For quite a few years now, I have been avoiding reading things that cover truly difficult material. The world is hard and weird, and I have preferred to read “lighter” stories as a way to escape, to feel the joys with out the lows. This self-preservationist approach to choosing reading material has led me further down the road of comfy, cozy reads which are lovely, but there are never real stakes. I think I have begun to notice that choosing books which do not have any real stakes also means that the joys feel less triumphant. Like, of course there’s a happily ever after – there was never a real option for there not to be. All that to say, while I wouldn’t categorize this book as “difficult material,” The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi walks the line of being a fun adventure while imbuing stakes that lead to a satisfying ending.
When we meet her, Amina al-Sirafi is a retired pirate captain living in the outskirts of a small village with her family. We don’t immediately know what led to her retirement besides the birth of her daughter, now 10-ish. Shortly into the story, she has been tracked down by a very fancy, very cantankerous old widow who seeks to hire her to recover her granddaughter. With a bit of bullying and an eye-wateringly, life-changingly large reward, she lures Amina out of retirement. The first half of the book is mostly Amina getting the band back together. She tracks down her old trusted crew and her boat, and in turn she lures them out of retirement (mostly) with a cut of the reward. Once the crew is all back on board, the real adventure begins.
There was so much to love about this story.
I’m a sucker for a story about a crew. Give me a brash, fiercely loyal captain, a scraggly bunch of weirdos, and a job to do, and I’m hooked. The captain and crew do not disappoint. The characters are unique, delightful, and their chemistry with each other is a treasure. Through conversations about their past and their interactions throughout the book, it’s easy to see that although they’re all very different, deeply flawed people with different priorities that leads to a sprinkle of conflict between them – that they would sail to hell and back for each other. It’s also fun that it is by far not this crew’s first rodeo, that they have undoubtedly done a lot of stupid shit in their younger years, and that these older, wiser versions of themselves are still not above adventure. It’s not hard to see why Amina spent the effort to track them all down before undertaking the main job.
I didn’t feel like I knew what was going to happen next or how things would get wrapped up. I mean this quite positively. I think because I’ve been reading more “cozy” type fiction, some stories end up being more predictable. This book didn’t feel predictable to me, but it did feel satisfying. Characters’ choices have weight, the danger feels real (enough), and the breadcrumbs that the author drops throughout the narrative pay off. The escalation from a suggestion of the supernatural to undeniably weird and definitely supernatural is handled quite deftly. I won’t say too much because I don’t want to spoil anything. But, I loved the way that the weirder more magical elements not only helped to solve the existing problems, but set the stage (and create stakes) for future stories. To me, it didn’t feel like a get-out-of-jail-free card, but more like a deal with a devil.
All in all, a great read. I’m excited that I didn’t find it earlier so that I only have to wait a few months for the sequel!
