Cover Image: The Djinn Falls in Love and Other Stories

The Djinn Falls in Love and Other Stories

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This collection of short stories is one of the strongest I’ve seen in a while; definitely the strongest I’ve yet read in 2017.

This collection takes stories by twenty-two authors from all over the world, all dealing in some form with the djinn – the fantastical beings of smoke and fire. I picked up this collection due to some authors who’s work I was already familiar with – Neil Gaiman, Claire North, Amal El-Mohtar, Helene Wecker, and Nnedi Okorafor. Turns out, most of my favorite stories were by authors who were new to me. Oh, and the Neil Gaiman story was an excerpt from American Gods, so don’t pick this collection up based on him.


Some of my favorite stories were those that added djinns to futuristic, science fiction settings. In “The Jinn Hunger’s Apprentice” by E.J. Swift, a spaceship is haunted by jinn. The crew is desperate enough to call in an exorcist, but who is the woman who answers their call? This short story was so much fun and I’d actually love to read more in this universe. The same is true of “Bring Your Own Spoon” by Saad Hossein. In this future, the very air is toxic and the vast majority of the population has never known real food, only artificial stuff that comes out of a processor. But a chef and a djinn begin to change things when they work together to create a restaurant in this delightful tale. There was one other science fiction story, but I found it confusing. “Duende 2077” by Jamal Mahjoub is a murder mystery set in the future. Some of the world building concepts seem interesting, but I still don’t understand who was behind the murder.

Some of the other stories in the collection are confusing as well. “The Sand in the Glass is Right” by James Smythe wins the award in this category. The story’s constantly switching POV characters, and I’d probably need to read it again to figure out what’s going on. Another confusing but ultimately more successful story is “Black Powder” by Maria Dahvana Headley, in which an old rifle is possessed by a djinn. I loved the character of the Huntress, a mysterious woman who lives through centuries and seems to be searching for djinn. I might not have understood everything going on in “Black Powder,” but I still enjoyed the journey.

“Glass Lights” by J.Y. Yang is beautifully written, but it did feel aimless and like it ended suddenly. Still, the writing made me excited to try more J.Y. Yang, particularly those queer fantasy novellas they’ve got coming out in August. “A Tale of Ash in Seven Birds” by Amal El-Mohtar is also a lyrically told story, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I have other works by El-Mohtar. Maybe it was too abstract for me.

There were other stories that left me cold. “Queen of Sheba” by Catherine King was a solid but forgettable story of a girl who’s inherited the ability to see spirits. “How We Remember You” by Kuzhali Manickavel falls too close to magical realism for my taste. “Authenticity” by Monica Byrne was so not my sort of story – a college student seeking authentic experiences visits a porn shoot. “History” by Nnedi Okorafor was one I was looking forward to based on the author. However, I never connected with the pop star diva who summons spirits to use in her performances, and I don’t think it will be too long before the story slides from my mind. “The Emperor’s of Jinn” by Usman Malik and “The Righteous Guide of Arabsat” by Sophia Al-Maria fall into this category as well.

Of all the authors I was already familiar with, I enjoyed Claire North and Helene Wecker’s stories the most. Claire North wrote “Hurrem and the Djinn.” The sultan’s favorite concubine is so powerful that it’s obvious that she must be using dark magic! How else could a woman achieve such influence? In “Majnun” by Helene Wecker, a djinn has become an exorcist, even as his ex-lover pleads with him to come back to her.

But as I previously mentioned, most of the stand out stories were by authors whose work I’d never encountered before. “The Congregation” by Kamila Shamsie is a bittersweet story of a boy who encounters a congregation of djinn and a strong connection with one of them. “Message in a Bottle” by K.J. Parker didn’t seem to involve much in the way of djinn at all, but I liked the conundrum of whether a bottle in a medieval city contains the cure for a plague or a more virulent strain that will wipe out humankind. In “The Spite House” by Kirsty Logan, the daughter of a djinn finds herself overcome by a woman’s wishes. This story uses a sense of rising horror quite wonderfully, much like my favorite story of the collection…

“REAP” by Sami Shah was undoubtedly my favorite. First of all, the method of storytelling is brilliant. The protagonist is a member of an American team observing and analyzing the feed of a drone stationed over Iraq. But through their video feed, the team becomes witness to a horrific supernatural tale.

While the stories I picked this collection up for ended up not being as wonderful as I’d liked, it meant that I discovered many new authors whose works I will have to read more of! I would not hesitate to recommend this collection.

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I absolutely loved this! Usually with an anthology I find myself kind of wading through it by the halfway point - there are a few good stories, a few okay ones, and then a lot that are either boring or just the same thing over and over. But with this one I think there was maybe one story I didn't really like, and in an anthology of this size that's pretty amazing. Also I don't think there were two stories that were alike. Every single one gave a new perspective and I loved the array of different cultures represented.

