One could definitely describe this contemporary fantasy novel an odd duck. Several chapters an unidentified female character narrates, who has a husband named Alexander. For most of the story, chapters appear to be in third-person, with the main character being Liana, daughter of the magician Jamison the Great, one of whose performances has a misfire early on. In another dream-dedicated chapter, Alexander hangs beaten and upside-down from a tree, with the narrator soon saying that she has influence over Liana’s dreams.
Liana is still a student in grade school, with a few classmates pranking a slide presentation by including pictures of her father’s failed performance. She is a troubled pupil, under the care of a psychiatrist named Dr. Rattner, who suggests medicating her. Liana quickly finds herself thrust into a fantastical world inhabited chiefly by genies, with one named Stefan serving as something of an antagonist later on. The author divides genies into a few tribes, such as the Marid and Ifrits in a reflection of real-life djinn mythos that adds well to the narrative.
Liana and a friendly genie, Taffi, male, set off on a ship called The Drunken Maiden, with Liana urged to keep control of her supernatural abilities, and while the action isn’t exactly on an epic scale, there is some revelation towards the end, such as who exactly is narrating the story, which accounts for an overall satisfying yarn. There are some derivative aspects such as an apparent inspiration by the Star Wars franchise, and the author does err in mentioning witch burnings regarding the Salem Witch Trials (where no alleged magicians were incinerated), but the book is otherwise recommended.
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