Becoming Jinn

Debut author Lori Goldstein's Becoming Jinn is the first book of the series of the same name.

Forget everything you thought you knew about genies!

Azra has just turned sixteen, and overnight her body lengthens, her olive skin deepens, and her eyes glisten gold thanks to the brand-new silver bangle that locks around her wrist.  As she always knew it would, her Jinn ancestry brings not just magical powers but the reality of a life of servitude, as her wish granting is controlled by a remote ruling class of Jinn known as the Afrit.

To the humans she lives among, she's just a girl working at the snack bar at the beach, navigating the fryer and her first crush.  But behind closed doors, she's learning how to harness her powers and fulfill the obligations of her destiny.

Mentored by her mother and her Zar "sisters," Azra discovers she may not be quite like the rest of her circle of female Jinn... and that her powers could endanger them all.  As Azra uncovers the darker world of becoming Jinn, she realizes when genies and wishes are involved, there's always a trick.

The Breakdown:
1. Since I read Exquisite Captive by Heather Demtrios, I have been a little fascinated by Jinn stories.  Goldstein definitely put an interesting take on Jinn, why they grant wishes. I loved the way she built her magic into the world, and why Jinn must grant wishes.  The whole magic world building was super interesting to me after going to a panel on it at Dragon*Con this weekend.

2. Azra as a character has some very interesting internal conflicts.  On one hand she hates being Jinn, the secrets, the magic, and being told who deserves her wishes.  On the other, she learns very quickly that she is very good with magic, and as the book progress, that her magic is more than the average Jinn's. She wants so badly to be an average teenager, and yet, as Goldstein shows through other characters thoughts and reactions to her, she is anything but average.

3. I loved the way Goldstein goes about revealing the secrets in this book.  From Azra's secrets to her human friends and other Jinn friends, to Azra's mother's secrets about her father and the Afrit.  I can't wait to see what kind of role they will play in the next book.  Plus the dilemma that ends the book with has me want the next book, like yesterday, to see how Azra handles the problem.

To Read or Not to Read:
Read