Misadventures and Mayhem - The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty (Review)

A/N: This review contains mild spoilers for The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty. This is your spoiler warning.

What screams equal rights more than an ambitious, morally-gray pirate in her 40s who supports LGBTQ+ rights and has an unwavering faith in God and defeats giant scorpions without batting an eye?

This book was a joy to read from beginning to end and I can’t wait for people to discover and like it as much as I did. The book is narrated from the perspective of Amina-al Sirafi with a scribe writing down the story as they converse about the adventures she’s had. The scribe is creating these true accounts for preserving the history of Amina’s adventures and the book is interspersed with texts from other travelers and folklore. It’s a feminist perspective from beginning to end and it comes a full circle in a very satisfying way. (I’m obviously going to leave out details to avoid spoilers!)

It tells the story of Amina, a retired pirate and smuggler known for her notorious exploits as the nakhuda of Marawati, the ship she inherited from her infamous pirate grandfather. In her 40s, she’s settled down in a small village with her family and her daughter only to get dragged back into the world of sailing when an old heiress approaches her. The old lady coerces Amina into saving her kidnapped granddaughter in return for a huge reward. So she sets out on her quest to find out more about the kidnapper which ends with her accidentally putting her old crew back together and going on a deadly adventure across the Indian Ocean. 

Her crew consists of Dalila- the Mistress of Poisons, Majed- the Master Cartographer, Tinbu- the best First Mate and Payasam- the tiny ship kitty. And each character makes you want to read more about them. They’re well written with distinct voices and personalities and I hope this book is a part of a series just because I need to know every possible detail about these characters. The world is well-developed and the author is great at bringing it alive with vivid descriptions. The historical facts incorporated into fiction were fascinating and it is quite an adventure as they travel from one port to the next.

The book has everything you’d want in a fantasy story- a found family, sword-fighting, pirates, treasure, sailing across different continents, mythical beasts, undefeatable villains and estranged ex-husband creatures (I can’t wait for you people to read about Raksh). It’s funny and wholesome while also having intense action at times with high stakes. I adored the representation of religion and how intersectional it was in terms of feminism.

The only complaint I have is that the plot meanders without achieving much at times which made me feel like the book could’ve been 50 pages shorter. Also characters or things like Magnun’s crew or the Peris (I’m assuming they’re some kind of fae) were introduced just because the villain became this indestructible being which felt like an obvious deus ex machina situation. Also the magic part of the world was rather underdeveloped and vague but I guess it makes sense since the protagonist doesn’t quite understand or care about it either. I also wish there were more scenes with Marjana (Amina’s daughter).

If this ends up being a longer series I would not be complaining. I can’t wait to read more from the author’s backlist as well.

I highly recommend this for people who like lighter fantasies with sailing adventures and people who are bored of reading coming-of-age stories and want a funny older protagonist with a mature worldview to relate to. (We all know that while sprightly teenagers might be popular main characters, the older ones with creaky joints are really the ones we all relate to.)

Here are some of the most memorable quotes that hopefully express what a romp this story was:

Women are the forgotten spouses and unnamed daughters. Wet nurses and handmaidens; thieves and harlots.

Witches. A titillating anecdote to tell your friends back home or a warning.

(This.)

We used to joke that of the three of us, I could kill you up close, Tinbu could kill you from another ship, and Dalila could kill you from a different city three days later.

(Their friendship is everything.)

"You know how I have a tendency to misjudge risk?”

She snorted. “You are an excellent judge of risk. Your problem is that you run toward it.”

"Tinbu, stop yelling at the tree. Dalila, stop stabbing the tree.” I grabbed them each by an arm as though they were wayward children. “You’ll make me regret not bringing Majed.”

We continued walking, unmolested by tree spirits.

(How can you not adore these characters?)

"Stop ogling a demon’s ass. Ogling a demon’s ass is what got you into all these troubles in the first place."

After the completely platonic bathing experience during which I never contemplated ripping off his briefs and letting him really make things up to me, Raksh vanished for several hours.

