readwithdiana's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Rape, and Racism
minimicropup's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Visceral, contemplative, powerful.
We follow our MC (a former barrister turned sexual assault centre legal advisor) as they navigate their career change and personal life. We get added perspectives from a teen with neurofibromatosis who reveals they were gang raped at a party, and from the four teens accused of the gang rape.
🇬🇧 Set in London, UK
🐺🐕 Growls, Howls, and Tail Wags:
👍 Cinematic writing style with great dialogue. I could effortlessly imagine the different voices and tones and see the changes in body language and reactions.
👌 All of these characters are morally grey and imperfect. They each have their own traumas and prejudice to navigate, and don't alway make wise decisions. It made this story feel all the more real.
👌 All of these characters are morally grey and imperfect. They each have their own traumas and prejudice to navigate, and don't alway make wise decisions. It made this story feel all the more real.
👌 The suspense is driven by actions and observations, which worked really well for such a heavy topic. Since we aren't deep in anyones mind other than Zara's, there is mystery surrounding the stated intentions and behaviours of others. We are figuring it all out alongside Zara with a bit more knowledge than she has given the fly-on-the-wall perspectives we gain.
👌 Very show, not tell, so be in the mental space to digest it and check those content warnings. We are shown a believable account of how and why one may inaccurately report a sexual crime, and also how one could place themselves in a situation with high likelihood of a sexual crime occurring, without victim blaming or shaming. The same goes for how we are presented with the experience of prejudice both within and outside of Muslim communities and it hits hard, because it's shown to us as a human experience, not just a Muslim or female one.
😢 A unique exploration of theme and commentary. Particularly around a terrible sort of ableism - the ability to be a target of sexual crimes. The commentary isn't misandrous or misogynist exclusively, and we get both female and male perspectives. As the reader I felt like a jury member going back and forth about who to believe and why (with the guilt and anxiety about the consequences of believing incorrectly!).
👍 I struggle with legal thrillers that have a lot of behind-the-scenes courtroom elements, but this story managed to show the intricacies of the process without being boring or drawn out. We focus mostly on the witness and expert testimonies and spend time outside the court proceedings to see the effects of the case on the characters.
🤯 That double twist 😮
👍 I struggle with legal thrillers that have a lot of behind-the-scenes courtroom elements, but this story managed to show the intricacies of the process without being boring or drawn out. We focus mostly on the witness and expert testimonies and spend time outside the court proceedings to see the effects of the case on the characters.
🤯 That double twist 😮
Mood Reading Match Up:
- Gritty legal thriller from the point of view of the accused, accuser, and advocate
- Social commentary about judgement, prejudice, law, religion, sexual violence, bias, and classism/poverty
- Who-is-telling-the-truth dark mystery involving rape accusation
- Realistic contemporary fiction around the Muslim experience in the UK, toxic family, and all the complexities of prosecuting and proving sexual crimes
Content Heads-Up: Possible false accusation. Sexual assault, rape (graphic; described, recalled). Misogyny. Body shaming. Racism. Islamophobia. Religious abuse. Mob mentality and murder. Verbal/mental abuse (family). Toxic masculinity.
Format: Paperback
Content Warnings
Graphic: Islamophobia, Rape, Religious bigotry, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, and Sexual content
Minor: Ableism
carissa230's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Zara is a victim's advocate. She has recently gotten the case of Jodie a 16-year old rape victim. This is a particularly tricky case for Zara.
Problem 1 The defendants are handsome, well-connected, teenagers. They're also Muslim and a part of the community that her family is a part of.
Problem 2 the victim isn't the typical beautiful or even average-looking female. She has facial deformities and physical deformities that make people less likely to believe her to be the victim of this type of crime.
It doesn't help that Jodie keeps slightly changing the facts and hiding things that she feels "make her look bad". Zara believes her and is willing to take the anger of her family and community to see justice served.
