Review: Tribal Affairs by Matt Dallmann

About:

Dahlia, a centuries old genie, lies hopelessly trapped in a damaged golden locket charm attached to an ankle bracelet. Its owner, sixteen-year-old Liana, wears it for the first time during her father Jamison’s opening night illusion spectacular. Not only does its presence cause Jamison to folly his performance, but it also starts a chain of bizarre events that lead to a showdown with Dahlia’s mortal enemy, Stefan, and an unsuspecting romance between Liana and his son. 

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My Thoughts:

I found Tribal Affairs by Matt Dallmann to be a rather surprising read. It was very different from what I’d been expecting. It had an attention-grabbing premise and the genie mythology was well described. I liked how we got the story from the genie Dahlia’s perspective- which was very unique since she was trapped in a locket.  I was interested in the mystery of Dahlia’s past, and learning how she ended up trapped in the locket in the first place. Liana and Taffi had a different and sometimes amusing relationship, but sometimes they seemed more like siblings than love interests.

The story was filled with vivid imagery, and often times were quite jocular. The dialogue was engaging, but there wasn’t much character development. Also at some points in the story I was completely lost as to what was going one. Like there was this scene where there were headless camels running around and causing havoc. I’m still scratching my head over that one.

On a whole this was an original, clean fantasy.

I received a copy of this novel for free. I was not required to post a positive and all views and opinions are my own.

Reviewed by Nicki

Meet the author:

Matt Dallmann has a background in acting and holds a BFA from Marymount Manhattan College in New York City. His films and screenplays have been featured at film festivals across the United States including Cinequest, Big Apple Film Festival, Seattle’s True Independent Film Festival, DragonCon and Zero Independent Film Festival. His piano compositions have been published for commercial use and he is a member of ASCAP. Matt is also the Co-Founder and Vice President of the boutique medical billing firm VGA Billing Services, Inc. in New York City. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and two daughters. ​

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