Jessica Khoury - The Forbidden Wish

"Freedom bears great responsibility.”

Zhara Jinni. To be exact, Jinni is not her surname, but little nuances. She's been living for thousands of years which tells us a lot what she's been through so far. She has granted a spate of wishes, listened to her master's every whim and still she's stuck in a rusty god-damn lamp.

Where is justice?

Now, what would Zhara have to say if I asked her some autobiographical questions?
The one sentence of Don't want to talk about it would sum up pretty much everything.

It would seem Aladdin is another irritating mortal being, so it is not thought to be a big problem to get quickly rid of him after three extremely selfish wishes and saunter back to her scanty home. All the same, she doesn't count on the inevitable: the penniless boy is growing on her. That was the only thing she wanted to avoid as it didn't turned out well in the past either. You'd expect she had learnt something. But nada.

"Dear Jinni.” The Queen smiled. “Time is the strongest magic of all."

The story pretty much went beyond the tales of the Arabian nights to my great delight. It is always going, flowing and overflowing. I can't remember a single moment the characters and the events let go of me. I haven't encountered such a creative world for a very long time. Plus points go to the society of evil jinnies. I especially hated that immortal big bug Jinni. His well deserved destiny is to float between complete zilch and existence, which is quite satisfying, I have to say.
That final gambit of Zhara earns my regards. Well, love conquers all and stuff turned out to be pretty awesome in this fantasy, too. Nicely done.

Let alone Zhara who is the best heroine ever. The quandary between her fear of capture and her devotion towards her loved ones stir up trouble but she knows exactly where her loyalties are. The queen's Badass, don't-give-a-sh*t entourage of female warriors is just icing on the cake. Carry on, ladies!

After reading

Although I missed the flying carpet, (which is quite an iconic figure in the cartoon, isn't it?) I am high over the moon about this book.

Rating

5 out of 5
What else??? Dare you give less stars, and I am knocking on your front door...