Ready for another celebration? I know I am! Today's read is hitting the shelves tomorrow and kicks off a new series, which combines fantasy and a future...ummm, maybe alternate world. I'm not sure on that front, yet. It promises to be an exciting read with all sorts of adventure. Honestly, I'm not really sure what to expect and am heading into this one with a pretty open mind.
So, let's just dive right in and see what it's about!
THE GENIE GAME
The Genie Game #1
by Jordan Ifueko
Amulet Books
Middle Grade Fantasy
368 pages
ages 8 to 12
Harriet the Spy meets Black Mirror in The Genie Game, the start of a thrilling new middle-grade series from Jordan Ifueko, author of the New York Times bestselling fantasy Raybearer
Valentine Adesanya has two missions: 1) become a Feared and Fabulous Film Director and 2) find her missing big sister, Mango. She suspects The Trio Trust, a collection of creepy mega-companies that now rule the United States, made Mango disappear.
A text lures Valentine to a magical boba shop, which comes to life and tells Valentine she is now a a member of the General Employee Network of Immortal Engineers, an underground workforce run by the Trio Trust. Genies may only leave their bottles to grant the wishes of mortals. With each granted wish, The Trio Trust gains more magic, and so the Trio hosts a glamorous wish-granting competition, rewarding top players with fabulous prizes. The twist?
The greedy Trio forbids genies from using magic. Genies must grant wishes using nothing but smarts, luck, and elbow grease.
To free her sister Mango and escape the Genie Game, Valentine must score more wish-granting points than any other Genie. But how did the Trio Trust get so powerful in the first place? Why is a magical monster stomping through her home city of Gloss Angeles?
And why does the Trio Trust seem so afraid of 13-year-old Valentine Adesanya?
Valentine Adesanya has two missions: 1) become a Feared and Fabulous Film Director and 2) find her missing big sister, Mango. She suspects The Trio Trust, a collection of creepy mega-companies that now rule the United States, made Mango disappear.
A text lures Valentine to a magical boba shop, which comes to life and tells Valentine she is now a a member of the General Employee Network of Immortal Engineers, an underground workforce run by the Trio Trust. Genies may only leave their bottles to grant the wishes of mortals. With each granted wish, The Trio Trust gains more magic, and so the Trio hosts a glamorous wish-granting competition, rewarding top players with fabulous prizes. The twist?
The greedy Trio forbids genies from using magic. Genies must grant wishes using nothing but smarts, luck, and elbow grease.
To free her sister Mango and escape the Genie Game, Valentine must score more wish-granting points than any other Genie. But how did the Trio Trust get so powerful in the first place? Why is a magical monster stomping through her home city of Gloss Angeles?
And why does the Trio Trust seem so afraid of 13-year-old Valentine Adesanya?
MY TIDBITS
Imagination soars in this original twist on genies, which mixes quirky moments, heart, and tons of surprises together to form an engaging read.
Valentine misses her older sister horribly. She disappeared about a year before, and for some reason, Valentine feels like she's forgetting that she even existed...kind of like her parents act like they already have. When Valentine suddenly receives an odd message from her older sister telling her to meet her at a boba shop, Valentine knows something about it feels wrong but would do anything to find her sister again. Of course, she walks right into a trap. She's now temporarily immortal and stuck in something called the Genie Game with the shop as her eternal bottle. The only way to return to the real world is to grant mortals a certain number of wishes. Soon, she discovers that the three corporations, which run the world, are heading the game and use the energy gained from each wish fulfillment to fuel their products in normal life. There are many other genies, each with their own type of shop (bottle) and all competing to grant wishes and climb the point board. Many have been there for a very long time, thrilled to have the chance to be immortal and use their wish account to grant themselves lives of luxury rather than buy their way back to reality. But Valentine isn't easily fooled and immediately suspects that something more sinister hides behind the three corporations and their wish magic. Worse yet, she fears that her sister is being held captive because of it.
This is one of the more original books I've picked up in quite a while. It takes the idea of genies on an entirely fresh, unexpected spin. Although set in a type of alternate, future reality, where three companies run everything and skies are greenish with rain like goo, and the world carries just enough familiarity to almost come across as normal in the first chapters. Valentine is a very normal 13-year-old with big dreams and an average family, which wishes she'd graduate college and have a very successful carrier. This makes the oddities of the snuggle against life as we know it. When Valentine enters the boba shop, the fun begins and takes on a whimsical atmosphere while the dark side grows with each chapter. This mix of fantastical fun next to evil schemes creates a gripping read for the age group. There's adventure, mystery, action-filled moments, friendship, questions of trust, and so much more to keep this tale speeding along. Everything melds together nicely, making it entertaining until the end. The characters also pack quirks and personality to make it fun to like or hate each one.
It's a fun read with lots to explore, characters to root for, and even food for thought.
And here he is...
Jordan Ifueko is the Nebula Finalist and New York Times bestselling author of the Raybearer series and other stories, including short fiction in the Hugo-nominated magazine Strange Horizons. She’s been featured on NPR Best Books, NPR Pop Culture Hour, ALA Top Ten, Buzzfeed, and other publications. She writes about magic Black girls who aren’t magic all the time, because honestly, they deserve a vacation. Ifueko lives in Los Angeles with her husband, David, and their three-legged trustafarian dog, Reginald Ovahcomah.
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