Words That Bind

Burns - not Mr., just Burns - is a djinn, and an old one. He has been searching for his talisman, the object that binds him to servitude, for thousands of years. And this time he knows who has it. Tamarinda is a social worker, but a seriously broken one. She can’t feel anything emotional, so she helps those whose emotions are out of control in order  to try to find her own answers. Together they’ll discover her cure and his freedom.

This is such an unusual telling of the djinn, wrapping Biblical settings, human guardians, magic, other worlds and the choice of being evil or good, permanently, that the reader’s mind will be excitedly running from one mythology to the next trying to pull in all the juiciness that each brings to this new world of magic. The biggest issue will be that Burns pouts and sulks when he doesn’t get what he wants, quite a lot for such an aged djinn. And though it’s meant to offset Tam’s inability to feel, there’s a tendency to play it up a bit too much, and there’s an occasional slip of “feeling” written into a woman who cannot. This full-on mystical tale is extremely sensual without using any kind of specifically graphic words - an incredibly rare ability, written to perfection. The interplay between an emotionless female and a fully emotional male is woven so believably into a whole new mythology, that readers will be begging the author to continue writing in this rich, new world.

Julie York