June 1, 2023

I love stories about pirates. And I love stories about older women. And I love stories that are set on/around the ocean. And I love stories that are feminist. And stories that feature characters of faith. And stories that pull from real world mythology/legend/history. And I love literally every story Shannon Chakraborty has ever published. So, is it really a surprise that I absolutely loved The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi?

Amina al-Sirafi is one the most famous (and dangerous) pirates in the Indian Ocean. She is the nakhudha of the Marawati, descendant of the Sea Leopard, friend of the Mistress of Poisons, liberator of poorly secured treasures, and general badass of the high seas. She is also retired. After a lifetime of sailing and pirating, Amina has settled down far away from friends and enemies alike to raise her daughter Marjana in anonymity. Or, so she thought. When a wealthy mother of her former crew-mate tracks her down to rescue her granddaughter for an absurd amount of money, Amina finds herself leaving retirement and her family for one last adventure. But the farther out to sea she goes, the more this rescue mission is starting to become more than Amina bargained for. Friends, enemies, the past, the present, this realm, and the magical world collide as Amina faces down the biggest adventure, and highest risk, of her career.

There is so much I love about this book that it is actually hard to narrow it down for the purposes of this review. The characters, the world, the voice, the plot–all of it was sticking the landing. But I think what really sealed the deal for me was quite simple Amina herself.

Amina al-Sirafi is the character I have been looking for in stories all my life. She is a woman, a leader, a mother, a middle-aged retiree. She has a bad knee and a foul mouth. She struggles with her faith, but is faithful to it. She has selfish desires and selfless actions. She loves and is loved. She hates and is hated. She is a multifaceted, complicated person. She is who women everywhere are, but we are so seldom represented as such. We are the mother or the adventurer. The virtuous or the villain. But Amina isn’t either/or, she is both/and. This is the story of a person, a human being with a complicated past trying to navigate an even more complicated present. And there is no bias. She is not praised for her devotion to her daughter any more or less than she is for her career as a pirate. When I was reading, I didn’t feel it was out of character for Amina to stab someone in one moment and selflessly risk her own life for another the next. This sounds a little too good to be true. How can one character embody so much? But the complexity of Amina is grounded in her struggles with, well, everything. We get an intimate look inside her head from the point of view and the voice, and we see her grief at leaving Marjana behind, her uncertainty when making decisions that could risk her crew, her desire to gain fame, and her fear of the future. Deeply multifaceted characters need to be balanced with multifaceted flaws and struggles. Chakraborty finds this balance and uses it to create one of the most human characters I have ever read.

I think my absolute favorite part of Amina was her faith. This should come as no surprise. I spoke at length about my desire to see more religions/faith practices represented in fiction (real faiths or imagined) with my friend and editor Corrine. Actually, in this novel, we see characters of many different faith backgrounds and practices and levels of devotion. I really enjoyed that. No one person’s faith was touted as better/worse than any other, and there was no tension in the plot based on religion. Instead, that tension was left to the characters and their personal relationship to their faith. Being from Amina’s point of view, we see her struggles to adhere to the tenets of her faith and how those conflict and align with her own desires. She is constantly praying and invoking the name, will, and protection of her god. She makes decisions based on her beliefs and feels conflicted when she does things against her beliefs. And as more magical and supernatural elements come into play, we see as she navigates those from a spiritual perspective. As someone who is religious and has a faith that impacts every aspect of my life, I really enjoyed seeing this reality play out in my favorite genre of fiction. It’s another layer to Amina that makes her all the more realistic and relatable, and it adds flavor to the stakes, plot, and character relationships. 

I really, truly loved this book. There were very few “issues” that I had with it, mostly nitpicks and personal preferences that have no bearing on the overall enjoyment of the novel. I know I spent the entire review raving about Amina, but all the characters are worthy of their own analysis. I want to hang out with Tinbu, learn more about Dalila, listen to one of Majed’s lectures, and raid Dunya’s library. And that one character who I will not name for spoiler reasons…I see you, and I cannot wait to find out how you and everything you bring with you fits into/changes this story. Major characters, minor characters, it doesn’t matter. Everyone is dynamic and engaging and I want more of them. I cannot wait for the sequel. The plot of book one lent itself very nicely to setting up a series. I already can tell what is coming next, but there is enough mystery and conflict still open to give the next installment new life in this world and with these characters. I have a feeling, a hope, that what we see here in this book is just the tip of the iceberg for the adventures of Amina al-Sirafi. 

Learn more about Shannon Chakraborty HERE