Joined in 2023 
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Our hearts may be spoken for by those with sweet eyes, little smiles and so very many needs, but that does not mean that which makes us, us is gone."
Happy Monday and welcome to day 1 of our Adult readalong! We’ll be reading The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty. I’m so excited to be reading this one with you, I hope you all love it! This is why the first 50%-66% of the book was okay. The characters showed promise, the action was great, the mystery compelling. But the end of the book didn't deliver on its promises--it just upped the action times 10 and forgot about any emotional, internal changes.The characters are easily my favorite part of this book. Amina al-Sirafi is a badass pirate mom who is fed up with all of the magical bullshit in her world. Having left her pirate life behind she is both terrified and thrilled when she is roped into "one last adventure." I adore every single member of her crew. Though this is the first time we have met these characters, you can feel the history and connections that bond them together. Their banter was both heartwarming and hilarious. My favorite character was, to no one's surprise, the beautifully useless himbo chaos demon Rashk. The worldbuilding is really phenomenal. As a historian myself, I applaud the amount of effort the author put into researching the Indian Ocean world. The magic in this fantasy novel is based off of wonder literature and astrological/magical beliefs of the people in this time period and region. The details down to the ecology, economy, society, culture, different types of ships--it's all really well done. Chris Kluwe (Feb 2023). "Book Review: The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty". Lightspeed Magazine . Retrieved 11 Sep 2023. Lo and behold, the granddaughter isn't quite a runaway. But the bad white man is bad. There are some mystical treasures to behold. And demon sex! But even that couldn't captivate me further. I will say beyond the positive Muslim rep, there is also equally positive gender affirming rep. Traditionalists won't love it, but I'm not here for their negativity. For this scribe has read a great many of these accounts and taken away another lesson : that to be a woman is to have your story misremembered. Discarded. Twisted. "
This adventure was so engrossing. I loved the crew. The banter was witty and the stakes were high. As the story progressed, more magical elements were introduced and I definitely found it enchanting.Amina’s mother isn’t happy with the news of her departure. Next she has to explain her leaving to Marjana. The focus of the story is on the humans. Sure, there is a major magical supporting character, and some of the humans dabble in dark arts. But they remain people. That said, there is plenty of magic in the air, and water. Some creatures introduced in the Daevabad trilogy put in appearances here. There is a kaiju-level sea beast, and plenty more. I hesitate to say this, but it seemed at one point that more was less, and that there were maybe too many such roaming and flitting about. I initially thought Yusuf was a guard, but it seems he has a soft spot for Tinbu. Maybe they have another hand to help them break him out?
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