City of Stolen Magic

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The villain is holding Chompa’s mother, Amina, to force Chompa to do what he wants. Amina therefore uses her magic to self-immolate in front of her daughter so that she can’t be used as leverage against Chompa. I was really disappointed by this plot point. Depicting suicide as a good thing (Amina says she is setting Chompa free), particularly in a children's book, is really inappropriate. Suicide is an extremely serious, despairing act, and passing over it lightly does not make it okay (actually it's worse). It was totally unnecessary and ineffective from the story's perspective, so I consider it poor story telling as well as inappropriate. I don’t like the end justifying the means in any case, but a parent committing suicide should not be thrown into a story so lightly. 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. India, 1855. The British rule, and all across the country, Indian magic is being stamped out. More terrifying still, people born with magic are being snatched from their homes. Rumor is that they are being taken across the sea - to England - by the all-powerful, sinister Company. 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'.

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

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, author, Dadaji's Paintbrush Children’s fantasy may be one of publishing’s fastest-growing genres, but stories from South Asia have remained in short supply. Nazneen Ahmed Pathak, a British-Bangladeshi writer chosen for Penguin’s mentoring scheme for under-represented writers, wants to redress that balance. As she has explained, she started writing her debut novel, City of Stolen Magic, 10 years ago after the birth of her son, because “there were no stories out there that represented his Indian and Bangladeshi heritage, the relationship between colonialism and migration, or South Asian traditions of magic.” The discussion of colonialism also felt a bit jumbled. I definitely think fantasy can be used to comment on really world issues, but something about the way the magic was incorporated in this case felt like it obscured the actual atrocities that the British committed in India – again, I can’t really verbalise why, but it just didn’t work for me.One night Chompa decides to disregard her mother's plight and almost sets the village on fire in the process. To combat the fire Chompa created, Ammi uses her OWN finger magic to stop the raging fire. Chompa NEVER knew her mother could also do magic like her. When Chompa sets out to prove herself to Ammi (her mother), her bravado leads to a horrendous accident. Soon, the agents of the Company take Ammi away.

City of Stolen Magic | BookTrust City of Stolen Magic | BookTrust

First 2 parts are in Bengal then Dacca, India, then at sea, then London, England & a final part that I won't ruin.With the help of an old friend, Chompa goes off after her, traveling on a fast ship powered by a tree djinn. For Chompa and others like her are djinnborn or djinnspeakers, able to think or write words to do magic and manipulate the elements. 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. More terrifying still, people born with magic are being snatched from their homes. Rumour is that they are being taken across the sea - to England - by the all-powerful, sinister Company.

City of Stolen Magic by Nazneen Ahmed Pathak - Google Play City of Stolen Magic by Nazneen Ahmed Pathak - Google Play

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 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. Disclaimer: I did read the book with the eye of an adult, rather than that of a teenager, which I suspect is the targeted audience. This is too bad, because I enjoy the genre and was unaware of this age limitation. Yet, I stand by my assessment as I do believe it is possible to both achieve depth in character and play with the rhythm and pace of a book, without losing the calm simplicity that flows throughout. This wonderful new middle grade book imagines a spunky girl’s journey from her home in India to London. 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.However, I found it challenging to connect with the main character, Chompa. The story is narrated from the perspectives of both Chompa and Tipu, and Tipu's story is more engaging. There's also a twist that was quite predictable.