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Contrary to everything I thought I knew (and which most people raised in cultures where these beings are as well-known as elves and gnomes are to us could have told me) most djinn don't live in bottles. They don't necessarily spend all their time granting wishes and they don't all speak like Robin Williams - these djinn are much more interesting and diverse. These djinn are people. Interestingly the biggest named author in the book (the incomparable Neil Gaiman) wrote one of the stories I liked least - although, to be fair, it was a chapter from American Gods and maybe I could tell that, while complete in itself, it wasn't a whole story. The rest of the stories cover a multitude of genres and time periods: I particularly enjoyed some of the more sci-fi/dystopian ones (Saad Hossain's Bring Your Own Spoon, for example), but most of them had some elements of speculative fiction in there. The one which may stick with me longest, however, was chillingly real - REAP by Sami Shah - and featured a blend of magical beings and realistic drone warfare.

A really interesting collection and, like the best short story anthologies, it will lead you towards lots of brilliant new authors.

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As you may have deduced, The Djinn Falls in Love and Other Stories is a collection of short fiction all about djinn (genies). For many of us Americans, a djinn is little more than a brightly-colored, wish granting clown. But throughout the rest of world they play many different roles; some tricky, some scary, some sexy, some may even be imaginary.

One of my favorite things about this book is it’s feeling of worldliness. Aside from a nicely varied collection of voices, the editors were smart in not setting a standard for how the authors spelled “djinn”. The name and/or spelling for these mischievous spirits differs between cultures. Allowing the authors to use the name associated with the culture adds to the richness and authenticity of the collection.

This is also a fairly eclectic collection, sort of like a Middle-Eastern, genie-themed The Twilight Zone. As far as voice and genre are concerned, there’s something for everyone in this book. From science-fiction and fantasy offerings to religious family drama, horror, weird fiction, and even one set during a military exercise. There’s a nice range of cultural representation present as well. I’m always interested in how my favorite genres are told in other parts of the world, and there’s plenty here to explore.

There are some really excellent stories included in “Djinn…” with highlights* including works by Helene Wecker, Maria Dahvana Headley, Sami Shah, Sophia Al-Maria, Kirsty Logan, and Usman T. Malik. The rest of the stories are all good too but didn’t quite grab me as much as those guys’ did. At the very least, they each offer an interesting perspective on a less explored piece of folklore.

Ultimately, that is exactly why this collection shines the most: it is an accessible exploration of a cultural myth not often represented in modern fiction.

*Some will pick this up because it includes a Neil Gaiman piece, which it does, but it’s an excerpt from his novel, American Gods. While it’s an excellent excerpt, I’d much rather you just go read American Gods. If you’re already reading this, you’ll love it. Trust me :)

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As with any collection of short stories there are some I preferred more than others, but overall I thought this was a solid collection of intriguing, interesting tales.

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The Djinn Falls in Love and Other Stories is a very worthwhile read, because the eclectic collection of writers from around the world provides such a diverse range of voices. This means there is plenty of opportunity for some interesting interpretations of Djinn from the traditional, associated with the hot sands of the desert, to dislocations to cold and foreign climes, and even into the realms of sci-fi and horror. We contemplate a range of emotions from stories, which can feel delicate and uplifting to something very dark and sinister.
A short story anthology is usually a good vehicle for discovering authors you may not have heard of before, and The Djinn Falls in Love is an excellent example of this, particularly because there is such a wide range of approaches to what a Djinn might be and how a story might be woven around these nebulous beings.
The range of storytelling provides more than just an entertaining read because it is a useful reference book for a writer’s collection. One they can examine and take inspiration from due to the different styles and lengths, which you don't normally find in anthologies, because so often the writers are some the same continent.
For whatever reason, The Djinn Falls in Love is certainly a short story anthology worth dipping back into from time to time.

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I'll admit I was a bit wary when I picked up <i>Djinn Falls In Love</i>: tempted by authors such as K.J. Parker and Claire North, I worried that the collection itself might suffer from repetition. I needn't have worried. The collection demonstrates a truly staggering variety of perspectives on the concept of djinn, as well as mixing prose and poetry, vignettes and plot twists. As is mentioned in the foreword, the unifying theme of the collection is the humanization of the Other. The collection begins with the poem that gave it its title by an author who goes by <b>"Hermes,"</b> then quickly delves into the very traditional, very folkloresque-feeling story, <b>"The Congregation," by Kamila Shamsie</b>, which also contained one of my favourite quotes in the whole collection: <blockquote>"There is no evil here, only love. God save us from a world that can't tell the difference."</blockquote> The rest of the collection varied widely in the mood, setting, and in the vision of the djinn themselves.

My down-and-out favourite, and enough to make the collection a five-star all on its own, was <b>"A Tale of Ash and Seven Birds" by Amal El-Mohtar</b>. It is a rich, gorgeous allegory or immigration, where djinn refugees to the land of the wizard-nation repeatedly change themselves in their efforts to survive. An excerpt:<blockquote>"Great Horned Owl
You are an apex predator. Nothing can hurt you now.
You have embraced silence. [...]
Sparrows though. Crows. Cormorants. All these will fill your belly now, and it's their own fault. All their own fault for not choosing a shape the wizard-nation cannot hurt, their own fault for being small or loud or trying to build communities of which the wizard-nation disapproved. You have learned the wizard-nation's way, and you will be able to stay, now, forever."</blockquote> This was not the only story to explore the theme of djinn as immigrant. <b>"Somewhere in America" by Neil Gaiman</b> is actually excerpted from <i>American Gods</i>, which I admit I wasn't thrilled about, but certainly fits the theme. Comically bitter and rather gruesome, it tells the tale of a disillusioned visitor who runs into a particularly peculiar taxi driver. <b>"The Jinn Hunter's Apprentice" by E.J. Swift</b> is an imaginative scifi story that takes place on a busy spaceport on Mars. A bunch of angry djinn, tired of having their once-peaceful world invaded, have invaded a ship and the captain calls in a djinn-hunter. In <b>"The Spite House" by Kirsty Logan</b>, djinns were made corporeal, badgered and threatened out of their homes by violent protesters bearing signs such as <em>"NO SNAKES IN OUR NEIGHBOURHOOD"</em>, and forced to live on scraps in the outskirts of society.

