Set in a poor slum in India, this literary fiction book is told from the point of view of a nine year old boy and it is SO GOOD. When children start going missing around Jai's home he decides to be a detective like from his favourite TV shows and ropes his two best friends in. It seems like such a childlike premise and yet the way it's told highlights so many heavy topics. From the conditions they live in and the way the police refuse to help, to the religious tensions between groups, and the fact nobody cares when poor children are disappearing. I loved how immersed in the setting it was, it was wonderfully described and different. And Jai sucks you into his world view while letting us see the big picture unfolding around him.

What an amazing title! I have to admit that this is what drew me to this book and I am so glad it did. It's the story of missing children and the way that the powers that be don't appear to care about them as they hail from the slums. When a boy that Jai knows goes missing he decided that he will emulate his TV detective heroes and investigate. Roping in his two best friends - Pari and Faiz - they set about their task both enthusiastically and reluctantly as they start to interview people and follow the clues that ensue.
As well as all that, there's a lot of insight and description into the way that quite a few people in India have to live. The ramshackle huts, the scarcity of food and other basic needs that the majority take for granted. The divide between rich poor and poorer-still! The corruption, the politics, and the people that abuse those less able to fight for themselves. But, and here's where the balance is met, it also shows the camaraderie and tenacity of those people who have been dealt bad cards.
It's not an easy read, both for the content and also, more importantly for me, as a reader, as there are a LOT of Indian words and phrases interspersed throughout without any glossary or explanation in the copy I read. Most of these can be easily worked out given context but, for me anyway, it distracted quite a lot from what I was reading and really did lessen the impact that it should have delivered. Most of the words, I think, described relationships, so it was often hard to keep track of who was who and what they were to others. But, if you can get past this, the rest of the book delivers what it sets out to do quite well.
It's shocking and uplifting in equal measures and I certainly got an insight into something that I never knew existed. The way of life for people born into poverty and how they cope with what they do have. We also pay a glimpse into the life of the railway children and I would have liked to have known more about these people.
The main plot, the investigation into the missing children almost played second fiddle to the rest of what was happening, and I feel that side of things lost its way a bit compared to everything else going on. Maybe that was the point, I don't know.
Characterisation was excellent. I really got a feel for who they were and what was going on - once I worked out their relationships as already mentioned above - and I especially liked Jai and found his voice to be convincing.
All in all, a good solid, if at times harrowing, read which was also quite uplifting and indeed eye-opening! My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line tells the tale of Jai, Pari and Faiz, who set off in search of a missing classmate. It's estimated that over 180 children go missing in India each day, and Anappara sets out to examine the phenomenon through several lenses of class, criminality and corruption in a sprawling mass of a city. As disappearances mount, the children find themselves questioning what the cause is, and along the way the reader gets to know Jai, his naivety and the harsh lessons he'll learn in a world he's not quite prepared for, where fairness is always far away. Telling this story through the eyes of children makes for some deeply emotive moments and provides an extra dimension on what is a crime novel setting in many ways. The descriptions of place and time are very well executed and there are moments where the reader really lives in the book.

I did enjoy this book and wanted to know what happened but the first half dragged a little and could have been a better read if it had been edited.

The book tells of an Indian slum where children are going missing. It is all told from the viewpoint of nine-year old Jai, who with his friends Pari and Faiz are playing detective and trying to find out what is happening to the children. They are not aided by the police. The inhabitants of the slum are afraid to go to the police as they constantly threaten to flatten the slum if it becomes too troublesome.

In the afterword, the author explains he wanted to express the life that the slum dwellers live as well as their vibrancy and personality. And to a certain extent this has been achieved. This objective explains the overlong first half which is a lot of description of slum life.

However, it was a fascinating story and it does bring the poverty home to the reader. But the book is more than that, as we also see how Jai and his friends grow up during the time these events were happening.

I'm not quite sure what I was expecting from this book. Something a little more fantastical, perhaps? Instead, it's a fairly straightforward murder mystery told from a young boy's point of view.

The world building is fantastic, with the madding streets of India a character in its own right. Similarly, the company of characters are equally funny, horrible and baffling - stand outs include Pari, a young girl who's both intelligent and fearsome and Runu, the older sister of Jai who's more interested in evolving her running career than marrying.

While I was anticipating more magic realism than straight up true crime, Djinn Patrol was still an enjoyable read, albeit a predictable one.

Brilliant ploy to have children chase up plot to kidnap other children especially when his sister finally disappears. The environment of urban poverty and bravery is dominant the children are plucky.. the crime when uncovered is gruesome. The energetic and sympathetic 9 year old telling the tale is plausible and yet I'm not reading a YA tale .. when we hear adult homilies perfectly reported by him about morality we understand but he doesn't. Harrowing ending is very downbeat... a family moves away. Racism and pedophilia abound .. very sad.

