I struggled to get into this book - visually the descriptions were very beautiful but I didn't feel that there was much momentum in getting to know the characters themselves or developing a narrative hook. Part of this was to do with the characters being stifled into inertia by the house and not having momentum in their own lives but I needed a bit more direction for the book.

I liked that the book gave new insight into the different communities (and history) within Durban and I would recommend the title to people who like a smaller paced read.

Plenty to love in this novel: grief, well rounded characters, lyrical style or writing and excellent storytelling.
It was like reading a One Thousand Nights story rewritten and updated to XXI century.
Loved it
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Book Review: The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years by Shubnum Khan

Rating: ★★★★☆

Shubnum Khan's "The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years" takes readers on a mesmerizing journey through the crumbling halls of Akbar Manzil, a once-grand estate that now stands as a refuge for those seeking solace from their pasts. Set in South Africa, the novel weaves together two timelines - one in 1932 following the Khan family's struggles, and another in 2014 where Sana Malek unravels the mysteries hidden within the mansion's walls.

Sana's curiosity and tenacity lead her to explore the forgotten East Wing of Akbar Manzil, unearthing the tragic tale of Meena, the original owner's second wife who met a mysterious end a century ago. As Sana delves deeper into the mansion's dark history, she unknowingly awakens a grieving djinn who has lingered since Meena's demise, setting off a chain of events that will impact the lives of both the living and the dead.

Khan's writing is both enchanting and evocative, immersing readers in the eerie atmosphere of Akbar Manzil alongside its eclectic cast of characters. The dual timeline narrative adds depth to the story, allowing for a rich exploration of family dynamics, love, loss, and the enduring power of secrets.

One of the standout features of the book is its captivating cover art, which perfectly captures the haunting allure of the story within. Khan's ability to blend history, mystery, and supernatural elements seamlessly makes "The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years" a compelling and unforgettable read.

Overall, I found "The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years" to be a riveting tale that kept me engaged from start to finish. With its well-developed characters and intricate plot twists, this novel is sure to enchant readers who enjoy a blend of historical fiction, mystique, and poignant storytelling. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a thought-provoking and immersive read that lingers long after the final page is turned.

⚠️This review was written based on personal opinions and experiences with the book. Individual preferences may vary⚠️

This haunting and atmospheric tale of love, loss and grief takes all the best characteristics of a sweeping Gothic novel and mixes them with vibrant magical realism. The story revolves around the dilapidated Akbar Manzil, a once grand estate on the East coast of South Africa. When Sana and her father move into one of the apartments in Akbar Manzil, the house's dark past seems like it might destroy them. Sana comes with plenty of her owns ghosts having tragically lost her twin sister and their mother, but as she sets out to uncover the secrets of the abandoned parts of the house and its past residents, she discovers that she's being watched by someone - or something - else. The Djinn is the houses oldest resident and was witness to its tragic past. It lurks in the house lost in its own melancholy and grief, unable to be reconciled until Sana comes along.
This novel is a slow burn... (you'll understand how relevant that is once you rad it). I love a slow burn and I love a multi-generational story full of trauma and tragedy. I'm still fun at parties though. I wasn't surprised to disagree with some of the reviews I've read where people have criticized the pacing. I think it was perfect, and the climactic moments had me covering up the next page so I didn't spoil it for myself.. The cast of characters add humour and intrigue with everyone having a key role in the story as it unfurls.
Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin for the digital ARC for review.

I loved the premise of The Djinn Waits A Hundred Years, Shubnum Khan's second novel. Set in South Africa, it tells the story of a teenage Muslim girl who moves into a dilapidated estate occupied by a djinn. Once a grand residence, Akbar Manzil is now haunted; despite being split into flats, it still holds dark corners that seem to shift and transform: 'In their apartment Sana feels squashed... Walls present themselves to her suddenly and thrust her into the bedroom or toss her into the kitchen, or sometimes she finds herself being pushed and pushed until she is out of the apartment completely and standing in the original house.' It soon becomes clear that the estate is troubled by a darkness in its past, but it's not until nearly halfway through the novel that we learn anything substantial about this earlier timeline. Until then, we're stuck with an annoying cast of quirky neighbours interspersed with all too few moments of genuine spookiness, and no plot at all.

I found Khan's writing uneven. It can be evocative, especially when she's writing about the house or the djinn: 'As her eyes adjust between the light and dark, she sees the walls are lined with bookshelves. The mosaicked floor is covered in debris; broken glass and damaged books sit in pools of blackened water... The sky lights up again, the storm moves closer.' However, it can also be twee, reminding me of books that lean too hard on their 'magical storytelling' credentials like Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale or Erin Morgenstern's The Starless Sea: 'The old kitchen is busy after a long time... the new smells climb excitedly into the eaves. The older smells, annoyed, move higher up, away from the jostling young scents... Now the fish smells and the custard smells look down drowsily from the rafters and observe the scene below.' This is not helped by Sana's ghostly twin sister, surely one of the most overused tropes in this kind of fiction.

