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The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years
The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years: A Novel | Shubnum Khan
13 posts | 10 read | 7 to read
Rebecca meets Fatima Farheen Mirza in this sweeping, gorgeously atmospheric novel about a ruined mansion by the sea, the djinn that haunts it, and a curious girl who unearths the tragedy that happened there a hundred years previous Akbar Manzil was once a grand estate off the coast of South Africa. Now, nearly a century since it was built, it stands in ruins: an isolated boardinghouse for misfits, seeking to forget their pasts and disappear into the mansions dark corridors. Until Sana. She and her father are the latest of Akbar Manzils long list of tenants, seeking a new home after suffering painful loss. Unlike the others, who choose not to look too closely at the mansions unsettling qualitiesthe strange assortment of bones in the overgrown garden, the mysterious figure seen to move sometimes at nightshe is curious and questioning and finds herself irresistibly drawn to the history of the mansion. To the eerie and forgotten East Wing, home to a clutter of broken and abandoned objectsand to the locked door at its end, unopened for decades. Behind the door is a bedroom frozen in time, with faded photographs of a couple in love and a worn diary that whispers of a dark past: the long-forgotten story of a young woman named Meena, the original owners second wife, who died there tragically a hundred years ago. Watching Sana from the rooms shadows is a grieving djinn, an invisible spirit who once loved Meena and has haunted the mansion since her mysterious death. Obsessed with Meenas story, and unaware of the creature that follows her, Sana digs into the past like fingers into a wound, awakening the memories of the house itselfand dredging up old and terrible secrets that will change the lives of everyone living and dead at Akbar Manzil. Sublime, heart-wrenching, and lyrically stunning, The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years is a haunting, a love story, and a mystery, all twined beautifully into one young girls search for belonging.
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KateReadsYA
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#camplitsy24 My votes are in! I can't wait to see what books get chosen.
Thank you for hosting. @squirrelbrain @BarbaraBB @Megabooks

BarbaraBB Thanks for voting! I can‘t wait for the results either! 6d
squirrelbrain It‘s so exciting seeing the votes as they come in! 6d
52 likes2 comments
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RebL
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Described by PW as “neo-gothic fiction,“ which explains a lot. I feel like the djinn. I am the metaphor.

13 likes1 stack add
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vlwelser
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Pickpick

This was very good. It's really historical fiction with dual timelines that also happens to have a djinn and some ghosts. I thought it was really well executed.

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!!! 2mo
41 likes1 comment
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BookwormAHN
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Pickpick

Sana and her father move in to this old mansion turned into apartments. There, she meets a number of entertaining tenants and discovers the sad story of the original owners 🧞‍♂️
#Aardvark

43 likes1 stack add
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reading.rainb0w
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"Surely, love was not a thing that always left?"

Oh, to be young, naive, and 15 again. (Or maybe I'm just jaded).?
Part 2 - Chapter 3 of this book...
SLAPPED and ATTACKED.

So far, a good one. ~40% in.

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MizzGraham
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Checking in! Haha! #OldestChild

monalyisha 👯 2mo
10 likes1 stack add1 comment
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AardvarkBookClub

“Her voice sounded like the stars. Like a language it knew from another world and another time. It spread through the sky like scattered glass. She sang of her village far away in another land. Of her longing for home. The djinn watched the words linger in the air. She is different, thought the djinn. She is a different human.”

- The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years

#aardvarkbookclub #historicalfiction #fantasy

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PirateJenny
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Pickpick

This will be one of my top books for 2024. Beautifully written and an intriguing plot and I couldn't put it down. It's the story of a house with a history and a young girl who discovers that history. A Gothic atmosphere pervades the story.

11 likes1 stack add
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mdemanatee
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Mehso-so

A slow, quiet novel about home and grief that, admittedly, sometimes stumbled for me. The djinn is more metaphor here than active participant in the story and a lot of the narrative lives in metaphor. https://youtu.be/-6vG7_-GOpE

Chrissyreadit i just heard about this on Strong Sence of Place podcast. 4mo
mdemanatee @Chrissyreadit I‘ll have to check it out to hear their thoughts! 4mo
13 likes2 comments
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TorieStorieS
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Pickpick

Despite the slow, slow start to this novel, I kept with it and am genuinely glad that I did! While some of the narratives get garbled with perspective at times, this surprisingly epic story does genuinely reel in the reader. Sana moves to Durban with her widower father, haunted by her own past, to a crumbling manor haunted by its own past. Parts play out predictably, but there are some surprises too- though Sana feels younger than she should…

CoffeeNBooks 💚 🐶 4mo
Crazeedi Awwww, sweet puppy 🐶 4mo
TheSpineView ❤️🐾❤️ 4mo
TorieStorieS @CoffeeNBooks @Crazeedi @TheSpineView 🥰😊🥰 Have to start his book modeling career early! 4mo
68 likes1 stack add4 comments
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AardvarkBookClub
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Pickpick

“Haunting and healing, The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years, with its shades of The House of Spirits and Rebecca, is one of the best books I‘ve read this year…Khan‘s gorgeous writing lays bare what it means to love, grieve, haunt and, ultimately, let go.”
– Sarah Addison Allen, New York Times bestselling author of Other Birds and Garden Spells

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TracyReadsBooks
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Pickpick

After a slow start, the story finds its footing & keeps you turning pages as you work your way to the inevitable end. Set on a formerly grand estate in South Africa, it‘s the story of a young girl named Sana who, as curious young people often do, discovers the house has secrets including the truth about the mysterious death of the former owner‘s second wife. Entertaining read with a cast of eccentric characters & a great setting. On sale 1/9/24.

36 likes2 stack adds
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TracyReadsBooks
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Pulled another ARC from the pile for my next read. This one is set to be released 1/9/24.