Other stories use the djinn as the ultimate outside observers. <b>"Bring Your Own Spoon" by Saad Z. Hossain</b>, which was perhaps my second favourite story, takes place in a dystopian future in a ruined world made habitable only by the constant efforts of nanobots. A destitute human and djinn living on the outskirts of society decide to act upon their crazy idea of starting a restaurant for other forgotten members of society. The story is gorgeous and poignant and thoughtful. One of my favourite quotes: <blockquote>"People always assume that poor people are dangerous. They wouldn't be here, if they were."</blockquote><b>"Emperors of Jinn" by Usman T. Malik</b> is a brutal tale about a group of children and a magic book that mixes casual cruelty with human possession. <b>"Authenticity" by Monica Byrne</b> uses a film student's desire to get a romantic encounter between djinn and human on film to very directly plays with the theme of observers and voyeurism--not for me, and I'm not entirely sure I understood the story's goal. <b>"The Glass Lights" by J.Y. Yang</b> is a wistful vignette about a girl who sees herself as a passive observer, constantly pulled by the needs and desires of others and her own compulsion to reshape the world as her djinn ancestors once did. She feels out of place in the world, not because she is secretly part djinn but because she is Muslim: <blockquote>"You don't giggle with a girl in a headscarf, who can't watch any of the Channel 8 K-dramas you follow because she doesn't speak Mandarin."</blockquote>

Some of the stories stretched the idea of the djinn to represent sentient magic, supernatural beings, or even just as a metaphor for untapped and dangerous potential. I find <b>K.J. Parker's</b> short stories to be, without fail, utterly fantastic, and <b>"Message in a Bottle</b> was no exception. A scholar, pursuing forbidden research in the effort to save his country, is faced with the choice of whether or not to open a bottle that could either cure the deadly plague or cause an even worse one. As always, the story is fabulously fun and funny with a darkly ironic edge. <b>Jamal Mahjoub's "Duende 2077"</b> takes place in a future where capitalism has imploded and <em>"The Caliphate flooded into the power void."</em>. The main character is a jaded detective who begins investigating an apparently political crime and finds himself tracing the strands of a rebel plot. Vivid and gritty, it also takes the time to try to explore the motives of martyrs for a cause. <b>"History" by Nnedi Okarafor</b> is an interesting story about a singer who harnesses magic--including a djinn-- to improve her song, and also about the odd quirks of history and the ways in which our actions have unforeseen effects on others. <b>"Queen of Sheba" by Catherine Faris King</b> expands the djinn to other cultures in the context of a very sweet childhood story about growing up. <b>"The Sand in the Glass is Right" by James Smythe</b> uses the djinn as a mechanism to redoing a life over and over. I saw <b>"Reap" by Sami Shah</b> as a classic ghost-revenge story transcribed onto a slightly different space: that of members of the military spying on potential terrorists. It felt to me like a very traditional child-based horror movie, and I found the violence sick and pointless. <b>"Black Powder" by Maria Dahvana Headley</b> is a wild, gruesome, exceedingly American story about a magical gun whose bullets have the potential to grant wishes. Full of archetypal characters and twisted darkness, it reminded me strongly of Catherynne Valente. The writing is gorgeously vivid; for example: <blockquote>"Each person is a projectile filled with sharp voice and broken volume, blasts of maybe.
The hands outstretch, the hearts explode. The chamber is the world and all the bodies on earth press close around each bullet, holding it steady until, with a rotating spin, it flies."</blockquote>

I also appreciated the more traditional takes on the djinn seen in stories such as <b>"Manjun" by Helen Wecker</b>, where a djinn, once the favourite of Lady Aisha Qandisha, becomes a Muslim and exorcises his kind from the humans they torment. It's a bittersweet story about the sense of loss and isolation from loved ones that the newly converted sometimes experience. <b>"How We Remember You" by Kuzhali Manickavel</b> is an odd and creepy story told to a djinn companion lost in childhood. <b>"The Righteous Guide of Arabsat" by Sophia Al-Maria</b> is a cynical and disturbing take on an inexperienced and gullible "mama's boy" who begins to believe his new wife is possessed by a djinn--after all, how else could she be sexually experienced? It's a telling exploration of morality, norms, and the dangers of combining dogmatic ignorance with credulous believers. <b>Claire North's "Hurrem and the Djinn"</b> is an enjoyable alternate history of Sultana Hurrem. Although it starts as a traditional fairy tale, I thoroughly appreciated the ironic relish and flair of North's dialogue, as well as the final sting about a proper woman's place.

