It will perhaps take a few pages to get used to the setting, especially if you read books that are almost exclusively set in North America. I want to write a panegyric for this novel but I will satisfy myself with a garbled review. And I can tell you on good authority that the synopsis does not lead you astray. The synopsis sounds bloody bleeding amazing. The setting is one of the reasons that I really wanted to read this novel – that and the synopsis. Properly this time.Īlif the Unseen is set in a city in Saudi Arabia and it is, perhaps, one of the few books I have read that manage to write in a setting like Saudi Arabia without preaching about or demonizing Islam. The characters in this novel, while not being teenagers, are young adults and therefore this novel meets the criteria set (by me) to be called Young Adult.

Okay fine, I will tell you why you need to read this. If you're looking for an adventure unlike anything you've probably read, give this a try! You see both the beauty of Islamic society and folklore, and the desperate, fearful, and claustrophobic conditions in which the citizens of The City live. The descriptions of life in a dictatorial society are grimly and unflinchingly portrayed. It's rare to find a novel set in the Middle East that is both accessible to a Western audience and sympathetically well-informed. His enemies, both human and jinn, will do anything to obtain it.

Alif finds himself in possession of an ancient book that may be the secret to reprogramming the entire world. (END SPOILER.) That in itself would be an intriguing story, but Wilson also blends in the world of the fire spirit jinn, mixing computer magic with ancient magic. Alif is secretly in love with the daughter of a high-ranking family, and (SPOILER) when she becomes engaged to a government official - an official who is in charge of finding hackers like Alif, things become very complicated. It's the story of a twenty-something hacker living in an Arabic city state simply called The City.

Somehow I went into this thinking it was a middle grade or young adult novel. Willow Wilson, and while this is very, very different stuff, it was a fabulous read.

Alif the unseen review