When a plot finally emerges in the earlier timeline, the book becomes more readable, but no better. It suffers from one of the big problems that makes me avoid a lot of multi-generational historical fiction: basically, the characters are ciphers defined by their role in the family. In this one, it comes with a nasty twist of misogyny (bad mother-in-law; evil first wife, saintly second wife; female child evil-from-birth; male child weak and misled by his sister; good husband weirdly not held responsible for all this). In short, this has been mis-sold as speculative fiction when it's really straightforward histfic. 2.5 stars.

Wonderful

Whimisical

Magical prose

Really liked this one. Very special and very emotional. There is nothing else I want to say as you have to go into this without knowing anything really and just soak it in.

In the city of Durban, South Africa, on top of a cliff sits Akbar Manzil, a mansion with a haunted past. Years ago a woman named Meena called Akbar Manzil home, back when it was the grandest house on the eastern coast and she fell in love with the owner. Eight decades later, teenager Sana follows in Meena’s footsteps, arriving to Akbar Manzil, which is now a ruined and isolated place home to all kinds of misfits. As Sana’s curiosity grows about the history of the house, she uncovers Meena’s story and in the process stirs the djinn from its long sleep.

This was certainly a fun and engaging novel which told such a beautiful story of a multi-generational saga. Both Sana and Meena are brilliant characters and the way their stories are intertwined is excellent. However, I feel like the blurb/title is a little misleading, because the djinn (mythical demon/spirit) is not really a central character, and if you took it out, I’m not sure the story would have been any different.
The writing is very lyrical and poetic and really adds to the magic and whimsical-ness of the story, but at times it took away from what was going on. Also it got confusing at times because the timelines are split and so there’s two sets of characters and narratives which aren’t properly indicated/signposted.

It took me quite a while to read this one and I had really high hopes, but I was a little disappointed by it. It was an ok read with a nice story but it didn’t particularly wow me. If you like historical fiction then you might enjoy this but otherwise I’m not so sure this would be to everyone’s taste.

𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗗𝗝𝗜𝗡𝗡 𝗪𝗔𝗜𝗧𝗦 𝗔 𝗛𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗥𝗘𝗗 𝗬𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗦 | 𝟰.𝟮𝟱🌟
—𝘀𝗵𝘂𝗯𝗻𝘂𝗺 𝗸𝗵𝗮𝗻

“𝘍𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘢 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭 𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘯 𝘴𝘩𝘦’𝘴 𝘵𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘴 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘷𝘦. 𝘐𝘵’𝘴 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦: 𝘪𝘯 𝘱𝘰𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘺, 𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘤, 𝘪𝘯 𝘧𝘪𝘭𝘮𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴. 𝘚𝘩𝘦’𝘴 𝘵𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦. 𝘚𝘩𝘦’𝘴 𝘵𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦.” 𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘷𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦. “𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘯𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘯𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵, 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘦𝘳. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘴𝘢𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘴𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘺 𝘩𝘦𝘳. 𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘱, 𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘐𝘵 𝘭𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘥𝘪𝘨𝘴 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘯𝘺 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘵, 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘴 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘺, 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦.”

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲:
✨Historical fiction
✨Echoes of Rebecca
✨Dual timeline
✨Set in 1930/2014 South Africa
✨Featuring glorious Indian characters
✨Devastatingly beautiful writing

𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗦𝘆𝗻𝗼𝗽𝘀𝗶𝘀:
Sana and her father are the latest tenants of Akbar Manzil after the passing of Sana’s mother. It’s a strange mansion, with stirrings in the night, an abandoned wing, and the bones in the garden. Even stranger is the Djinn who watches from the shadows, who has been stuck in Akbar Manzil since the original owners.

𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀:
This book manages to capture so many wonderful qualities that makes this read a 𝗰𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 and 𝗺𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱 story. This book is 𝗮 𝗵𝗮𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗮 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆, and 𝗮 𝗺𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘆 with elements of 𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗸 𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗺 in the form of a Djinn and a 𝗱𝗲𝗲𝗽𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗹 from the character of Sana. I will not forget this book for a long time.

The writing is 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗹𝘆 𝗯𝗲𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘂𝗹 and full of such 𝗳𝗶𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 it’s hard to look away. The slow burn of the plot evolves into something that stretches beyond my imagination. However, this book didn’t take long to read at all.

