The Jinn Daughter is a short, bittersweet, folkloric tale about jinns, death magic, souls passing on to the afterlife, loss, and the desperate love of mothers for their daughters.

I enjoyed the book's “stories within a story” format that is often seen in Middle Eastern storytelling, as well as the fact that main character Nadine, a jinn bound to her role as Hakawati (the one who moves souls along after death by consuming the pomegranate seed of their soul and releasing the story contained within it) is not an especially righteous character. She lies—has been lying to her 14-year-old daughter Layala for years about the extent of both their powers—she double-crosses, she's a rather suffocating, over-protective mother, albeit understandably given her widowed grief plus the extreme harm humans have inflicted upon jinn, both to the jinn population as a whole and within Nadine's personal life.

The story is simple but not entirely straightforward—Nadine's magic powers as Hakawati were rather arbitrary and the rules for necromancy and the human sacrifice that fueled it seemed a little inconsistent. As well, the pacing of the story was fairly unchanging, which made some of the reveals and turning points feel rushed and emotionally flat. I also felt that Layala was too young at 14 to

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believably be so willing to take on the mantle of Death, no matter how overprotective her mother, especially with Layala just starting to learn and experience more of the world outside of her small home and upbringing

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Still, though, the writing was lovely and the message that it’s pointless to try to prolong or reverse the inevitability of death is clear and powerful. Three-and-a-half stars rounded up.