At about one hundred and fifty pages in I started wondering
if this book by Helene Wecker was going to go anywhere and telling myself this is why you don’t
buy into hype. I was seriously wandering if I was ever going to finish this
sucker.
Then
the Golem (Chava) finally meets the Jinni (Ahmad) and it was as though everything kicked into
gear in one shot and I could barely put the book down. I gave myself a headache
trying to finish the last hundred pages in one night. For two characters based
on myth and legend I felt as completely attached to them as what one might consider a real character. They have jobs. They have people they care about. They make huge mistakes and suffer through a lot of human pain.
It’s a
beautiful book and I especially loved the story of how the Jinni was captured
which spans throughout the book itself and though it does take a while to get to the point I cried by the time it finally did. I really
liked everyone in this book (except the big bad- though he was very good
big bad) and though it’s a little cliché I really, really wanted a happy ending
for everyone involved and I’m not about to say whether I got what I wanted or
not.
Recommend:
Absolutely. Just stick with it.
Bonus:
I have to admit pretty much from the early chapters I cast the main characters
as Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones) and Sendhil Ramamurthy (Heroes).