This goes too engrossing than I expected. Loving the quietude secretive tone in its storytelling and how the plot unfolds and intertwining its two timelines in a surreal and immersive backdrop; in between a tragic love story, of revenge, lust and hatred to a tale of grief, loneliness and a haunting mystery of an isolated boardinghouse that was once known as a sprawling mansion high on a clifftop above Durban owned by the grandest Akbar Ali Khan.

From mysterious pages of a diary to a spooky encounter with your own dead twin sister, a grieving djinn begins to stir from its long sleep after teenage Sana curiously unlocking the unattended room on the house deserted east wing. Sana’s days turned to an absolute eagerness and a wonder— of wanting to untangle the secret of the mansion and to heal her own mind and dear self from her provoking dead twin sister who keeps on luring her with a suicidal thought. I like the brimming suspense and tension in between its execution also the way it was plotted— an intense chapters from eight decades ago of Meena and Akbar to the present-day narrative of Sana and the boardinghouse tenants that goes quite playful and too peculiar at times.

The historical hue in Akbar’s narrative was appealingly narrated with its enthralling backstory and grief exploration that highlighted on social and economic change, of immigrants issue with a peek into the traditional household of matriarchy and caste discrimination that unraveled a tragedy that has led to the abandonment of the grandiose Akbar Manzil. I love how the revelation at the end linking a gripping generational perspective with a riveting dynamic to the characters (as well the mansion itself), was hoping to get more insight on the djinn as I find his appearance as too trivial compared to how he gets a spotlight on the title but I digress in the end anyway. It wrapped up too well, bit heart-wrenching yet so tightly seductive overall.

Thank you Times Reads for the gifted review copy!