This is a hard read. Zara is going through a lot herself. There are expectations placed on the females in the Muslim religion that she feels she doesn't want to live up to. Her family treats her extremely poorly.
Jodie is living with physical flaws that would make anyone's life more difficult. Her mother treats her like a pariah. Like her simple birth made her mother's life go completely wrong.
The teenage boys are being led by a rich boy who probably doesn't have anything to worry about in life. They can't leave his friend circle or face problems of their own. Yet the others in the group aren't from rich families and their lives will be harder. Sometimes following the wrong person can make you life more difficult than you would have ever thought.
Problem 1 The defendants are handsome, well-connected, teenagers. They're also Muslim and a part of the community that her family is a part of.
Problem 2 the victim isn't the typical beautiful or even average-looking female. She has facial deformities and physical deformities that make people less likely to believe her to be the victim of this type of crime.
It doesn't help that Jodie keeps slightly changing the facts and hiding things that she feels "make her look bad". Zara believes her and is willing to take the anger of her family and community to see justice served.
This is a hard read. Zara is going through a lot herself. There are expectations placed on the females in the Muslim religion that she feels she doesn't want to live up to. Her family treats her extremely poorly.
Jodie is living with physical flaws that would make anyone's life more difficult. Her mother treats her like a pariah. Like her simple birth made her mother's life go completely wrong.
The teenage boys are being led by a rich boy who probably doesn't have anything to worry about in life. They can't leave his friend circle or face problems of their own. Yet the others in the group aren't from rich families and their lives will be harder. Sometimes following the wrong person can make you life more difficult than you would have ever thought.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape and Violence
cayleigh's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I've read other books that have helped me understand Islam from a more intellectual perspective, but this book showed me what it feels like to be Muslim in the Western world. This raised questions of privilege, intersectionality, loyalty, faith, and so much more. The ending was so vague, but I think that it was effective because at the end of the day, it didn't matter what the outcome of the case was, the damage had been done, to Jodie, to Zara, to the boys, and to the Muslim community.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Islamophobia, Rape, and Misogyny
megelizabeth's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
4.0
This book is pretty much pure pain. It's not one to go into lightly, and it has a lot of content warnings, which I would recommend checking even more so than usual. It's definitely one that's going to stay on my mind.
It's also extremely well-written and tightly-plotted, with a jaw-dropping ending that will continue to haunt me. There's lots of great commentary on many issues, with it never feeling like there are too many topics raised and not enough attention given to each. It took me a while to warm to our protagonist, Zara, but I did come to appreciate her growth, and I absolutely adored her friendship with Safran and, for me, this friendship also plays a really important role thematically in the story.
The main thing I didn't love about this book is more of a me problem than a book problem, as I think it's fairly typical of legal/courtroom thrillers and is one of the reasons I don't read too many of them; it's that there's a big break in time between the beginning of the book and the court scenes, and it felt, to me, as if there was undoubtedly lots we were missing out on. That was probably entirely intentional, and as I've already said, typical of the genre, but it's just something that doesn't tend to work too well for me personally. The only other thing I didn't like and which threw me out of the story a bit was that there's a really odd conversation justifying physical abuse of children, which was so out-of-keeping with the book as a whole which had some really great conversations around abuse, trauma, and difficult familial relationships; it just didn't make sense to me at all why this throwaway conversation should be included.
It's also extremely well-written and tightly-plotted, with a jaw-dropping ending that will continue to haunt me. There's lots of great commentary on many issues, with it never feeling like there are too many topics raised and not enough attention given to each. It took me a while to warm to our protagonist, Zara, but I did come to appreciate her growth, and I absolutely adored her friendship with Safran and, for me, this friendship also plays a really important role thematically in the story.
