meganbmoore | Heat Stroke by Rachel Caine (Reply)

Dead as a human but reborn as a djinn because of David, the first chunk of the second Weather Warden book focuses on Jo’s learning just what it is to be a djinn, and accustoming herself to her new lifestyle. Except that apparently that whole "turning a dying human into a djinn" thing is a big bad no-no, and Jonathan, the oldest djinn and leader of the free djinn, has a few words to say about that. Specifically of the "What the hell were you thinking?" variety. Especially since the only way for David to turn Jo into a djinn was to give her half his power.

Except soon things go Very Very Bad when the man Jo is sent to for training betrays her, resulting in Jo and David becoming slaves to a sadistic, money hungry woman and her extremely disturbed stepson. Which is as skeevy as it sounds, but handled pretty well. I haven’t read much fantasy dealing with djinn(I did read a few of the "modern woman gets hot genie and is the first one to ever want him for more than sex" paranormal romances when they were big a few years back, but I’m not sure that counts) sot his was actually fairly new territory, and addressed an important part of the djinn myth: you have the all powerful beings who have to be controlled somehow…but what’s that like from their perspective?

As some of you know, one of my big fantasy hot buttons is the "female heroine is raped to show the hardships/dangers of the lifestyle." My problem with the trope, however, is not the rape itself, but the fact that it’s used as an automatic answer for female angst, and that it’s something treated as being specific to females, a threat only females face, and as an insta-angst shortcut. Here, the entire system of djinn servitude, even by the kindest and most caring of masters, is viewed as being rape by the djinn, regardless of gender or abuse of power. It’s a removal of free will that leaves the djinn completely at the mercy of their owner, including having their appearance and personality influenced by the master. In other words, "rape" is not a female-specific shortcut here, but an allegory for a crime committed against an entire race.

This, of course, raised plenty or moral problems for Jo herself, and the entire system she once worked for, which is partly built around using djinn to help the Wardens with their jobs. In fact, a central part of the plot of the first book was Jo’s trying to get a djinn to pass her demon mark on to. It does, however, cause a degree of discomfort with the last few pages, as Jo, in possession of David’s bottle, doesn’t seem to have any problems giving him orders. Yes, they’re essentially requests in the form of a statement, and things that he would have done with no compulsion. But with all the attention given to how even the most careless and small of orders are a removal of freewill throughout the book, it was enough to make me wonder if Jo and David had been paying attention to what they spent 2/3 of the book going through.

Also, I must wonder about David and Jonathan. In the first book, David mentioned he had a brother (I think, though, that he named him Joseph at the time) and the event that turned Jonathan into a djinn involved David’s dead body. Which makes me wonder if Jonathan did exactly what he tore into David for and turned David into a djinn by giving him half of his own power at one point.