<i>The Djinn Falls in Love</i> gets a high rating from me not just because of the wide variety of stories but also because of a few memorable tales mixed in. As with all anthologies, not every story will appeal to every person, but I believe there are enough spectacular tales in here that the collection is well worth a look.

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We all know of the Djinn, immortal beings can grant wishes but epitomise the moral of being careful what you wish for as your wish may have unforeseen consequences. This collection of tales bring us stories of Djinn in many parts of the world in the past, the present and the future. They are everywhere. Outside your back garden, on street corners, in the mosque, behind the wheel of a taxi, on mars, surrounding you on stage. Sometimes the divide between them and us is paper thin, their humanity more painful than our own, sometimes their omnipotence allows us to believe they are miles from us instead.

There are stories here from bestselling, award-winning and breakthrough international writers. Honestly when it comes to the quality of the writing you'll be hard-pressed to know which is a breakthrough author and which has won awards. The standard is consistently high. The cultural diversity of the authors should be praised to with writers from a large variety of backgrounds, reading this is likely to lead you to discovering at least a couple of new favourite authors.

That being said there were of course stories I preferred. And part of the joy of a short story collection is that you can flick over stories that aren't right for you at the moment without any guilt! You can't really skip chapters in novels in the same way.

For me the ones that didn't appeal were the futuristic ones. I think that's a failing on my part though, or on my mood or expectations. When it comes to Djinn I want to read about magic, glamour not a grey cargo hold. I may revisit those stories in the future though when I'm feeling more open minded! If you've read them and think I'm an idiot for skipping them don't hesitate to tell me!

My favourite stories were Kamila Shamsie’s “The Congregation”, the first story in the collection and a heart-achingly beautiful tale of a young boy finding his brother. Neil Gaiman’s “Somewhere in America”, a stand-alone extract from American Gods. Claire North's contribution is the most reminiscent of 1001 nights so of course I loved it. But I was stopped in my tracks by Amal El-Mohtar’s prose-poem “A Tale of Ash in Seven Birds” which reminded me immensely of The Book of The Dead - one of my favourite books ever. Kirsty Logan’s “The Spite House” is really clever yet pulses with heart and anxiety. And Sophia Al-Maria’s “The Righteous Guide of Arabsat” is a vibrant, authentic and eventually scary look at a man’s fear of female sexuality.

Pick it up, rub it, and make a wish.

4 Bites

NB I received a free copy of this book through NetGalley in return for an honest review. The BookEaters always write honest reviews

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This is such an interesting collection of stories all centered around the topic of djinn (aka genie) folklore. Some of these are retellings of ancient myths, others have multicultural influences, some are high fantasy and others are literary. Some stories are set in Africa, some in Arab counties, some in America, and even one on Mars. This is a great eclectic set that was very entertaining and thought provoking.

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Like most anthologies, this one is a mixed bag, with some stories I loved and some that I found barely readable. It's a great theme; djinni are and underused fantastical/mythological element, and these stories run the gamut of SF from historical fantasy to magical realism to post-apocalyptic to sci-fi. All in all, a solid collection with a diverse table of contents and a nice range of stories. I doubt anyone will like all of them, but there's definitely something here for everyone, and if you're interested in djinni at all, this is a great sampler of different imaginings of them.

The stand-out stories for me were:

"The Congregation" by Kamila Shamsie

"Majnun" by Helene Wexler (seriously gutted me)

"A Tale of Ash in Seven Birds" by Amal El-Mohtar

"Bring Your Own Spoon" by Saad Hossein (probably my actual favorite story of the lot)

"The Spite House" by Kirsty Logan

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There’s something entirely enticing about a themed short story collection, especially when the theme is one as intriguing as djinn (or jinn, or genies). Although I’m not overly familiar with most of the authors included here – bar Neil Gaiman, with an American Gods excerpt, Claire North, and KJ Parker – the range of approaches towards this shared theme would itself be worthy of the read. Luckily, you also get a bunch of really great stories!

My one complaint (let’s get it over with!) would be the limitations of the short story format: on more than one occasion I wanted the story to continue, or felt that it ended just a little too abruptly.

Otherwise, I loved the range here, from the very traditional through to myriad modern and even a sci-fi futurist twist on the old rub-a-lamp, get-three-wishes story. My favourite, Sami Shah’s Reap, was actually very dark, combining the Middle Eastern myths with the more familiar modern view we tend to be shown by the media of the region, i.e. spy drones and terrorist surveillance. Not necessarily two things you might have put together, which makes for quite a gripping tale.

Not all of the stories are set in ‘traditional’ locales, but most are which gives a lovely exoticness (from my chilly Northern European perspective!) to the proceedings. I also really enjoyed the stories told from the djinn’s point of view – and more so when it wasn’t always obvious from the get-go. Djinn are eternal tricksters, after all!

Word of warning: this is not for children! At least two of the stories feature sexual content I’d suggest was at least 15+.

Overall, while a lot of fun to read, I think I appreciated this even more for the insight into writing styles and ideas. Recommended for both readers and writers!

