My Thoughts

I ended up really enjoying THE GOLEM AND THE DJINNI. The story was very original, at least from other stories I’ve read or been privy to. I loved the historical fiction aspect of it and I loved the meshing of three different cultures–Judaism, Maronite, and Muslim. And, I loved the fantasy element involved with each culture. I didn’t know anything about golems going into the book and I only knew about the djinn in the sense of genies. It was fun to learn more about each of them.

I really liked the characters, especially Ahmad. I liked Chava too, and I was interested in her life, but I was more drawn to Ahmad. The story’s told in an interesting way. It’s mainly told from Chava and Ahmad’s POV, but it does feature a few other characters’ POV too. You get the story bit by bit from the different perspectives and have to piece it together. At times it was frustrating, but I really enjoyed getting to know the secondary characters better through this method. And, fortunately, all the stories weave together in the end.

I was a little disappointed in the ending. It felt a little anti-climactic, but I do like how things were resolved mostly, strangely. I just wanted more, especially in terms of Ahmad and Chava.