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"In this intricately layered debut fantasy, a nonbinary refugee practitioner of blood magic discovers a strange disease causing political rifts in their new homeland. Persian-American author Naseem Jamnia has crafted a gripping narrative with a moving, nuanced exploration of immigration, gender, healing, and family."
Right to the point: I loved this book, and it was everything I had hoped for and more. More to the point, you've never read anything like it.
This Persian-inspired queernormative medical mystery/fantasy novella skillfully takes inspiration from the author's own background and experience to create an enthralling and extremely relevant work of fantastical world-building and poignant character-building that is at once an escape and a consideration of the world around us. Rather than create a fantasy utopia or build a world with fabricated social discord, Jamnia's work mulls over the complicated emotions surrounding real issues of immigration and prejudice in a way that does not detract from but rather adds to the narrative as a whole.
It also means that, while the plot itself is resolved, many of the issues and emotions are not. And, for me at least, this was great! This is not the type of work to tie everything together neatly with a bow at its conclusion, and in fact, I would have felt it unfaithful to its intentions if it had. Still, don't go into this expecting to receive ALL of the answer. Just the ones that are necessary for you in the moment!
The elements of medical mystery here were also a perfect fit for this work! With immersive and vivid descriptions rivalling the slight body-horror of What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher or the blood-magic elements of Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, Jamnia has again taken their own background in neuroscience and created a beautiful and slightly eerie delve into a world of fantasy so deeply informed by and entwined with its creator. I truly believe that the unique elements that Jamnia brings to the table and the obvious way in which their work and themselves are tied together is a large part of what makes this work so deeply compelling.
Our main character, Firuz-e Jafari, is a nonbinary refugee practitioner of blood magic in a world where blood magic must be practiced in secret due to the prejudices and implications surrounding its use. Firuz finds themselves volunteering at one of the last "free" (as in, free with their clientele in a city wary of refugees) when they discover a strange disease that causes political rifts in their new homeland, termed "the blood-bruising" for its physical effects on the body. In order to survive, Firuz must "break a deadly cycle of prejudice, untangle sociopolitical constraints, and find a fresh start for their both their blood and found family".
At the onset, you are simply a visitor to this world. The true magic of this work is watching it unravel around you, in the best way. Jamnia's use of description and dialogue are unparalleled and are much of what makes this work so very immersive. As in, I sat down and opened the book and never wanted to close it again. When Firuz is portrayed to us as a tired, stressed, overworked individual trying their best to keep everything and everyone they love afloat, I deeply felt the same. When Firuz begins to second-guess those around them as they seek out the perpetuator of the blood-bruising, I began to flip back in the book and seek out hints.
There is a fine line being walked here between making it very clear that the story has some a very personal depth to it, while also being relatable even for someone like me, a white cis woman who is in no way like Firuz, still relating to the innate nature of humanity at its best and worst.
Another aspect of this work that makes it both unique and relatable all at once is the representation throughout. Firuz is nonbinary and aromantic/asexual, and their brother is transitioning. Where Firuz is from, people greet one another with their pronouns in front of their names, for example, "they-Firuz". There are alternate pronouns that appear throughout, created for the fantasy world and the languages encompassed in it, but clear to us in their usage and intentions. This is a world in which being queer/outside of the gender binary/fluid with gender is not only present and tolerated but is treated as being common and almost expected. Not to say that there are not blips here and there, but, as I've mentioned here before, I'm in my early 20's now and I'm a little bit over the coming-of-age coming out stories and the narratives that treat queerness as a problem to be solved. I expected nothing less here, but it was still extremely refreshing to say the least.
As I said at the beginning, I absolutely adored this book and was not ready to leave the world it builds when I reached the end of the story. It is worth noting that this is a stand-alone novella set in a much larger world (stand-alone being the operative word), so though it's made clear in the book that there are more vast issues occurring outside of the scope of what is on the page, it's also not conveyed in a way that makes the reader feel as though they are missing out, and this is exactly the balance of world-building and narrative arc that a stand-alone fantasy novella would entail.
And if you do yearn to know more about Qilwa and beyond, keep an eye on author Naseem Jamnia's site for more to come in the future!
You can find your own copy at The Spiral Bookcase, my local bookstore, or directly through Naseem's author site.
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