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Great anthology. Engaging and ready for more. Love how many authors I knew and the new storylines involved. Can't wait for another anthology!?

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There were quite a few stories that captured my interest. I liked that the stories were unique; you had stories that were set in olden times and ones that were more modern. The djinn in these stories were from different nationalities and settings, and it allowed them to be transformed in a way I had never imagined. However, not all of the stories were interesting to me. While there were some that left a lasting impression, quite a few just made me go "meh". Maybe my expectations were too high, but this anthology wasn't as amazing as I had expected. It did expose me to a wider range of authors, some whom I will definitely check out in the future. But other than providing me with a few interesting stories, I was just left feeling a bit disappointed.

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Review by Penny Huffman, 3/14/2017

I need to start this review with a confession: I am not an aficionado of the short-story format. That being said, I’ve seen my share of well curated anthologies. A good collection, to my mind, is bound together not simply by a single characteristic but by a larger uniting theme.

Every piece in The Djinn Falls in Love and Other Stories—edited by Jared Shurin and Mahvesh Murad, and including stories by local favorite Neil Gaiman and 2016 CONvergence guest of honor Amal El-Mohtar—contains, in some way or another, a djinn. Within Islamic theology, the jinn exist as something apart from humanity, but not entirely supernatural. They are not zombies or werewolves, those creatures whose origins are tied exclusively to fiction. If Allah made humans from clay, then djinn were made from smokeless fire, complete with the free will that humankind finds so tricky to manage. Throughout literature, the nature, and spelling, of these figures has varied substantially. The Djinn Falls in Love intends to highlight the multiple ways of writing them as characters, and in this respect, it’s wildly successful. The djinn in these stories vary enormously—they’re alternatively mischievous genies, conflicted and humanlike jinni, and murderous, otherworldly djinni. However, the stories lack the cohesive, collective feel that distinguishes a thematically bound anthology from a bunch of short stories.

A counterargument can easily be made that this is, in fact, the purpose of the collection: to highly the flexibility and wide interpretations of an often-pigeonholed stock figure, the wish-granting genie from a magic lamp. It’s a persuasive argument and one I attempted to use on myself. So why didn’t I like it? To me, the book feels uneven and scattered as opposed to flexible. By the halfway point, I longed for a second round of edits from Shurin and Murad, ones that asked pointed questions about plot development or ruthlessly slashed out meandering prose.

No one wants to read a bad review, and believe me, I don’t like to write one either. I don’t mean to imply that the anthology isn’t worth a read; it certainly is, if only for the handful of highlights included in the 356-page collection. The helpless voyeurism of Sami Shad’s deeply creepy “REAP” is a stand-out, as is Kamila Shamsie’s “The Congregation,” a meditation on familial togetherness and separation. Helene Wecker, no stranger to the genre given her novel The Golem and the Jinni, makes a fair showing with “Majnun,” a story in which the djinn’s ethereal natures are neatly sidestepped for good, old-fashioned jilted-lover jealousy. Neil Gaiman’s piece, “Somewhere in America,” is reprinted section from American Gods, but for those unfamiliar with the novel, it’s certainly a treat.

The anthology is out in paperback on March 14, Pi Day, and much like the mathematical constant, it may well be beyond my ability to fully appreciate and admire as a whole. Given the range of stories contained within, I believe different stories will appeal to different readers, and I’d love to hear about your favorites in the comments below. Some of the pieces are highly conceptual and experimental while others are emphatically grounded in the mundane. Taken individually, they stand or fall on their own merits—but to me, none of the highs were worth the lows. If you’re looking for something unified, something that pulls together the mystery and majesty of the djinn into a single collection, I’m afraid there’s not much substance under all this smoke.

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The Djinn Falls in Love and Other Stories is an anthology of short fiction edited by Mahvesh Murad and Jared Shurin. An editor and critic, Murad is also known for her fantastic weekly interview podcast on Tor.com, Midnight in Karachi; while, alongside his role as editor at now-defunct indie publishing house Jurassic London and other editing credits, Shurin edits the pop culture criticism blog Pornokitsch.

Through 22 stories, the anthology explores what the djinn mean to us—supernatural beings from Islamic mythology made from fire as we were from clay, and famed granters of wishes.

Often, the djinn represents escapism itself, such as in Jamal Mahjoub’s ‘Duende 2077‘, a gritty neo-noir crime thriller-styled story of a future Britain as an Islamic caliphate. The same is true in Neil Gaiman’s ‘Somewhere in America‘, a standalone extract from his novel American Gods, in which a queer Arab man finds release he hadn’t been looking for.

In Amal El-Mohtar’s searing ‘A Tale of Ash in Seven Birds‘, a lyrical exploration of the immigrant experience, the djinn grants the power not to escape a situation but to triumph over it. It also contains one of the best lines I’ve read in 2017, and made me shriek and flail when I read it.

Maria Dahvana Headley’s intoxicatingly beautiful ‘Black Powder‘ focuses on the power of the wish itself, cleverly weaving her story into classic Americana by marrying it with that other too-powerful artefact, the gun. In her story, the power of the djinn wreaks havok on the human world, and needs to be contained.