Anappara writes with from the clear and innocent viewpoint of a child growing up in poverty and part of a strong community experiencing horrors that are rarely written about in Western media.
I loved almost everything about this book; the story was haunting, the narration was charming and I loved that there was no glossary to work out common parlance and the small bits of Hindi used.
I'm not a huge fan of the first person narrative but that's a me problem, and not something that detracts from the story in any way shape or form. If anything, the fact that I was kept engaged throughout the book is a testament to the strength of Annapurna's writing.

Jai is nine, living in the slums of an Indian city with his parents and sister. He watches a lot of cop shows on TV, so when local children start to go missing, he decides that he and his friends Faiz and Pari should investigate - and he's in charge, despite Pari being cleverer than him (and she's the one asking the right questions). The police aren't that interested, and rumours fly about everyone who's disappeared, usually unfounded. But eventually, it's someone much closer to home who vanishes.

The divisions between the people who live in the basti and the "Hi-Fi" buildings where many of them work are really brought out, as is the corruption of the police and the various ingenious ways that the kids come up with to make some extra cash. Bits of the novel are funny, and Jai, Pari and Faiz are all lively characters - they shine off the page. The reality of life in the basti, even with loving parents, isn't hidden though, there's always a risk it might be demolished and the poverty is clear. Jai steals money from his parents purely to be able to catch the Purple Line into the city one day, and it takes him weeks to earn enough to repay it, but it's the equivalent of about £2.50. There are also clear tensions between Muslims and Hindus, when it seems like only Hindu children are disappearing, one of Faiz's brothers is blamed as it's clearly the Muslims' fault - and it's weeks before he's released despite his innocence. The corruption and lack of care for those in the basti is also very clear.

Overall, it's a novel with a lot of commentary about this aspect of Indian society, and a sad undercurrent which is offset with the humour and quirks of Jai. Recommended reading.

Nine year old Jai lives in one of the poorest bastis in Mumbai - adjacent to a rubbish dump and some of the most expensive housing in India - the hi-fis. He's obsessed with detective stories on TV and when children in his basti start to disappear, he uses the skills he's learnt from the TV to try to find his friends. A heart-warming tale of living in poverty through the eyes of a child - it will have you laughing and crying in equal measure. A beautiful book.

Anappara's novel is a superb example of life in the slums of an Indian city - likely, I think, to be on the outskirts of Mumbai. The story revolves around the character of Jai who lives with his family - and his close female friend, Pari, as well as other young people. When children start to go missing without any explanation, Jai, Pari and the others set out to find out what has happened - seemingly, the police do very little, the dark alleyways of the slum, and the city, are dangerous, and there are far too many crooks waiting to force unsuspecting passer-by into sniffing glue, or an illicit substance which will send them to sleep.

The voice in the novel is convincing. Jai is only 9-years-old and this comes across through his naivete but also through his blinkered approach to his experiences. What is quite daunting is the way young people evidently have to deal with a lot in this developing country; they have to have their wits about them to evade capture; they are forced to grow up all too soon while still living the life of children.

The 'Purple Line' in the title is a metro line that they children travel on when they go into the city to investigate, as faux detectives. Most of the action takes place in Bhoot Bazaar, however, where the children live, where people work, where friends and enemies live cheek by jowl. It's later in the novel, when Jai's sister goes missing, that the personal element is really hammered home. No longer is it a friend from school or an acquaintance, which were bad enough disappearances - now, it is a family member and the story moves on to show the fallout such a horrific event can have.

'Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line' is original and clever. Lots of the language is from local dialects, showing, perhaps, the lack of self-editing that young people do when speaking. It is sad that young people, like Jai, have to get jobs, without their parents knowing, to pay for small things - one might imagine parents would be pleased but not so. This is an evocative story of life in one of the world's biggest, most developing and fast-moving countries - and what happens when a community is shaken by a series of disappearances.

There is a definite conclusion to the novel - one that is tragic and not one that I wanted to read. However, it is, perhaps, indicative of how many people go missing in India - and how they are never found. In our western, developed world, such issues seem a world away, and in some ways they are, but reading this novel has made me think about what millions of people go through every day.

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line is about Jai and his sidekicks Pari and Faiz, who are trying to solve the disappearances of children from their slum. Nine-year-old Jai is obsessed with reality detective shows and his classmate, Pari, already possesses an analytic mind. The trio is rounded off with Faiz, a Muslim who often skips school to work at several jobs in the bazaar.
.
The action revolves around the circumstances of each disappearance and allows the events to unfold while showing the reality of Jai's life. The characters are poor beyond comprehension and they include Jai’s sister Runu who has ambitions of becoming a star athlete and their anxious Ma, a cleaner for a disagreeable woman who threatens ‘to chop her into tiny-tiny pieces and chuck slices of her over the balcony.’ In the background is the constant fear that bulldozers will flatten their homes during one of the slum clearance campaigns.