(I love how unabashed Amina al-Sirafi is about her desires.)

"Excellent time to gain a conscience about grave-robbing, al-Sirafi."

(She thinks to herself after reminiscing about all the deceased she’s robbed.)

Dalila rolled her eyes. “Do not let a moment of emotional weakness delude you further.”

“You would have mourned me for a thousand years.” I tilted my head.

“Can I ask you something else, since you have declared our undying bonds of sisterhood and amity?”

“I am going to hit you with my staff.”

(I love how violent Dalila is. It’s endearing.)

She laughed and rose to her feet. “You shall not have that, Amina al-Sirafi. Names are for tombstones. And us? We are not yet dead.”

(Dalila is a queen.)

"You are telling me that one of the most legendary gems in all of history is a glorified lota? Because of a mistranslation?”

(I mean, I agree. That seems like a fatal oversight.)

Dunya took a deep breath, perhaps trying to figure out the best way to explain ancient occult practices to an elderly ignoramus.

Oh, fuck off, you fish-brained wizard.

mysterious beach cow

You look like a fucking prawn.

You ungrateful oversized bug.

(Just Amina insulting/ describing things.)

Ah, dear sisters, I can see from the looks in your eyes that some of you know where this is going. There are certain men, even lunar aspects, who do not handle rejection with grace. So in a fit of stung male feelings, al-Dabaran decided to bewitch Bilqis’s washbasin, hoping to spy upon her bathing.

(Word. Every culture has myths about these kinds of idiots.)

You’ve got to be kidding me,” I finally replied. “This man could manifest as a beam of celestial light, and he chose to use that power to spy on a naked woman?”

“Are you surprised?”

Honestly, no. The details might have been fantastical, but strangely I bought this lunar aspect being a pervert. Men . . . useless, the vast lot of them, celestial and mortal.

(Believe-able, not gonna lie.)

A plant whose water gives an already violent human woman the ability to be more effectively violent?

“I’ll try!” And because I tend toward violence when nothing else works, I picked up a rock, charged al-Dabaran, and hurled it at his head.

(Violent pirate women are my favorite.)

"Just to be clear . . . the only reason you didn’t kill me—the only reason I am currently alive—is because you accidentally murdered your last spouse with a batch of bad beer and it left you weak?”

(Raksh and Amina have the funniest relationship dynamic and you need to read the book to experience it in full effect.)

though I was not sure which dua to choose for “successful petition of judgmental supernatural creatures"

For the love of Payasam:

But except for a ship’s cat that did not actually hunt mice (and which—in the manner of its species sensing human dislike—took a violent love of me), Tinbu had kept the Marawati in prime shape, and there was little to complain about.

Payasam was cradled in his arms, the oblivious cat clueless to the many jokes Raksh made about eating it.

I shouted and then cursed as Payasam darted between my legs, meowing loudly and threading my ankles like a besotted drunk.

"Payasam?” I said in disbelief. The cat had survived the attack on the Marawati because of course it had; it was a curse and had already returned to trying to sleep on my face.

“I take it Raksh is floating on a slow not-boat to nowhere?” Tinbu asked, stroking Payasam’s head as the cat stared adoringly at him.

Marjana lay on the deck watching a pod of leaping dolphins play in the sunlit water, while the cat Payasam sat on her back, batting the tassels of the young girl’s rather strikingly well-woven belt.

A/N: This book was such a ride and I can’t wait for you to read it. And if you don’t fall in love with Payasam as I did, we can’t be friends and I will consider it as the highest form of betrayal. On a lighter note, I hope you pick up the book at least for the giant shrimp fights.

Thank you for reading the seventh installment in my ‘Women of Words’ series where I read feminist literature by a new feminist author each month. My goal is to put out the idea that a book doesn’t always have to be dense literary fiction or non-fiction to be feminist. I hope that I can help people pick out diverse literature that they enjoy in the genres that they like.

To read the previous installment, here’s my take on Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby.