How to Free a Jinn

How to Free a Jinn by Raidah Shah Idil (Allen & Unwin) PB RRP $17.99 ISBN: 9781761181092

Reviewed by Kellie Nissen

Sometimes it only takes the title and cover artwork to hook you – and How to Free a Jinn (by debut author Raidah Shah Idil) with its glorious multi-layered cover (illustrated by Kalp Sanghvi) did just that.

First question … what is a jinn? Second one … can I guess from the artwork?

To answer the second question first: No, I couldn’t. (Turns out there were many there, clear as day.)

And the first question? The answer would require more space than we have here, but to put it simply, jinn are supernatural beings that inhabit a world parallel to humans; they can be good or evil and are able to be seen by some people – including our protagonist Insyirah and her grandmother, Nenek.

The story starts in Sydney, where Insyirah and her mother have been living since Insyirah was a baby. However, the setting quickly moves to Malaysia, where mother and daughter have returned to live with and care for Nenek following the fiercely independent grandmother’s health scares.

As a teenager, Insyirah is reluctant to move away from the only home she’s known and back to a country that is all but foreign to her. To her surprise, she almost immediately feels at home and even makes friends on her first day at school. Plus, she is intrigued by the school’s reputation for being haunted and is immediately drawn back into the stories of jinn and other supernatural occurrences told by her grandmother.

Yet, the happenings soon reveal themselves as much more than mere bedtime stories aimed to make children behave – because Insyirah can not only see jinn but can communicate with them and fall into their unseen world.

Author Raidah Shah Idil has taken centuries-old mythology and Islamic beliefs and crafted them into a contemporary story that not only explores these beliefs – making them accessible to the rest of us – but is also fiercely character-driven as we see both Insyirah and her ancestral jinn, Bumi, become stronger and more self-assured.

In her storytelling, Raidah Shah Idil has managed to educate readers on Malay culture, inviting us in to see, hear and even taste a little of day-to-day life that is often driven by ancient beliefs. At the same time, she’s given us some compelling characters – strong women – and a rising and falling emotional ride of joy, sorrow, love, and abject fear.

Readers aged 10–13 years and beyond will be in for a suspense-filled yet heartwarming treat when they pick up How to Free a Jinn.