The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years is a gothic novel by South African author Shubnum Khan. The story follows a girl, Sana, whose father takes her to live in what used to be a mansion, but is now a dilapidated house haunted by the past. The novel is more like magical realism than fantastical (or a horror) with the titular djinn being mostly just an observer who maintains the strong atmosphere of sadness and Sana's haunting being something that might not even be real. The book manages to set an incredible atmosphere, both as it tells a story in the present - with the house occupied by a bunch of older Indian Muslim residents all with various forms of heartbreak/trauma - and the past, as the story reveals what happened in the house that has haunted it all this time.
It's a story that is at times heartwrenching and sad but is ultimately hopeful, as Sana reads about the love and tragedy of the past and sees the heartbroken hearts of her neighbors and yet manages in the end to be captivated by the love she's read and finds some way forward. I'm not usually a person who loves reading bits that are based upon description to set atmosphere, but this one really worked, and the characters in both timelines work really well, as does the love between them and the traumas that many characters struggle with. The result is a really good novel that I would definitely recommend.
