Lindsay's Book Log

First off, I read this book during a reading slump which I feel like may have impacted my enjoyment and rating of this book.

This book is the story of a Golem and a Jinni in New York in 1899. Chava, the Golem, can hear the desires of others and has to find her way in the lower east side while dealing with the urge to solve every desire. Ahmad, the Jinni, is irritated by the ways of human life while trying to pass as human in Little Syria. One night the two meet and stuff happens. 

I have heard this book mentioned 2 or 3 times and people have spoken highly of it so I decided to pick it up.  In some ways this book reminds me a lot of The Night Circus because the story is a bit meandering and takes a while to get going.  While I did enjoy it I think I would have liked it more if it moved a bit quicker and I hadn't been in a reading slump.  On the pacing front it really slow, interesting but slow, then the pacing was good and then the ending felt a bit rushed and truncated.

I did really enjoy all the characters though, even the villain was interesting. I love that while the Jinni was totally rude and thoughtless through a lot of the book it wasn't a glorified behavior and it had consequences. I liked Chava's struggles, and the way she dealt with them. I loved the way the Rabbi struggled with Chava's exsistance. Overall I really loved the characters (which is another way it reminds me of The Night Circus).

I don't know who I would recommend this book to because I was in such a weird mood when I read it, if you like character driven stories that aren't super fast paced you would probably like this book. Also if you like Arab and Jewish mythology, then you may want to pick this up.

thoughts on the ending