S P O N S O R E D : B O O K S E N T F O R F R E E
I N C L U D E S A F F I L I A T E L I N K S
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Title: Djinn Patrol on the Purple LineAuthor: Deepa Anappara
Published: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 352
Rating: 3/5
This book is an advanced readers copy sent to me for free by the publisher.
Summary:
Set in a slum on the outskirts of an unnamed Indian city, a nine year old boy who loves detective shows tries to turn into a bit of a detective himself when several kids start disappearing from the area he lives.
Review:
This was a really interesting book!
There are a lot of fantastic things about this book; the characters, especially the main character and his friends, felt well rounded and I really liked getting to know them. The setting of this story is also excellently captured; I really liked seeing all of these people live their everyday lives in this slum and we see both the good things about this neighborhood and the challenges it faces.
The story has been inspired by the fact that an estimated 180 children disappear in India every day and very little is being done about it, and I applaud this book for shining a light on that issue. We see how these disappearances affect these families and this community and seeing it through the eyes of a young boy was really interesting.
Even though there are so many great things about this, there are also some things that I didn't like. I found the story got incredibly repetitive for a while and there was a pretty huge chunk in the middle there that I didn't really feel very engaged by and that unfortunately made the book feel long and dragged out.
The strengths of this book are its characters and its setting and I think it's worth reading just for that, just bear in mind that the plot is sometimes not that compelling.
You can read more about it on Goodreads
