Weekly Reader: Djinn by Sang Kromah; Modern Fantasy Enchants With Interesting Twists On Magical Creatures and Characters

Weekly Reader: Djinn by Sang Kromah; Modern Fantasy Enchants With Interesting Twists On Magical Creatures and Characters

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




PopSugar Reading Challenge: A book written by a WOC


Spoilers: Of the magical fantasy creatures, the djinn are among the ones with the least amount of pop culture attention in the Western world. When they are shown, they are usually restricted in one form: as the magical wish granting genies. One of the most popular images are Barbara Eden, as the curvaceous beauty (but no visible navel) found inside a bottle, that served Major Tony Nelson (Larry Hagman) in the sitcom, I Dream of Jeannie. Another is Robin Williams as the lovable big blue Genie, the creature of a thousand laughs and even more impressions from Disney's Aladdin franchise.


However, in legend the djinn are a lot more fascinating, powerful, and sometimes terrifying than their Hollywoodized images suggest. These magical creatures originated in legends from pre-Islamic Arabian countries. They were portrayed as elemental spirits and shapeshifters, very powerful beings. They were technically immortal, but could be killed in combat. However, it is very difficult to catch one, especially when they are invisible. Like their Western counterparts, the faeries, the djinn were often blamed for physical and mental illnesses. However, they could be reasoned with and become powerful allies.

When Muhammad established the Islamic religion, he integrated the folklore of the djinn into the Qaran. Muhammad was seen as a prophet to both human and djinn communities. King Solomon reportedly had the ability to control the djinn and the Queen of Sheba was believed to have djinn ancestry. With the religion of Islam, the djinn's status was downgraded from nature spirits to demons in league with the Devil.


Sang Kromah's enchanting fantasy, Djinn aims and succeeds in freeing the djinn from their demonized reputations and Hollywood images. This brilliant fantasy focuses on a teen girl whose peculiarities and strange abilities add up to one thing: she is in fact a djinn.


Bijou "Jewels" Fitzroy, a biracial 16-year-old girl has led an increasingly bizarre life. She never knew her father and her mother died in childbirth. She has been raised by her beautiful, but at times rigid grandmother, Gigi on the run, never staying in one place long, and constantly being homeschooled. She has some strange abilities that she can't explain. She can sense the emotions of some people that she calls Typicals, sometimes looking into their eyes and seeing their deepest secrets. Then there are other people, that she calls The Others, people that she can't see their emotions but sees their strange, hidden, and ethereal often beautiful appearances.

She also sees strange creatures such as a faceless boy, who may only exist in her dreams, but has been her playmate since she was a kid. She also sees a terrifying hooded man that fills her with an intense sense of evil and terror. To block out these emotions and images, Bijou shuffles a deck of playing cards as a coping mechanism.


Despite the past weirdness in her life, Bijou longs for a life of normalcy so when she and Gigi move to Sykesville, Maryland, Bijou finally convinces her grandmother to let her go to a regular public school, to make friends and have a social life, like other teenagers. On her first day, she catches the suspicion of Mythology and Folklore Teacher, Mr. Jennings, the ire of local mean girl, Mandy DeVoe and her Girl Squad, and the friendship of Sebastian and Amina Sinjin, a pair of twins relocated from Australia.

Bijou hopes to live a typical teenage life, but her new life is far from typical. Her empathic abilities are heightened especially when she is around the twins. The twins can also see the dangerous hooded man and know that he's trouble.

Bijou discovers new talents such as breathing underwater and the ability to swim fast, even though she has never taken a lesson. A local eccentric recognizes her, even though Bijou has never seen her before in her life. Then there are the matter of six girls who have gone missing, all around the same age and all have the same birthday, June 21st, the same birthday as Bijou's. Also what's the deal with Gigi? She has been acting strange. One minute aloof and suspicious of everyone around her and the next welcoming people that she says are distant relatives that Bijou has never met before. Everything is weird lately and seems to be getting weirder.

Bijou ultimately discovers the truth that she is a djinn, and not just any djinn: she is the daughter of two powerful djinn who were members of royalty and her birth was heralded in prophecy. Kromah does some interesting things with her magical characters that play in, wink at, and sometimes dismiss the regular known fantastic lore associated with such creatures.

First off, fairies, elves, gnomes etc. were the names humans gave them. Their names always were the djinn, thereby restoring the pre-Islamic Arabian folklore back into prominence when referring to these fascinating creatures.