The main thing I didn't love about this book is more of a me problem than a book problem, as I think it's fairly typical of legal/courtroom thrillers and is one of the reasons I don't read too many of them; it's that there's a big break in time between the beginning of the book and the court scenes, and it felt, to me, as if there was undoubtedly lots we were missing out on. That was probably entirely intentional, and as I've already said, typical of the genre, but it's just something that doesn't tend to work too well for me personally. The only other thing I didn't like and which threw me out of the story a bit was that there's a really odd conversation justifying physical abuse of children, which was so out-of-keeping with the book as a whole which had some really great conversations around abuse, trauma, and difficult familial relationships; it just didn't make sense to me at all why this throwaway conversation should be included.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Child death, Drug abuse, Racism, Ableism, Violence, Bullying, Rape, Child abuse, Racial slurs, and Death
Moderate: Classism, Animal death, Alcoholism, and Death of parent
clairebonney's review against another edition
dark
tense
slow-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Murder, Addiction, Body shaming, Animal cruelty, Drug use, Hate crime, and Racial slurs
Animal cruelty/animal death relates to a swan in chapter 3. The dog in the novel remains unharmed.lindsayreads_theworld's review
challenging
emotional
inspiring
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape
emmelly's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape and Sexual assault
tracey21k's review against another edition
challenging
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I had never heard of Kia Abdullah till I heard Andrea Mara recommend her books and I immediately downloaded this one as they sounded fascinating. I was not disappointed!
Zara Kaleel is a hotshot London lawyer from a Muslim background, who leaves the rat-race to work as an advocate for women who have been sexually assaulted. Her family and friends struggle to understand her life choices, and it is clear that her motivations are complex.
She takes on a case in which Jodie, a white girl with a physical disability, accuses four Muslim boys of rape, raising various challenges for both Zara and us as readers, as Abdullah skilfully leads us through this volatile and nuanced scenario.
Both the set-up and the court case, in which Zara is a technically an observer, there only to support Jodie, but of course far more than that due to her law background, are incredibly gripping, and I found the whole story tense and compelling.
I would have one tiny quibble with the ending, but it was minor - I just felt there was something I thought someone as sharp as Zara would not have missed - and didn't detract from my enjoyment of the novel as a whole. I'd highly recommend if you like courtroom/crime thrillers, and I've the next in the series on order with the library!
NB Content warning - graphic descriptions of sexual violence.
Zara Kaleel is a hotshot London lawyer from a Muslim background, who leaves the rat-race to work as an advocate for women who have been sexually assaulted. Her family and friends struggle to understand her life choices, and it is clear that her motivations are complex.
She takes on a case in which Jodie, a white girl with a physical disability, accuses four Muslim boys of rape, raising various challenges for both Zara and us as readers, as Abdullah skilfully leads us through this volatile and nuanced scenario.
Both the set-up and the court case, in which Zara is a technically an observer, there only to support Jodie, but of course far more than that due to her law background, are incredibly gripping, and I found the whole story tense and compelling.
I would have one tiny quibble with the ending, but it was minor - I just felt there was something I thought someone as sharp as Zara would not have missed - and didn't detract from my enjoyment of the novel as a whole. I'd highly recommend if you like courtroom/crime thrillers, and I've the next in the series on order with the library!
NB Content warning - graphic descriptions of sexual violence.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape and Sexual assault
book_reader_lover's review
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
A legal/crime thriller. A girl with a disability accuses 4 Muslim boys of rape. Zara, a Muslim lawyer turned sex advocate, helps her through the case.
The first chapter deals with the rape, then the rest of the book deals with the trial. The book was just meh to me. Not a whole lot of substance to it. We go from the rape to the trial, with the story of Zara and her struggles spread out through it.
I received this book through a Goodreads Giveaway for my honest opinion. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
#Goodreads
#GoodreadsGiveaway
#StMartinsPress
The first chapter deals with the rape, then the rest of the book deals with the trial. The book was just meh to me. Not a whole lot of substance to it. We go from the rape to the trial, with the story of Zara and her struggles spread out through it.
I received this book through a Goodreads Giveaway for my honest opinion. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
#Goodreads
#GoodreadsGiveaway
#StMartinsPress
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape
Moderate: Hate crime and Racism