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Chava is a golem, a creature made of clay, brought to life by a strange man who dabbles in dark Kabbalistic magic. Ahmad is a jinni, a being of fire, born in the ancient Syrian Desert. Trapped in an old copper flask by a Bedouin wizard centuries ago, he is released accidentally by a tinsmith in a Lower Manhattan shop.
Struggling to make their way in 1899 New York, the Golem and the Jinni try to fit in with their immigrant neighbours while masking their true selves. Meeting by chance, they become unlikely friends whose tenuous attachment challenges their opposing natures, until the night a terrifying incident drives them back into their separate worlds. But a powerful menace will soon bring the Golem and the Jinni together again, threatening their existence and forcing them to make a fateful choice.
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Rating: 4/5
I wish I could have rated this story as a 5 out of 5, but there were just a few things that knocked this story from favourite to merely a story I liked a lot.
I first learned of The Golem and the Jinni when I was looking through Goodreads for novels staring golems so I could find inspiration for a race of stone-like beings for one of my fantasy stories. The word "golem" had been bobbing around in my head for a while, so I looked it up. And when I saw it I thought I have to read this!
I'm so glad I did, because it opened my eyes to a time period in a part of the world I don't think about very often—or hardly at all.
The first thing I want to say about this book is that it was delightfully void of any swearing. I didn't have to worry about any unexpected s-words, b-words, or f-bombs. There was some blaspheming, but there's only so much you can expect from a secular author. It's very rare for a book such as this, though, to possess no swearing.
The second thing I want to say is that the authoress was delightfully sensitive in her handling of the three respective religions she included in the book: Judaism, Christianity/Catholicism, and Islam. The main two were Judaism and Catholicism, because the Golem was taken care of by a rabbi and the jinni was found by a Syrian Catholic. Only one character was Muslim—or he was—but in his flashback he was and she handled it well as well. Reading this book didn't make me feel as if she was mocking the faiths she decided to put in the book (which is awesome since I'm a Protestant Christian so I always have an eye for details such as this).
One of the things I didn't like was the mention of sexual intercourse. There were several points where it was mentioned even though the author wasn't overly explicit, only saying enough to let you know what the characters were doing. There were at least four different scenes.
The story was a tiny bit slow, but it was also delightfully engrossing. There were times where I couldn't bring myself to put the book down, and the cliffhangers were put in all the right places. The settings and scenes were all so real that I always felt like I was there, an invisible spectator standing behind the characters, watching everything unfold before me. There were parts to Ahmed's personality that I liked, some that I did not; and Chava had a personality similar to my own that had me connecting to her from the beginning.
I didn't see who was the villain until the last quarter, which didn't bother me even though the book had me following him from the beginning. It left me feeling quite surprised, which I don't experience with stories very often. There were parts that left me feeling sad for certain characters, and I think I even gasped once or twice while reading. I like it when a story latches onto my emotions and doesn't let go.
There looks to be a sequel to the story planned to be published next year. If it follows through I look forward to snatching it up so I can see what happens to Chava and Ahmed.
Until then I'll have to distract myself, lol.
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