Just like their legendary original versions, the djinn in this book are capable of doing elemental magic. Two djinns that serve as Bijou's protectors demonstrate tremendous aptitude in fire and water magic.

Kromah also has fun playing on existing myths and legends by including them in her world building. Such figures as changelings (human babies swapped for djinn babies), Lilith (the demon from Hebrew lore who kills newborn babies), and The Fairy King and Queen make appearances in unique and startling ways that update them to the current Readership while staying true to their mythological roots.

One fairy literature that takes an interesting path in this book is A Midummer Night's Dream. The Shakespeare play of fairies and mismatchmaking becomes a lot darker. The argument between Oberon and Titania in the play becomes a divorce between Alieu and Lilith (the real names of the djinn king and queen in this book). The divorce spills into a war between the djinn and causes dissension and natural catastrophe in the human world as well. Puck, the mischievous but harmless Trickster from the Shakespeare play and seen as a charming antihero in other portrayals since (notably in Disney's animated series, Gargoyles), is a terrifying demonic creature here who seems to like bringing about destruction and chaos for their own sake.


Bijou is also a brilliant lead in this strange tale. She discovers the origins of her abilities and as the book continues, her powers grow exponentially to almost terrifying proportions.

Thankfully, Bijou is not a perfect heroine of infinite goodness. She has a bad temper and is often prone to impulsive acts, such as accidentally revealing too much about herself and her powers during fights. Because of her isolated and homeschooled background, she is incredibly socially awkward when she talks to people, such as making up stories about her former best friend, "Willow" obviously referring to the character in Buffy the Vampire Slayer not thinking that anyone would notice.

When she finds out the true scope of her abilities and what she is supposed to do, like many teenagers considers running from her responsibilities. However her good heart reins in and when it comes time to choosing between flight or fight, she chooses fight.


There are moments of betrayal and double cross. By the end of the book, no one is who they say they are. They practice the djinn ability of shapeshifting to perfection to fool Bijou and just about everyone else including the Reader. By the end the Reader, suspects every character of being something that they are not. (Which would make a sequel highly entertaining as the Reader will expect and look for betrayal and shapeshifters in every character. They will expect twists when there isn't one.)

The real identities and allegiances between characters are fascinating, but kind of confusing. It takes a few rereadings of the chapters to get right who is who, what their abilities are, who they work for, and where they fall in Bijou's life and the prophecy.

Djinn is a memorable magical book that focuses on some magical creatures that do more than pop out of lamps and bottles and grant wishes. Much more.

New Book Alert: Dancing You/Dancar Te by Gisela Pereira; Book of Lyrical Poetry is as Lovely and Graceful as a Dancer

New Book Alert: Dancing You/Dancar Te by Gisela Pereira; Book of Lyrical Poetry is as Lovely and Graceful as a Dancer

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Gisela Pereira is the modern definition of a true Renaissance Woman. She is a woman of many talents, a writer, poet, producer, director, artist, and dance student. She reveals many of those talents in her beautiful and lyrical book of poetry, Dancing You/Dancar Te.

The book was originally published in Portuguese in 2000 and translated in 2017 and features poems in both English and Portuguese. In her intro, Pereira explains that the English translations are not literal translations. Instead they use simile, rhyme scheme, and symbolism that pertain to the two cultures so English and Portuguese Readers will understand and relate to them.

Either in English or Portuguese, Pereira's poems sound as lovely as a song and move as graceful as a dancer. She combines several of her interests in dancing, poetry, art, mythology, and legend to create these gorgeous works of literature and art. Her poem “Hermaphrodite” involves a mysterious fairy creature rejecting a lover after claiming to be a “creature of water and air” transcending nature and spirit as well, as the title implies, male and female. The speaker is beyond the lover's perception and therefore unable to be with the lover.

Another poem that reflects mythology and legend is “Mirror.” In this poem, the Speaker travels through a mirror ala Alice Through the Looking Glass and enters a vibrant almost hallucinatory world. In this world, dolls come to life, magic exists, and a strange hatted figures enchants the Speaker.

Many of the poems express some of the strongest emotions such as love, heartbreak, sadness, and intimacy. For example Pereira's poem, “Enigma” compares sexuality between two lovers like a dance where the two move in synchronization completing each other through movement.

Pereira writes:

“In a kiss’ mystic blaze
In our most intense gaze
Forgetting our body’s gravity
Dancing another reality
And flying in the earth's center
Where only few can enter.”

