The author’s writing style is vivid, emphatic, and full of cultural significance. It creates the perfect atmosphere of adventure and magic, drawing you further into the story and its many layers. Something I did really like was the idea of a boat being controlled by a magic tree cause its roots are weaves with the timber of the boat that’s pretty cool. For this to make sense the world building was masterfully done. The magic system and world-building are explained gradually. I was really excited to see how the various characters in the book would wield their powers in the fight against the colonial rulers.

City of Stolen Magic (KS2/3) - Penguin Books UK City of Stolen Magic (KS2/3) - Penguin Books UK

The book has a captivating premise, with a well-crafted magic system and a rich setting. Among the many characters, my personal favorites were Tipu and Laurie. Their duo was the best thing in the book. The concepts of djinn-borns and djinn speakers, finger magic, and written charms were fascinating. The author beautifully portrayed the friendships between the characters and the mother-daughter relationship. It effectively reflects the cruelty and exploitation of colonialism through the lens of magic. In general, the characters were well drawn, from Chompa (determined, feisty, undaunted) to Tipu and Laurie (Djinn speakers she meets on the way to England) to Leeza, Mohsin’s servant, to Millie, the English maid whose weakness is her sweet tooth. Although I guessed the plot twist, it is still a good one.Chompa was a wonderful female heroine. She was brave and smart but also very caring and put the needs of others before her own. 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. As an English reader I thought Nazneen Ahmed Pathak did a brilliant job of exploring some uncomfortable truths. The book touches on the devastation caused by the British colonialism in India, and certainly doesn't shy away from showing the damage it caused, without being too upsetting for younger readers to read about. I can’t quite put my finger on what was wrong with this book, but I was just bored by it. It took me two full weeks to finish, which is incredibly unusual for me for a middle grade novel of this length, and I considered DNFing it multiple times, despite knowing I was reading it for review. The story just dragged, and I found Chompa herself really irritating. 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

City of Stolen Magic by Nazneen Ahmed Pathak | Goodreads City of Stolen Magic by Nazneen Ahmed Pathak | Goodreads

Hair was what princesses worried about, but in real life, it got in your eyes and mouth… Chompa threw the scarf aside. She was never going to be a princess. And she didn’t want to be one, either. She was something far more powerful. She was a witch.”

I LOVE a good middle grade but because the story is told by Chompa's POV as a VERY young girl, it feels almost a bit... Too young... For me 🌸 I also really enjoyed the way magic was handled in this, the pull for Chompa between Ammi's traditional writing magic and her seemingly more powerful "finger magic" was compelling and helped add to Chompa's character arc. City of Stolen Magic manages to be both an exciting romp through colonial India and Victorian Britain and a sobering expose of Empire, shot through with a delightfully original concept and some fast paced, twisting plotting and story telling. Chompa lives with her beloved mother in a small village in India, bored by her mother's insistence on slow, subtle charms rather than allwoing Chompa to explore her much more exciting and powerful finger magic, but when Chompa takes matters into her own hands, the results are catastrophic resulting in her mother's capture by terrifyingly pale men - Chompa's first encounter with the British.