I loved the setting of Akbar Manzil. I found that the house has a really strong presence in the story that reminds me of The Haunting of Hill House. Alongside echoes of Rebecca, this story really does have a 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗰𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝘃𝗶𝗯𝗲 to it. I would definitely consider this book as a 𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀.

𝗞𝗮𝘆𝗹𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗵 | 𝗪𝗲𝗹𝘀𝗵 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗙𝗮𝗶𝗿𝘆

The book tells the story of Sana, a 15yo young woman who, together with her father, moved into an old (and somewhat decrepit) mansion in the hills of Durban, South Africa, currently serving as a converted multi tenancy. Sana's pursuit to understand the world around her, love, and her loved ones, takes the reader on a journey of discovery, throughout which, we learn more about the mansion and its original inhabitants (and the tragedy that shook them), as well as those who inhabit it together with Sana.

On the positive side, the book had a few solid ideas and concepts, and there were interesting enough to make me want to finish it (despite struggling). The most interesting of those was perhaps the way the author brought the actual house to life (albeit in a way that pales to nigh non-existence in comparison to Gormenghast). The psychological struggles many of the protagonists are also intriguing, especially those of Sana,

That being said, I really disliked the book and the experience of reading it. In many ways, what bothered me most was that it felt like a meal that could have been made up of a few high quality ingredients but ended up having 5x the number, obfuscating the flavours and the quality of the experience overall. There were too many loose threads. Like an impatient author trying to stuff too many concepts into the novel without paying enough attention to any of them. I don't understand what role Sana's sibling played. The djinn was a completely useless (but really completely) waste of words - the book would have done well without him, and literally nothing would have looked different. The details about the lives of the other residents of the house did not seem to serve any purpose. Finally, the setting (South Africa) and the protagonists (South East Asian heritage) were a promising premise, but were really unreservedly ignore. The story could have easily been set in Uruguay with a Portuguese family.

I particularly hated (and yes - I use this word consciously) the ghost aspect of the story. We didn't need it. It was completely irrelevant and felt like it was some sort of weird fan service to lovers of the gothic genre (a la Silvia Moreno Garcia).

I cannot recommend it to anyone. I'm still shocked I was able to finish it.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an early copy of the book in return for an honest review.

Teenager Sana and her father, Bilal, arrive at Akbar Manzil seeking a new beginning after a family tragedy. However when her sister's ghost warns her of a lurking djinn, Sana sets off to uncover the history of their new home.

The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years is a truly beautiful and moving read. There’s elements of a ghost story, a love story, and a mystery, all set in a haunted house - what’s not to love!

I liked this multi-generational saga with an engaging storyline and interesting characters with good back stories. The dual timeline presented the story in a compelling manner. Supernatural elements, magic and whimsy go hand in hand with various emotions and struggles. I would have wanted to know more about the djinn.

Thank you to Netgalley and Oneworld Publications for the e-arc in exchange for an honest opinion.

Shubnum Khan has written a beautiful, moving and colourfully rich novel.

This is the tale of an old decrepit and once abandoned mansion- Akbar Manzil- and its residents past and present. When widowed Bilal and his teenage daughter, Dana, arrive to live in one of the building's apartments, life begins to change for everyone. Observed from the darker recesses of the house is a djinn who observes the residents but also carries its own regrets and demons. Sana's curiosity about the house and those who live there lead her on a journey to uncover the past and the world of those who lived there nearly a century before- a family from India from which a tail of tragedy and disaster was borne and the hose which kept its secret locked within.

This is a story that will sweep you away into another time and pull you into the lives of those who live there past and present. Each of the current inhabitants has been drawn to Akbar Manzil with their own story of tragedy, grief and inner turmoil but this eclectic mix bring the plot alive with a vibrancy and humour.
Sana strives to learns more of the house's earlier occupants whilst confronting the ghost of her own dead sister and in doing so the terrible truth is revealed to her.

The sense of magical realism link to writings of Isabelle Allende /Arundhati Roy/Megha Rao whilst the gothic undertones certainly feel add the dark foreboding tension.

This is a wonderful debut novel by Shubnum Khan; the creation of the communities - new and old in Akbar Manzil are beautifully formed and rich in character and the impending disaster of the past is palpable whilst being incredibly touching and poignant .

Highly recommended

I loved this book. I couldn’t put it down. Beautifully written story of a house haunted by a djinn tormented by a couples tragic love. A lonely girl haunted by her dead twin because she lived an the sister died. Lonely disappointed people who find themselves living in the same house as it crumbles under the weight of sorrow.

Full to the brim with colourful characters, most of whom seem to have baggage.
The house is the perfect setting, ranging from tall and proud, to old and crumbling.
I felt the first part was slower, but enjoyed the interactions between characters.
The second half felt more tension, as the whole story emerged.
An enjoyable read.