The most common thread explores the line between the mundane and the supernatural, as personified respectively by humans and djinn. Inhabiting this liminal space is Catherine King’s ‘Queen of Sheba‘, in which a Latina girl on the border between childhood and adolescence discovers her own magic in the midst of the most ordinary LA Christmas.

Juxtaposed with humanity, the state of being djinn embodies the status of outsider, as in JY Yang’s ‘Glass Lights‘, as well as depicting the atrocities that othering can make you prey to, in three stories I found absoutely chilling each in their own way: Kuzhali Manickavel’s ‘How We Remember You‘, Sophia Al-Maria’s ‘The Righteous Guide of Arabsat‘, and Kirsty Logan’s ‘The Spite House‘.

In a fourth story, ‘Reap‘ by Sami Shah, the one that most threatened to disturb my sleep, it is the power of the (this time decidedly monstrous) djinn that breaks down the comfortable separation between the subject and the other–that is, between the drone operators and the people in Afghanistan on whom they have been spying.

In ‘Hurrem and the Djinn‘ by Claire North, a Scheherazade-style tale of court machinations, it is power itself, though not necessarily that of a djinn, that makes Hurrem a target to the men who envy her. Djinn as a representation of the power that humans crave is also a theme in ‘Emperors of Jinn‘ by Usman Malik; and the responsibility that comes with that power is depicted movingly in Helene Wecker’s ‘Majnun‘, the story of a djinn who finds faith in a power greater than himself, but finds himself having to explain his conversion to his former lover.

Other stories in the anthology include James Smythe’s ‘The Sand in the Glass is Right‘, Kamila Shamsie’s ‘The Congregation‘, K.J. Parker’s ‘Message in a Bottle‘, Monica Byrne’s ‘Authenticity‘, Nada Adel Sobhi’s ‘Time is a Teacher‘, Saad Hossein’s ‘Bring Your Own Spoon‘, E.J. Swift’s ‘The Djinn Hunter’s Apprentice‘, Nnedi Okorafor’s ‘History‘, as well as the titular ‘The Djinn Falls in Love‘, a poem by Egyptian poet Hermes, printed in both the original Arabic and in translation, by Robin Moger.

Honestly, I could spend thousands of words gushing about the quality of the individual fiction in this anthology, as well as the larger picture they depict. Djinn ultimately are shown here as a reflection of humanity: the reach which, with the help of djinn, need not exceed our grasp, and the best and worst aspects of that. It’s utterly fitting that, down to the the sterling quality of each unique piece, this anthology is as fascinating and addictive as the smokeless fire of the djinn it depicts.

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So many authors are the reason I picked this one up - Helene Wecker, Maria Dahvana Headley, Amal El-Mohtar, Usman T. Malik and Nnedi Okorafor just to name a few... I love a good djinn tale, and this anthology somehow surpassed my already high expectations. An anthology often contains a number of shorts that I'm just not in the mood for, or feel overwhelmed by... but this collection was close to perfect.

It sets the tone well by starting with a poem, The Djinn Falls in Love by Hermes, and translated by Robin Moger, giving the anthology its title.

The Congregation - Kamila Shamsie

This first short story was so beautiful - a young boy wakes for prayer, but somehow finds himself amongst praying jinn instead, either by waking entirely early, or somehow walking into their own world. He stands beside a boy about his age, who whispers things that keep him safe - then they all disappear, and Qasim is at a loss without jinn in his life as he got to experience for such a short amount of time, yet knows can't be ever matched.

He allows an exorcism to try to free him from their hold, but as the man says, what is one supposed to do about a boy who craves nothing else?

We have a sweet ending, see Qasim grow old, and finally find a love that finds meaning. This is a strong start to the anthology, and leads us onwards, well.

How we Remember You - Kuzhali Manickavel

Several people reminisce about someone now lost to them, and it's interesting how their shared experiences are remembered differently from person to person. It's quite an angry re-telling, showing the guilt that more wasn't done to save their friend while it was still possible.

A boy who has feathers growing from his back, can disappear and reappear, and has been witnessed flying, is locked in a room when he doesn't seem to be as magic as he once was. And he becomes the burden of guilt upon his former friends.

Hurrem and the Djinn - Claire North

Davuud has the hard task of investigating the sultan's favourite wife - and one can only guess at what the repercussions may be for this one. Told in the first person, this one is a little more of a 'Arabian Nights' tale as we hear of someone tell us the story as the story itself. At times the voice doesn't match the tone that well, and upon re-reading, this is possible one of the weaker shorts in the collection, yet still readable.

Glass Lights - J. Y. Yang

A young girl with djinn blood in her veins can still suffer from the same human ailments that anyone can - loneliness. Mena is different from the other girls at work, and though she can feel the strong human emotions of those around her, it doesn't make life any easier. The work heartthrob will still go for pretty Wendy, and Mena still won't be invited to lunch - or even if she is, she won't be able to attend a non-kosher restaurant.

A simple and quick story, that is elegant and sticks with you for how relatable it is. Incidentally, Yang has two novellas coming out with Tor this year - The Red Threads of Fortune and The Black Tides of Heaven and I could not be more excited to read them after this short story.

