City of Stolen Magic

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The magic system and world-building are explained gradually. I was really excited to see how the various characters in the book would wield their powers in the fight against the colonial rulers. I thought this was a wonderful novel, and one of my highlights of the year so far. I would love a chance to see return to India with Chompa and her friends and see where their adventures take them next. City of Stolen Magic is a middle-grade fantasy novel that weaves together magic, colonial history, and secrets. Chompa is certain that she is ready to perform finger magic. But her mother keeps insisting that it’s not safe and that she should focus on learning charm writing. This is the story of Chompa and her mother Amina during British rule. Chompa can do a special kind of magic called finger magic whereas her mother's speciality are the written spells. One day because of Chompa's magic Amina gets kidnapped and taken by the Britishers to London. Then Chompa meets Mohsin who is her mother's friend who helps Chompa to find amina. During her journey she meets Tipu and Laurie who become her friends and help her to find amina and during the climax of the book.

City of Stolen Magic by Nazneen Ahmed Pathak | Goodreads City of Stolen Magic by Nazneen Ahmed Pathak | Goodreads

I can’t quite put my finger on what was wrong with this book, but I was just bored by it. It took me two full weeks to finish, which is incredibly unusual for me for a middle grade novel of this length, and I considered DNFing it multiple times, despite knowing I was reading it for review. The story just dragged, and I found Chompa herself really irritating. A gripping and spellbinding fantasy woven together with threads of magic, secrets and colonial history . . . An incredible cast of characters and a truly multicultural Victorian London that we don't see often enough' - Rashmi Sirdeshpande An unexpected gem of a story . . . A stellar setting, a gut-punch of a twist, and an unforgettable heroine. This has all the hallmarks of classic children's storytelling' - Nizrana Farook author, The Girl Who Stole an Elephant Sir Clive Devaynes (names derived from real people from the East India Company) of the “East Merchant Company” is collecting them for a nefarious purpose.

I LOVE a good middle grade but because the story is told by Chompa's POV as a VERY young girl, it feels almost a bit... Too young... For me 🌸 What I did not like though were the Plot twists. I could see all of them coming and i just wanted the book to be less predictable. I also did not understand why in a middle grade book meant for children where the protagonist is 12 yrs old, had to see what happened to her mother. What happened with Mohsin also felt very out of character for him. I thought all of the characters were well developed to be honest. Chompa is the one we get to know the best being the protagonist, but the others were still detailed enough for them to have their own personalities and be strong characters in their own rights. On the day Chompa disregards the warning against using her finger magic, her Ammi (mother) tries to quell it and is discovered and taken away.

City of Stolen Magic - Penguin Books UK City of Stolen Magic - Penguin Books UK

The story takes place in the past and it starts in the then Bengal province of India, which was under British rule. Now the story, the characters and the magic are fictional. But this story is most definitely inspired by true historic events and is well researched, like the Bengal famines and people forcefully being taken to another country. This is a story for children, so the true horrors of the past are of course not mentioned. But enough is said to make this painful part of history come to life. Chompa lives with her mother in a small village in India. Her mother is teaching her to write charms and learn her Farsi, whilst sternly encouring Chompa to never use her 'finger magic'.First 2 parts are in Bengal then Dacca, India, then at sea, then London, England & a final part that I won't ruin. I won the physical copy in the giveaway and so it's really special for me. First things first the book cover is beautiful ❤️. In general, the characters were well drawn, from Chompa (determined, feisty, undaunted) to Tipu and Laurie (Djinn speakers she meets on the way to England) to Leeza, Mohsin’s servant, to Millie, the English maid whose weakness is her sweet tooth. Although I guessed the plot twist, it is still a good one. However I did find that I was more invested in side characters stories than the main characters. By the 60% mark I was missing Tupu and his story which I found more interesting than Chompa’s story. I think it may have been because I didn’t really gel with Chompa as a character as much as I did with Tipu or Laurie. Which I must mention, Laurie’s sarcasm made the book that much more enjoyable for me. But I think my disconnection with Chompa despite her emotional journey in the book is because the book seems to treat Chompa as older than she is. In the first like 10 chapters I thought she was a teenager maybe 17. Turns out she’s still a child, which I should have expected since the book is middle grade. But the writing of the book left her age ambiguous when it wasn’t explicitly mentioned. Maybe this is because Chompa saw herself as older than she was but considering it’s third person and not first person that message got a little lost in execution. This looks to be the first in a series. I was swept away with how much historical research this matched up with amongst the djinn lore & mythology.