Besides the poems themselves, another highlight of the book are the gorgeous illustrations. The watercolor art reflects various fairies and other creatures in ways that are both passionate and innocent. They hearken back to the fairy illustrations from the late 19th and early 20th centuries which portray fairies as beautiful but at times intimidating. The poems and illustrations are perfect companions to each other creating an experience that is verbally and visually pleasant.

Dancing You/Dancar Te reflects beauty in myth, legend, dance, and art. Truly, Gisela Pereira displays her talents in ways the Reader won't soon forget.

Classics Corner: The Hero With A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell; The Definitive Work on Mythology and Hero Tales

Classics Corner: The Hero With A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell; The Definitive Work on Mythology and Hero Tales

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews


Chances are when you hear the word “myth” eventually you will come to the name Joseph Campbell. The literature professor of comparative literature and religion of Sarah Lawrence University was considered the ultimate scholar of mythology and wrote what many considered the definitive work on the subject, The Hero With A Thousand Faces.


The Hero With A Thousand Faces is probably the closest Key to All Mythologies found in the 20th century. Campbell took several stories from different religions, pantheons, and traditions and discovered what they had in common. All of these myths seemed to be several stories but in reality they all told one story, that of the world and the people in it most notably the hero. In this brilliant landmark book Campbell compared the variations of the hero tale in its many forms and found the tropes, motifs, and archetypes that they shared.

Campbell brilliantly used the various tropes as chapter heads and finding the links that the various myths share. For example the chapter “The Call to Adventure” recalls the many ways that heroes began their journey usually receiving some sort of a lead or request from another party. Campbell begins by describing the fairy tale, “The Frog Prince” in which a princess is asked by a frog to allow him to sit at her table and sleep in her bed. He also includes King Arthur's encounter with the Questing Beast and the story of the prince Gautama Sakayume, the future Buddha who encounters for the first time old age, illness, and death and seeks enlightenment. He also wrote about dreams some people had of encountering people who guided them to solutions to their problems. In tracing the various beginnings of myths and dreams, Campbell reveals how these heroes identified problems in their societies and strive to overcome them.

Various other tropes are identified such as “Supernatural Aid, “The Road of Trials”, and “The Meeting With Goddess” and so on. Campbell cites figures from myths and religions as varied as Judeo-Christian, Buddhism, Celtic, Norse, and Native American lore to show that these stories and by extension the people who tell, write, and listen to them are really the same people who value courage, wisdom, diligence, and kindness in their heroes and hope that they can provide answers for their problems.

As the Reader goes through the book they may find comparisons between these myths and modern literature, film, video games, and TV. They may think of works like Game of Thrones, Legend of Zelda,and Harry Potter as modern hero tales. After all Harry Potter, John Snow, Link and others receive the Call to Adventure (Join the Watch, go to Hogwarts, save Princess Zelda), receive aid from others (Sam Tarley, Hermione Granger and Ron Wesley, and Navi) and encounter various trials to achieve their goals. (Getting killed and brokering peace with the Wildlings, facing Lord Voldemort and his minions, traveling through time and battling Ganendorf), to be remembered as great heroes (King of the North, an Auror, and Hero of Hyrule).

These patterns are intentional whether the creators are aware of them or not. Some creators such as George Lucas (whose Skywalker Ranch was the location of The Power of Myth, Campbell's series of interviews with PBS commentator, Bill Moyers) cited Campbell's book as an inspiration for their works. Others particularly fantasy authors like George R.R. Martin, Robert Jordan, Terry Goodkind, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the current bumper crop of epic fantasy authors (such as the ones that I have been reviewing lately) use variations of the Hero story.

That's not to say they are all copying each other. Instead these stories are so ingrained in our psyche that we see it everywhere.

While Campbell himself believed that people lived more internally and did not seek higher causes and commitments to heroism, people can also recognize the hero tale in reality. We can also see them in real people too particularly figures like Martin Luther King Jr., Susan B. Anthony, Mahatma Gandhi, George Washington, and others that aspire to change the world around them. Of course real people are not the perfect heroes of legend and they don't always succeed or at least not in their lifetime. However, they do respond to the call, face many trials, share their talents and abilities, and take on larger than life personas that people follow and may admire. Many such as Diane Wilson, former shrimp boat captain and environmental activist cite Campbell's book as leading to their own Calls to Adventure, Roads of Trials etc. to their own paths of heroism.

Joseph Campbell's book reminds us that hero tales are inside all of us and manifests itself through stories, popular culture, and dreams. Maybe we can take it into our lives and become those heroes ourselves.