The Writing

I did read the arc version, so while the format wasn’t that great, I was completely taken with the writing style.

I’ll admit, at first I found the use of Hindi words in the actual dialogue and narrative to be a bit jarring and weird. But then it hit me the reason why. It just felt so real. They were words I understood, words that I’ve used myself, words I’ve heard my mom use a lot at home (how many times has she called my brother a goonda lol). It felt like home. And I hadn’t expected to feel that way.

The writing style is also pretty unique. The book reads like a middle-grade book. Our main character Jai, is nine years old, and unlike a lot of middle-grade books I’ve read, where the main character’s dialogue and inner monologue are written in a way where you would think the character is much older than they actually are, this book doesn’t do that. It captures Jai’s naivety and innocence and confusion so well, that I had to stop in the middle of reading and think “Wow, I’ve never seen a book written this way, but it’s perfect and realistic and how books should be written.”

Considering the writing style, the Hindi phrases and words used made complete sense and really fit with the main character. I laughed out loud so many times, especially the scene where Jai says “Papa, ma is doing drama-baazi again.”

If you’re reading this review and are Indian or Pakistani, or just know Hindi, you will love this book, I promise! The lighter moments are just so heartwarming, and the descriptions of food and chai are mouthwatering, and just the culture and day-to-day aspects of life are things we’ve either experienced or heard stories from our parents and grandparents.

Culture and Religious Commentary

I wanted to talk about this for a bit because it was really well done and it just fits so well with what is currently happening in India right now.

The basti that Jai lives in is predominantly Hindu (though Jai’s friend Faiz, a Muslim, does live there too), but the Bhoot Bazaar and surrounding area have a lot of Muslims. Seeing the tensions between the two escalate as the story unfolds was difficult to read about, but also felt so real and current.

I loved the way Deepa did this. We get to see how stories travel, and how they’re changed and embellished as they’re passed from person to person. How gossip and rumours take what was originally the truth and turn it into something dark and ugly.

We see this done really well when another girl from the nearby area disappears. People start saying that Chandni was a prostitute and worked at a brothel and that she fell in love with some old Muslim man, or that she was working at a brothel because her father was awful and of course she disappeared and was dead because what would you expect from someone like that, and on and on. Her story, her life, was twisted because of people who either didn’t know better or just came up with their own conclusions. When we actually get to read from Chandni’s POV, we realize how different things were. But because of that rumour that was started, many Hindus started blaming Muslims, saying one of them had taken Chandni, and that they must also be behind the other kidnappings. It let to attacks and arrests. Muslims were scared to leave their homes for work and school. Many of the basti parents didn’t want their children interacting with Muslims. There were retaliations and the blame just went around and around. Even when two Muslim children disappeared, it was assumed that whichever Muslim who had kidnapped the others, must have kidnapped one of their own to curb suspicions. Muslims also became wary around the Hindus and at the end of the book we see many Muslim families who lived in Jai’s basti, moving to a Muslim one where they felt safer.

I found the cultural aspects to be especially well done too.

Life is hard for these kids. They live mostly in poverty, with not a lot of food, no running water. Their home life is awful. Many girls stay at home instead of going to school to take care of their younger brothers and sisters. Those who do go don’t have access to quality education. Many kids have to skip class in order to help out their family when times are difficult. A lot of kids work after school or on the weekends. And then you have the abuse that many of these kids face at home, the awareness that life isn’t like this for everyone, and the longing that maybe they could get out of this situation and become something more. We see in these POVs how badly these kids want better lives. Bahadur doesn’t want to have to sleep on the streets when his mom works late because he’s scared of his alcoholic father. Omvir doesn’t want to spend the rest of his life pressing clothes like his father. Chandni wants to learn English and get a better job, and she doesn’t want people to see her only for her beauty. Kabir and Khadifa have their own dreams. And yes, some of these dreams might be childish, like Omvir wanting to become a famous dancer. But they are kids, and you realize by reading their POVs how young and innocent their hopes are, yet they do still hope.

The girls’ POVS really stuck out to me. Chandni getting harassed by men wherever she goes because of how she looks and dresses, the rumours people come up with that she has to endure, the hard work she puts in to better herself. We see Khadifa being scared that if her brother continues acting out and her parents finally notice, she’ll be sent off to her grandparents’ village with her brother and be married off at 14, when all she wants to do is enjoy her childhood and have fun dressing up with her friends. We see another POV where a girl struggles with wanting to pursue her dream, but knowing that no one really supports her and how they’re just waiting for her to finally become like other girls and eventually get married. She hates seeing her body go through changes because she wishes she were a boy and had a lot more freedom. It’s just so sad, but a reality for so many people, especially girls, and it’s not just limited to one religion or culture, it happens to everyone.

