COMMENTARY: The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (2023)
The following are thoughts and reactions I had while reading The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (2023) by Shannon Chakraborty. They do not reflect my overall post-reading opinion of the work. For self-study purposes, there may also be extensive summaries of the plot in these notes. In short…
⚠️ MAJOR SPOILER ALERTS AHEAD ⚠️
- Prologue - Jamal al-Hilli is our POV, discussing the mythical Amina al-Sarafi and how women are mistreated by history, especially undefinable ones like Amina. Ooh. Mother-Daughter issues hinted at. Reckless dedication to craft. And the vagaries and vague outlines of history. Lots for me to like already.
- Ch. 1 - Amina pretending to be an old fisherwoman, recognizing a forged treasure map, takes the two boys’ money thinking nothing of it, only to actually have to fight a sea foam monster, revealing her true self. This is great storytelling.
- What’s working for me here in ch.2? The frame is a mom who feels guilty her daughter is paying for her crimes in protected isolation. The purview of socioeconomics is described via how Amina sees the weather. It just clicks. It feels like Chakraborty did her homework (and the bibliography is the evidence) whereas A Master of Djinn, and the books I talk about in the Further Thoughts section feel made up and lazy. This feels fleshed out and iceberg-like. There’s a lot more and she careful showed what she could without sacrificing character arc and plot momentum. Whereas LLL felt made up and bloated without care… and AMD felt some work was done but no enough to feel lived in. Of course, it’s only chapter two.
- There’s just so much tension here. 1. The rules of hospitality 2. A hidden daughter 3. Power dynamics 4. A stranger of uncertainty quantity 5. A criminal hiding.
- Not liking the modern Western slang (ass, fuck, and shit). I would much prefer you keep me immersed in the swearing of the day.
- It’s a ONE LAST JOB story! And it was executed so well.
- One meeeeeeelion dinars!
- Sayidda Salima is conning Amina or I’ve read too many Shadowrun play throughs.
- A Letter from a Scholar: fun little ephemera
- ch. 3 omg. This is exactly how you write the reluctant hero part. The stakes, the risk, all that could be lost, the past catching up to you, your obligations to ghosts, your obligations to your family, everything hangs on this balance but you still must go.
- A Missive to the Wali of Basrah: more fun ephemera!
- Ch. 4 - who is this Jamal that Amina is relating this story to? I’m liking this multilevel narrative. It works here because it has substance and weight. Unlike this other thing everyone praised for playing with narrative.
- love the constant hinting at Marjana’s secret heritage. Who was the father? Who was the FATHER???
- Why are all these mysterious backstories working for me here and not AMD? Is it because Chakraborty lays out the actual emotional impact and stakes and how it affected their daily life? I think it is that simple.
- Heh. Dalila is like Q, and Rusty, and her own thing all rolled together into a cool side kick.
- Ch.5 - a little disbelief here that Amina didn’t think it was a trap, but had to have Dalila as foil tell her.
- 🎶 Getting the band back together with a prerequisite prison break 🎵
- loyalties. People come with loyalties. Even if who they’re loyal to is incompetent, troublesome, inept, causes them harm in the short or even long term. This is a lesson I keep going back to the last few months as I navigate my new life working a full-time contract.
- That was fun heisty chapter.
- The Book of Charlatans … did Chakraborty… like is she quoting from a primary source? This doesn’t feel made up. My level of respect, which is already high for the historical research, just kicked up another notch.
- ch. 6 - ROFL. Amina is running three card monte. Of course she is.
- Omg. I love Dalila. “Idiot.” Dalila smiled sweetly. “She came to me first”
- What a fun chapter. (See? I like fun. I like it when the world building is grounded and the dialogue isn’t cheesy.) Amina going alpha on the crew. Yusuf shocked at what he got himself into. Dalila petty bragging.
- Ch. 7 - insight: I think a large part of what keeps me interested in stories when it comes to world building is that there is more to it that I could research and look up. This whole novel is working for me right now because there is history, there is Arabic culture, there is the Islamic religion, there is medical privacy, there is Indian Ocean military tactics. These are all things I could look up and this morning I was looking up English translations of the Qu’ran. I think this is really what makes things click for me. That there’s more to it. The story itself should hint at it and not be unnecessarily expository about it… but should I want to, looking up Arabic words and Islamic rites… I could.
- Warning Against the Malabar Coast:
- ch. 8 - haha Majed went straight. I’m sure we’ll find out he didn’t actually and is embezzling.
- Ch. 9 - meeting the lead, lead reveals Salima’s granddaughter followed Falco, lead dies weird, all wonderful magical stuff.
- Ch. 10 - Dalila vanishing in the middle of a convo is out of character. She’s not Batman. Watching Amina sleep tho. Yes.
- this is so good. The power dynamics. The insight into the rich. The fury, not fear.