Authenticity - Monica Byrne

A story that involves sex deliberately in a way that's all about seeking experiences and thus, what makes us human - or how others may seek the human experience. There's often stories of Gods and others coming to humans for sex or otherwise, and this completes that. Unfortunately, due to my sexuality I wasn't able to understand this one (the drive, or the need, etc) and hence it left me a bit cold.

Majnun - Helene Wecker

Zahid was once consort to Aisha, the famous jinniyah of Morocco for over a century. Now he uses his special abilities to clear jinns from possessing young children, and that's why he is called the the bedside of a young boy who Aisha has taken up residence inside, just to get Zahid's attention.

This one is endlessly interesting, because it goes into detail of how a once favoured jinn has a religious experience, and has to re-asses his entire life, and how he knew he was once happy, but also never at peace. He discovers what he needs in his life along the way, and struggles hard to make it happen, even if he's had to leave his entire world behind and hurt his own kind for the now and future.

This is a beautiful piece of work, and I can't wait for Wecker's next novel to come out. 2018 is far too long away.

Black Powder - Maria Dahvana Headley

Jinns don't always live in lamps. This one, lives in a rifle once owned by a terrible man who made hundreds of lives hell by taking women and abandoning the resulting children all through the wilderness. A hundred and fifty years later, and its now in the hands of some punk kid who has no friends, and its easy to see why.

This story is good as it is another djinn story that has a totally different setting to most. It's mysterious and edgy and everything plays out like a movie in your mind, but it isn't exactly kind.

A Tale of Ash in Seven Birds - Amal El-Mohtar

Seven birds. Sparrow, crow, cormorant, swallow, hummingbird, owl, phoenix. Short and yet powerful, as we see these wonderful birds hunted by wizards and to say anything else about it would take away the magic. It's only five pages long and perhaps the shortest piece in the book, but utterly wonderful.

The Sand in the Glass is Right - James Smythe

The idea of how even with wishes, perhaps a life without them is far simpler and safer. It's one of those shorts that explores the idea of how you need to be careful when making a wish, or how you have to frame or think of it in order to somehow achieve what you really want - even if perhaps you don't know the answer yourself. We see a man try again and again to get his wish right, but the consequences each brings.

I would have preferred that this one have - well, not more structure, as I get the deal with the lack of grammar signifying pace and the runalong nature of it all, but I've never been a fan of the no speech marks thing.

Reap - Sami Shah

Initially for some reason I thought this was space exploration, but instead it was set in both New Mexico (in a shipping container where a team remotely control a drone) and keep an eye on things in Pakistan, analysing the heat signatures and other data that comes back. They've done this for so long that they know each and every person in the area, what their routines generally are, and have even given them nicknames.

This one is well done, as it's interesting from the beginning (or perhaps only to nerds like me who like analyst-type things like Anna-the-Analyst does), and slowly turns more and more interesting as the surveillance on the locals drips piece after piece of information into your lap, so you're working it out alongside the intelligence team. Masterfully done, and high five to Shah.

I really shouldn't have read this one before going to bed, though.

Queen of Sheba - Catherine Faris King

Set in 1953 it's Christmas and snow is falling, twelve-year-old Juanita is now old enough to sit with the adults, prepare the house for Christmas while the little ones sleep, and stay up for Midnight Mass and coffee. Part of her tasks is to iron the linens - an important job - but something strange catches her attention away just for a moment to long, leaving a burn mark to ruin her hard work.

Auntie Opal - who's not really an auntie at all - saves the day somehow, but how leaves far too many questions, and then an urgent call pulls her away before she can explain to Juanita.

What I love about this piece is how it toys with our expectations, to the point where it's even mentioned in the short and twisted this way and that. I loved this piece.

The Jinn Hunter's Apprentice - E. J. Swift

Suddenly, we're in space. And it's beyond excellent. A ship has at least one (possibly more) staff possessed by jinn, and Captain Bukhari is expecting Ajam to come help him. Instead, he receives his apprentice, Fahima and her ring-tailed lemur who immediately gets on Bukhari's bad side. It's not like he has much choice though, so he blinks over the reports and agrees to make appointments between her and his crew so they can be interviewed, and leaves her to it.

This is beyond excellent, to the point where I paused reading to look up where I'd seen Swift's name before and was glad to realise I have Osiris, the first book in her series, already waiting to be read on my eReader. I know what I'll be doing next very, very shortly. That's how good this piece was.

Message in a Bottle - K. J. Parker

A scholar has a hefty weight on his shoulders - look back upon forbidden texts to see if there's ever been a possible cure to two strains of awful plagues which are causing havoc wherever they reach. I do like seeing a bookish hero.

There was once a great man, who was either beyond evil or good (or, like most humans, probably a bit of both) who knew much about the plagues but possibly was the creator... but also possibly, knew of a cure. The trouble is knowing how to separate his lies from the truth, and perhaps it's impossible to really ever know that. Relying on a hunch when thousands of lives are in your hands certainly wouldn't be for the faint hearted.

I quite liked this one - it had an easy flow, and the characters are interesting enough to be able to ignore slight plot holes and the like.