The children look for answers, but the number of disappeared children keep piling up. The novel is structured around the events of each disappearance, written from the victim’s perspective.

Initially the unfamiliar Hindu phrases confused me but eventually I got the unfamiliar words in context and it made the novel fell more authentic.

Djinn Patrol shares some of the same themes as Slum Dog Millionaire, where gangs kidnap poor children, blind them and force them to beg. In the postscript Anappara explains how more than 180 children go missing every day. Lion also references child abductions and Aravind Adiga’s White Tiger shows how corruption is at the heart of life in India. The non-fiction Beyond the Beautiful Forevers details life in a slum close to the Mumbai airport.

They all share a horrific picture of modern India—a society divided between extreme wealth and extreme poverty. It is a world of endemic corruption, where the law is driven by those who can pay for it. In Djinn Patrol, the impoverished families have to bribe the police to investigate their children’s disappearances and the police still do nothing. Towards the end, I was on tenterhooks hoping for a happy ending.

This is an a heartbreaking account of the fragility of life and how people carry on day to day in the face of such hopelessness.

From the outset this novel had me intrigued. It even reminded me of a childhood novel, Emil And The Detectives in its tone and innocence. And the further I read, the more I wanted to know why...why was Mental important, what was the significance of the djinns, when were the railway children going to get a look in, what was happening to these missing children? However, by the last third of the book, none of these questions were answered. Many avenues were opened, and we were led a merry dance, but there was no satisfactory conclusion to any street. In fact, many of the characters were simply there for the sake of it. I can't fathom who this book is aimed at; definitely not me. If it was supposed to be a docu-novel, it should've said so. No questions were answered, and the novel melted into pointless obscurity. And sadly the Afterword was the most disappointing, dragging the politics of two democratic nations with whom the author clearly does not agree into the mire, degrading any credibility she had acquired in her writings. I'm afraid this debut novel was a huge disappointment.

I don't know what happened with me and this book.
I picked it up on many occasions and struggled to get past three pages before putting it down again.

A really good read, the authors has made the characters warm and interesting and the story flows around exceedingly well, not my usual type of book but I am glad I read this book as I found it highly satisfactory

Whilst the beginning of this really caught me with the story of Mental and how his ghost continues to help those street boys in need of him, once the main tale got going I found myself plodding along with no real purpose. I'd say the strongest aspects of this novel are the beginning and the end, but the middle seems to lose pace or direction, instead relying on lots of repetition and drawn out scenes of a child playing detective. The best scenes tended to be the shorter ones from the perspectives of the victims, telling their final moments and bringing you into their lifes. Some of these draw you vividly into the world and the challenges faced by various different groups individuals. I also enjoyed the chapters focused on the tales of the djinn and some of the folklore and stories surrounding them, but these were used as interludes rather than bringing anything to the actual plot.

I think the topic Deepa Anappara is making here is one of great importance; the number of children who go missing in India, either stolen, lost or dead, she highlights in the authors postscript is harrowing - 180 a day - and the cultural setting certainly makes this stand out from the majority of kidnapped children novels which tend to be based in Europe or America. One thing I did find difficult however was the number of Indian words and phrases throughout the novel with no explanation or even a basic glossary to look things up. I found myself confused by relationships and some of the dialogue, drawing me out of the story as I tried to put things together. I have no objection to use of cultural terms, references or phrases - in fact it would make it more realistic if I could understand them - but if you are trying to appeal to a mass audience, there needs to be something to allow the average reader to pick up on the terminology being used and there wasn't.

In terms of the actual main narrative though, much of the middle section is superfluous and repetitive, particularly when the kids are running around trying to find 'clues'. I found the main character, nine year old Jai, irritating and naive; often asking exactly the questions that are going to rile people up. I get that he's nine, but the self-absorbed and over confident attitude got my my nerves very quickly indeed - he's so keen on being a child detective and yet half the time won't listen to his friend Pari who is notably more intelligent than him... and more tactful. Maybe his reckless and bull in a china shop attitude might have worked for child readers, but this is not a children's book. Whilst the child narrator added an air of innocence, I can't help but thinking that the entire thing would either have been better off from Pari's perspective who is that little bit more mature. It would also have allowed for the dialogue on how women are treated and expected to behave to be expanded, as what Annapara does write on this is very interesting.