- the collection of occult. The burnt parchment with no clues. The need to recruit the last person in the party.
- I will say this tho… AMD was more fantastic and magical. I actually felt a sense of wonder at some of the scenes despite being turned off by cheesiness.
- Ch. 11 - Dalila makes a grenade. Amina ogles half naked men. They have a nice meal with Tinbu. Character dev chapter
- Ch. 12 - 😭 that’s family. You can hate each other, want nothing to do with each other, never want to see each other again, but if they ask for help, you help. Fuck, Majed grabbing Amina’s wrist and saying she’ll stay is such a powerful moment.
- Ch. 13 - the conversation between Nasteho and Amina is so well written. Mothers, talking about their careers and what it means, Nasteho openly accepting and curious about her husband’s former boss and colleague, the fact they’re family. This just works for me on so many levels.
- ch. 14 - a navel gazing chapter. Interesting. Should note for pacing why this is here. We’re at the 42% mark, we’ve arrived in Socotra.
- Ch. 15 - ooh. Portents and dread. Shipwreck, then signs of humans, then, then empty village, three gruesome deaths. Twigs snapping. Something following? The demon husband!
- A Regrettable Evening in the Maldives: midpoint backstory time! Let’s talk about how our past always catches up with us!
- Ch. 16 - ooooh. Midpoint reveal of what happened to Asif! Ooooooohhhhh, second mic drop. The connection with Raksh is tied to their daughter!!! A literal deal with the devil. Delicious.
- Ch. 17 - are fucking dungeon crawling? We are dungeon crawling. And we just split the party by some enchantment. Freeing innocent prisoners and gathering information? Does this get even more TTRPG?? lol. And then a martyr sacrifice! Somehow Chakraborty has made a tropey dungeon crawl work here. Probably because of stakes? Or character development? I really need to think on this more. Because in any other book, this would’ve been another boring dungeon crawl.
- An Ill Fated Decision Due to Greed: rofl. Raksh getting Amina’s name wrong after a drunken one night stand where they got married is hilarious. And he sees into the soul of her. A perfect mirror moment at 54%
- Ch. 18 - villain monologue download time. Casually cruel white dude. Some crazy ass ritual. Raksh saves wife.
- Ch. 19 - ok. What made this work? For me it was the human moment between Dalila and Amina. Amina actually studying her friend and seeing beyond the front and mask. Realizing she had made mistakes. Them having a genuine conversation. Compared to AMD ch.12 which didn’t work. Why? Well there’s no history between Fatma and Hadia, that’s true. But something else. Was it simply there was no interior emotional progesss and searching like I got here from Amina? Could it simply be that Amina took the time to process her thoughts and emotions about Dalila for the reader that it’s effective? I think that’s it. Whereas Fatma and Hadia talk about sexism, joke, and then make up. There was no actual emotional processing.
- Ch. 20 -they find Dunya using Raksh’s demonic intuition over Majed’s navigational experience. Something feels off. Dunya may be the real villain. Just a theory. And then infodump. But I was not annoyed. Because Chakraborty has earned my trust with good drama, good characters already.
- The Second Tale of the Moon of Saba Lore drop as ephemera is a brilliant idea. Doesn’t interrupt the narrative.
- Ch. 21 - Even the addition of LGBTQ elements is done better here. JFC.
- 66% ope. Is it an apology circle time? Where four different povs and four guilty characters all blame themselves for a misunderstood event from a long time ago? Yep. It was.
- Ch. 22 - the hero dies a fake death at the 70% mark
- Ch. 23 - wtf is going on? Is she in purgatory or some surrealist hell?
- Ch. 24 - nothing like being able to beat up your estranged demon husband
- Third Tale of Saba: of course. Rapey power dynamics
- Ch. 25 - ooh. Appealing to supernatural beings
- Ch. 26 - the fantastical is so delightfully… fantastical here.
- Ch. 27 - a failed petition and then
- Ch. 28 - meeting an outcast, an appeal and then
- Ch. 29 - off to Socotra, recruit a crew, and arm yourself
- Ch. 30 - a fight, free the Marid, to the cave, the bronze door thrown wide open, a ghost from the past
- Ch. 31 - well. Fuck. Asif’s death is dramatized and indeed it is truly horrible. and then a hellish chamber of nasnas…. And then the spell to call it forth even as Amina gets very close to murdering Falco. But too late.
- Ch. 32 - yeah. Ok. Sorta knew Dunya set a trap. Confirmed. And it’s a boss fight now. Haha. Boss summons white serpent like Rydia of the Mist in a confined space.
- good line to capture the theme of the Frank: The man who’d intended to remake a land that was not his, with stolen magic he could not understand-the man who had arrived on the blood of butchered innocents and taken even more lives in Socotra-now lay pinned beneath a shattered boulder
- Ch. 33 - the band is definitely back together.
- Ch. 34 - oh cute. Name reveal.
- That was excellent.