How to Free a Jinn by Raidah Shah Idil

Title: How to Free a Jinn

Author: Raidah Shah Idil

Genre: Fantasy

Publisher: Allen and Unwin

Published: 3^rd September 2024

Format: Paperback

Pages: 288

Price: $17.99

Synopsis: Fast-paced middle fiction fantasy featuring a curious girl discovering a big family secret. Full of intrigue, humour, warmth, action, jungle spirits, a perilous unseen realm and ghostly battles. A wonderful debut, perfect for readers who love Jaclyn Moriarty and Jessica Townsend.

I have a terrifying superpower. I, Insyirah Abdullah, can see jinn.

Insyirah’s calm, orderly world falls into chaos when her proud nenek (grandmother) has a bad fall, and Insyirah and her mother must move back to Malaysia to take care of her.

Her new home holds wild and dangerous mysteries, and while finding her feet, Insyirah discovers a shocking secret: the women in her family can control jinn – powerful, ancient jungle spirits – and, one day, she will inherit one of her own. What’s more, her new school is haunted by an evil spirit determined to force her out of Malaysia.

As Insyirah discovers the fascinating ways of the seen and unseen worlds, she finds that risk is everywhere. And when her family situation changes, she must gather all her resilience to overcome unexpected obstacles and make a life-changing decision.

Enchanting, action-packed and mysterious yet also warm and funny, this page-turning middle-grade fantasy announces a fabulous new talent.

~*~

Insyirah and her mother, Sara, are heading back home to Malaysia from Sydney. Insyirah’s nenek – her grandmother – has had a bad fall and needs help. But leaving Sydney means lots of changes – a new school, living with her nenek, and secrets. These secrets drove Sara to take Syirah to Sydney, but being back in Malaysia has revealed them. Nenek tells Syirah that the women in her family can control jinn. Not only that, her new school, the international school is being haunted by an evil spirit who is trying to make Insyirah leave Malaysia.

The novel moves between the seen and unseen worlds as Insyirah befriends Kai Xin and Nadia at school. Insyirah slips into the world when she least expects it, guided by a strange figure who pops up as she needs him, and Ari, a jinn at the school who has attached himself to her and works to warn her throughout the novel. The story is rich with culture, language and diversity through stories and the inclusion and use of Malay through. Some of the Malay words used I was able to translate, as I studied Indonesian in high school, whilst others I worked in in context or checked my old Indonesian-English dictionary. This allowed the culture, religion and language of the author to be represented authentically, but also give readers who are new to Raidah’s language and culture a delightful introduction and understanding of them

It brings together and unites a range of beliefs in Islam and Malaysian culture and society in an accessible way for all readers. I found it educational as well as entertaining, and thoroughly enjoyed exploring Insyirah’s world. It was also the ups and downs, the constant threat of some kind of danger that made the book work well. The stakes were always high, always leading to a new piece of information that would help Insyirah find out more about her family’s connection to jinn and the jinn that has been tied to her family for generations. I loved that she had allies in her friends, Nadia and Kai Xin, and one of her teachers, Sensei Bilqis. Sensei Bilqis has a secret of her own – one that only Insyirah can see. This bond helps Insyirah, as her mother’s unwillingness to help is evident. Though it is clear that there are reasons for this.

All the reasons for why each character is the way they emerge throughout the novel slowly. I enjoyed this as well, as it allows readers to get to know what drives each character, and I felt it gave another layer to the diversity in the novel. In this sense, it showed that people are diverse in personality and interests as well as physical or observable differences. When these came together, it made the novel powerful and evocative, giving every reader something they can relate to.

How to Free a Jinn is a wonderful debut novel that brings a culture that many people may not know much about to life. It teaches us something about this culture and language, and how people relate to it, and what it means to different people. By extension, it gives readers a chance to explore what their own culture and beliefs mean to them, and ask how they might respond to a family secret. It also reflects concerns that children have about friends, school and family effectively and powerfully, giving Insyirah a strong voice to express who she is and how she feels without shame.

This is a multilayered novel about secrets, acceptance, and creating your own path in a world where your destiny seems to have been decided for you.