I had also expected this to have more of a focus on the railway children of India, but other than the introduction and a scene somewhere around mid-novel, there is virtually no mention of them which is a shame. It's seems an opportunity lost, particularly considering the theme of missing children. A closer exploration of this may have resolved some of the books issues; in particular it's repetitive nature and plodding plot could have been revitalised by the inclusion of something like this.

Either way, I think there's certainly potential here and some of the writing and descriptions are wonderful. I just don't think it was executed as well as it could have been perhaps. It either needed more of a sense of threat - which is difficult when the lead character is treating it all a bit like a game - or it needed more content in the middle and perhaps a less irritating primary character. I'd have loved to see more about djinns written into the actual story instead of serving solely as interludes with little connection to what is going on and likewise, the perspective from the victims are one of the strongest points here and show a variety of views of India, rather than one naive, little boy who thinks he's better than everyone else. These could have been expanded and again, it would have made for a far more fascinating read.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my free ARC copy of this book.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
5 Stars

'This story is a talisman. Hold it close to your hearts.'

I loved this book. It is heartwarming and deeply heartbreaking all at once. An atmospheric glimpse into an Indian basti from the perspective of a child obsessed with crime drama. Jai is the perfect protagonist for this, we see the world as he sees it- with the mysticism of youth and the anxiety of poverty.

Themes of escapism run deep in this novel, the chapters narrated from the perspective of the taken children are written to reflect different views on cultures and what is expected of them from their families.

After reading interviews from the author I can see that she not only perfectly captures the voice of a child but she also encapsulates the ongoing issues of human trafficking and religious violence in slum towns. Any character could have been the protagonist of this book.

Overall I think everyone should read this novel. I couldn't put it down. I haven't been this impressed with a debut novel in a long time.

To pre-order this book now for £14.99
Click Here and receive it when it's released on January 30th 2020.

Trigger Warning ⚠: Police negligence, religious violence, and educational values, human trafficking, child abuse.

I received an advance review copy for free via NetGalley in alliance with Chatto & Windus and Penguin Random House UK. I am leaving this review voluntarily 📚.

DJINN PATROL ON THE PURPLE LINE - DEEPA ANAPPARA

I have read this novel through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Had I been able to squeeze extra stars beyond the maximum five, I would have done so. Probably ten. Without doubt this has to be the novel I have enjoyed the most this year, and whose story will live with me the longest.

Most of the novel is told from the POV of a nine year old boy Jai who lives in one of the slums in an unnamed city in India. He is a great fan of police procedural programmes on television and when children who are his friends start to disappear he and his closest chums turn amateur detectives because the real police do nothing. This is his, and their, story.

The writing is superb. I can’t believe I have highlighted so many passages in one novel so that I can look back on them and savour them again. Not only do the characters themselves speak to you as real flesh and blood people, but India itself, the basti where they live, is so alive that you can taste and smell and feel it’s vibrations as though you are there: this has to be the most evocative writing I have had the pleasure to read in a long long time.

I’ve been looking through the passages I have highlighted in the hope that I could decide on one or two to quote. I can’t. There are so many. All I can do is implore you to read this novel: for the story of a little boy who - compared with children here in Britain- has absolutely nothing and yet despite poverty is cheerful and uncomplaining; and for the superlative writing.

Fingers crossed that a second novel is already brewing.

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line tells the story of Jai, a nine year old boy who lives in an Indian slum and loves watching police shows on television. When children from his basti start disappearing, Jai turns detective and with the help of his friends tries to discover what has happened to those who have gone missing.

Written through the eyes of a child the writing comes alive and you can see, hear and sense the poverty. It is well written with well drawn characters and depicts the everyday life in an Indian slum with corrupt police and nobody batting an eyelid when children are being exploited.

I really do not know how to write this review as I am unaware of its target market and so that obliges me to write this as if the book is for adults. Mind you, if it is written for children or young adults I am fairly convinced that it would do their heads in too!

I did not enjoy this book at all after the first few pages but I soldiered on in the hope that it would grow on me. Sadly, by 37% of the way through, it did not and so I stopped reading. Just not my cup of char.

One of the most interesting parts of this book is at the end when the author explains his experience as a journalist in India and his reasons for writing the book. Apart from demonstrating his credentials as being familiar with the country and society he is writing about,it reveals his unhappiness with the social circumstances and life styles he describes so well in the novel. This book is basically about children disappearing and the resulting distress not just of the parents but of their young friends and siblings. One,Jai,at the tender age of nine has watched too many detective series on television and decides to be the detective in the absence of an efficient police force. He is aided by a small group of friends all of whom are very well described. The atmosphere of the poor Indian suburbs where the residents expect their homes to be demolished at any moment is very well described and used the give the story pathos and meaning. Yet despite the hardships,children go through school and have ambition to get themselves out of the desperate surroundings of their upbringing. This us a book which informs as well as entertains the reader.