Bring your Own Spoon - Saad Z. Hossain

Ahh, post apocalyptics worlds, my favourite. Hanu is scraping by. Though luck he has some comforts, but the little he has he's willing to share, which of course means that somehow, he'll get by as this is a story. The little details of the carded people, the health warnings, contamination and viruses, quickly give this short story such depth that I instantly want a full novel of this.

Although everything is doom and gloom, by Hanu's little stove it seems like such a cozy story. The djinn seems so casual and childlike - being bored is why they sleep so often, which is a nice touch. And a pirate never hurts, either.

Somewhere in America - Neil Gaiman

An except from his book American Gods, so a pass from me.

Duende 2077 - Jamal Mahjoub

A murder occurs where murder is taboo, so it just doesn't happen - a detective is there, though there's no resources as no murders happen. Futuristic perfection, complete with holograms... and yet also at a loss, as things from the past are strictly forbidden.

Duende 2077 was the messiah, who will return again. And that's how this short is left. I'm not entirely sure I 'got' the majority of it (or even half of it), but it kept me reading.

The Righteous Guide of Arabsat - Sophia Al-Maria

An interesting discussion on how a woman is damned if she do, damned if she don't. If a woman doesn't know anything about sex, she does her husband a disservice - if she knows too much, then all hell breaks loose. A man with several issues is matched with a woman, and their first night of married life doesn't all go to plan.

This one isn't a comfortable read. The way he picks her apart, the way he grew up, everything is so... not healthy.

The Spite House - Kirsty Logan

A piece in where though a djinn may have magic and be all powerful - perhaps they are just as much trapped by their god-like ability than anything else, and it's actually a curse.

I love stories that investigate this idea. Genie from Down Under was a dreadfully bad (so bad it was SO good) tv show here in Australia growing up, and it was one of those fatal 'don't say 'I wish' near them' because it'll never turn out the way you hoped. In this, a junk scavenger is delighted with haul she finally finds, only to be enticed in with the thoughts of more by granting first one, then two, then three wishes. Terrible wishes. She runs and hides, but the woman finds her and eventually, the life of the half-djinn is barely one worth living...

Emperors of Jinn - Usman T. Malik

Four children, related via their mothers' side, are thrown together during the holidays. They vaguely know of each other, they know that one of them likes to punch and that another likes nasty things, but that's about all. They're surrounded by riches and one gets the idea fairly early on that they've never had to care about the results of their actions.

All up, it's all pretty awful. As ever, Malik's writing is perfect.

History - Nnedi Okorafor

In this, History is the most famous singer of the world. Born to African-American parents who were on research tours at the time, History was born and raised in Nigeria, and it is there she began to sing and dance like in a way that everyone knew she'd be famous one day. She's taken to the oldest woman in the village, who also happens to be a sorceress, who teaches History the beginnings of everything she needs to know in order to both control her magic, and not cause any trouble with it.

It's about this time that History manages to capture a bush baby and there he remains, in her mirror, bringing her true good luck throughout her life and career. And I love the ending line - but to find it out, you'll just have to buy the anthology.

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I should never have asked for this book. I do not like short stories and I find this impossible to read. I am sure it will be a bestseller.

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I received this from NetGalley and I was so excited as I'd heard of quite a few of the authors in this book and I loved the idea of reading a collection of short stories based on the Djinn.

Because it's a collection of short stories, it's difficult to discuss too much as they were all so different in such brilliant ways. One thing that struck me though was that I constantly kept adoring each and every story. There were some that were weaker than other, but there wasn't a single story in this collection that I didn't enjoy and all the interpretations of Djinn were fantastic. They took place in diverse settings, with diverse characters and were just a delight to read. I had to stop myself from rushing through the book so that I could stop and savour each story.

I would definitely recommend this collection of short stories as they were all fantastic and have given me a bunch of new authors to look up!

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I did not finish this book as I did not engage with this story at all.

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An excellent collection!

There's a huge variety of stories in so many ways: a wide variety of genres, a wide variety of authors, a wide variety of ways in which the djinn are portrayed. That diversity makes for a really interesting collection that doesn't get repetitive even after twenty stories staring the same magical being.


A couple of the standouts:

"Congregation" by Kamila Shamsie was the first story, just after the opening poem. It was a great start to the collection since it uses the Qur'anic concept of djinn instead of the "genie in the bottle" trope that is more commonly known to an English speaking audience.

"Righteous Guide of the Arabsat" by Sophia Al-Maria was a rather disturbing story set in the modern Middle East. A man assumes his new bride must be possessed by a djinn since she's less sexually repressed than him. I think the lack of any overt magic or proof of possession is what makes this so disturbing.

An honorable mention goes to "Reap" by Sami Shah. I can't say it was my favorite because of how incredibly disturbing it is (US military drone operators are spying on a city in preparation for a bombing). I'm still trying to figure out whether or not I actually LIKED this creepy story but I can say it's going to linger with me for a long, long time.


Overall, though, a solid collection. Only one story really felt like "filler" to me - and that's pretty unusual with a collection of this length.

See my status updates for this book if you would like to see a review of the individual stories.


Thank you, Netgalley and Solaris, for the Advance Review Copy!

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