adventure and magic, tough characters and life-or-death consequences. Cozy fantasy has been popular lately, and while I enjoy those books, my upbringing on LOTR, HP, and the Eragon series created a literary craving for end-of-the-world drama. I want a story that’s fun and adventurous with stakes that truly pull me from reality. Too many books I’ve read lately fail to do that.
Then I met Amina al-Sirafi and time fell away.
Life continued on while reading this book, but even while working or doing any other life task, part of me was on the Murawati in the Indian Ocean, hunting for magic to bring Dunya home and keep Marjana safe. This is the first fantasy book I’ve read set in an Arabic place, so even though the locations are real, the references felt foreign and fantastical. I love when fantasy books teach me something about the real world, and even the geography lessons from this tale expanded my perspective.
One refreshing aspect of this story is the pace. It starts off with a bang and doesn’t let up. Just when you think Amina will have a chance to breathe, another magical creature appears (sometimes in the form of a past lover) and she has to use her cunning and drive to find her way out. There were many times where I genuinely did not understand how she could survive or continue on, which has rarely happened for me when reading lately. Amina shows that sometimes the only escape is to jump into something even worse.
If you haven’t read the book yet and have made it this far, you might think Amina is a twenty-something adventurer. Erase that image from your mind. Amina is a retired pirate in her 40s who has spent the past decade raising her daughter as a single mom and tending to their home with little to no money. She paid out most of her earnings from her days as a pirate to her crew—a gesture that won my heart over even more. Because she’s older, we’re able to see her as a true leader. She cares for each and every member of her crew and makes decisions based on the well-being of everyone, not her pride. This seasoned leadership is a refreshing addition to the fantasy canon.
The magic felt a bit like Aladdin combined with Pirates of the Caribbean. There were mentions of djinn, gods imprisoned in small household dishes, and a monstrous sea creature. We even saw a demon and a fantastical island of bird creatures. The magic just kept going, and for the most part, I loved it. When we arrived at the island, the story started to lose me, but the way it weaved back in with the rest of the plot (and likely subsequent novels) pulled me back in. I appreciate that we didn’t linger there for too long because it did slow the pace down a bit right as things were getting intense.
The side characters’ devotion to Amina aligned with her respect and love for them. The plot moved so fast that we didn’t get to learn as much about them as I wanted to, but it didn’t detract from the story. If anything, it gives us something to look forward to with future books.
I have to talk about Raksh for a moment. I actually really liked his character and that he was written as a classic trickster—fluid and selfish. It allowed him to be a foil to Amina’s almost selfless devotion to her crew. I kept expecting her to fall back in love with him and rekindle their marriage, which would have been predictable but also not unwelcome. Chakraborty didn’t do that. Their current relationship leaves the door open for Amina to explore more romances and also for Raksh to stay a trickster without breaking our hearts.
It’s been two days since I finished the story, and I still have a book hangover. I want to start something new, but I know nothing is going to be quite as exciting as this novel. I loved the ending and wouldn’t change it, but part of me wishes Amina was still on her adventure so I could follow along.
If you haven’t read it yet, grab a copy and start reading. Then come back here to share your thoughts.
If you have read it, what did you think?
April’s Book Club Pick
I’m switching things up for the book club because, frankly, the weekly format is a lot to manage (and probably overwhelming to receive). Instead there will be one book club post at the end of the month where I share a summary and we can all chat in the comments. There will also be Buddy Read and Readalong options on Storygraph.
Next month we’ll be reading:
Gifted & Talented by Olivie Blake
In a recent interview, Blake pitched the book as “Succession but with magic.” Here’s the official description:
The story of three siblings who, upon the death of their father, are forced to reckon with their long-festering rivalries and dangerous abilities.
The official book club discussion post will go up at the end of April.
If you’d like to chat as you read, here are the links to participate on the Storygraph Readalong and Buddy Read. I’ll be commenting and updating as I work through the book.
I can’t wait to hear what you think about it!
Wishing you more magic in the meantime,
Demi