Our “Detectiving” Trio

I loved, loved, loved our main trio so much. I definitely got some Harry, Ron and Hermione vibes from them too lol

We have Jai, of course, our main character. His Hindu friend Pari, and his Muslim friend Faiz.

I think my favourite part was their friendship and how they teased each other and helped each other through difficult times. When the other Hindus started blaming Muslims for the kidnappings, Jai and Pari didn’t turn their backs on Faiz, but stuck by his side. Jai even thinks multiple times how it doesn’t make sense that everyone is blaming Muslims for being awful, just like you can’t blame all Hindus if an actual Hindu is kidnapping the children. That moment there made my heart hurt. Children are so innocent and open-minded. They don’t always cling onto prejudices that they see their parents or family or friends preaching. They look at their experiences and judge appropriately.

I absolutely loved Pari. She gave me major Hermione vibes, but less bossy and annoying. She’s so intelligent and sharp, and I adored the moments when Jai was like “That was a good question to ask, why didn’t I come up with that?” or when he goes “Ugh, why is Pari so good and smart, why can’t I be that way?” It made me laugh cause it’s so cute. Pari loves to read and cares so much about school and going further with her education. That’s most of the reason why she reminded me of Hermione, plus her dynamic with the other boys and her constantly fighting with Faiz reminded me of Hermione and Ron fighting all the time. She’s also so friendly and makes friends with everyone, and she’s kind and caring, and tries to do the right thing. She’s all round a loveable character.

The Ending

*THIS MIGHT BE SPOILERY SO BEWARE*

I will say that this book starts off in a lighthearted way. Yes, we see a boy in the basti has disappeared, but as Jai and his friends start looking for clues and “detectiving” (as they call it), there’s this sense of hope I got that eventually they’d find something or someone would be able to solve the mystery and we’d get a relatively happy ending. But as more and more kids disappear, we start to see how Jai and Pari and Faiz aren’t really getting anywhere with this mystery, and it makes sense when you think about it. In reality, you can’t expect a bunch of nine-year-olds to solve something this big and complex. But they’re children and their innocence really shows. The police are useless as we see. The pradhan doesn’t seem to care either, until things get really bad at the end, and even then he’s more self-obsessed than anything. There’s no one to help them, so they take it upon themselves. Jai uses his “knowledge” from watching Police Patrol and other crime shows, Pari uses her intellect, and Faiz joins along on their hunt through the alleys and corners of Bhoot Bazaar.

Seeing how useless the police is really hit me because it’s something I’ve constantly heard from my parents when they talk about Pakistan. Seeing the bribes the parents of the missing kids gave the policemen and nothing come out of it was maddening. No one cared cause these kids are poor, they live in the “slums”, and the upper-class people think they’re a waste of space anyway. So why spend time and money and energy finding them? The police argued that the kids probably ran away as they do and decided to live on the streets but that they’d be back eventually. But months go by and there’s nothing. Everything the police does, all the supposed paperwork etc. takes forever or doesn’t actually occur. It’s frustrating, and this book really showed how messed up the system is.

The last quarter of the book, it really started to hit me where this book was going. The POVs we get of the kidnapped children made me think maybe, maybe, there was hope that they were somewhere safe. The djinn aspect of this book, though not as huge of a role in the story as I was expecting, made me think maybe a friendly djinn was taking care of them. Or that there was an evil djinn and the trio would fight him somehow lol. But in reality these evil djinn are just evil people. When we finally get to see what happened I was shocked and horrified. I was somewhat expecting it, but even after that I still thought that things would be okay, that some of the kids would be found alive and safe. But they aren’t. And that’s the reality. The author states how 180 kids in India disappear everyday due to child-trafficking, slave labour, etc. It’s awful to think about.

The ending was honestly really sad and heartbreaking. We see how certain cycles repeat themselves as Jai’s parents break down in their grief. Even Jai himself feels alone and isolated as his friends move away to a different school and basti. He only has his dog, Samosa, and the voice of his sister following him around. It makes you think and wonder what’ll happen next and if they’ll ever have the answers to their questions, and whether the victims will get the justice they deserve.

One thing that stuck out to me was this quote from Jai:

”I’ll never watch Police Patrol again. When they act out real stories of people getting snatched or killed, it will feel as if someone is trying to strangle me, I just know it. A murder isn’t a story for me anymore; it’s not a mystery either.”

I think this summarizes why I find it so hard to listen to stories of people disappearing and getting killed. Because they are true stories that happened to actual people. The pain that they must have gone through, the nightmares their family must have had during and since, it’s just all so real and it’s hard for me to see what happened as a story, dramatized.

Overall, this book gets 4.5/5 stars from me. Highly, highly recommend. It is a difficult read, but I think it’s quite worth it, and it highlights important issues that are overlooked and we should be aware of.