Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Hollow Fires by Samira Ahmed

20 reviews

nafsaila's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

3.5

Hollow Fires is a fast paced mystery filled with social commentary. The main character Safiya is part of her high school newspaper that is suddenly hacked following an article published by her. The backlash pushes Safiya into a whirl wind investigation that put her and her close friends in danger. In trying to solve the who done it in a murder and multiple hate speech incidents, not only will they learn about the criminals but also how far they are willing to go to stop it.    

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Hate crime, Violence, and Islamophobia

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

xovonniexo's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Islamophobia, Kidnapping, Murder, and Gaslighting

aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

4.0

Really enjoyed it. This made me tear up a little towards the end a few times. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Death, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Murder, and Gaslighting

stephanielee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Such a great book. Check the content warnings but I loved how the author pulled on real life events (names, locations, etc were changed) to really pull you in to how this is happening now. Still. Every day for black, brown and Indigenous folx. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, Gaslighting, and Classism

Moderate: Child death, Misogyny, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Car accident and War

corriejn's review

dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

YA novel about a teen in Chicago dealing with racist and Islamophobic incidents in her community. A bit true crime/mystery, a bit of teen romance, peer drama, struggles at school, etc., and lots of contextualizing situations within both real and fictionalized events in the rise of open right wing and xenophobic sentiments in the U.S. and social media. Some points made a bit "on the nose" but didn't feel too out of place for the genre.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Classism

Moderate: Violence, Police brutality, Stalking, and Gaslighting

Minor: Drug use, Antisemitism, and Injury/Injury detail

library_kb's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

This YA thriller/mystery was a slower start for me, but I finished the last 50% in one sitting. It is a hard story to read because you can see how each and every part of it could happen in real life--and every bit of it is so tragic, the way that racism and Islamophobia shows up in large ways and in everyday dismissals of real concerns. So much of it can be connected to current events that it is hard to believe that it has been in production since 2019, which makes it even more tragic that it feels so familiar rather than a story tied to a specific time period. Highly recommend for 8th grade and up as long as students are prepared to confront the tough topics inside. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Islamophobia, Murder, and Gaslighting

Minor: Hate crime, Misogyny, and Kidnapping

winglesswarrior's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, Gaslighting, and Classism

kshertz's review against another edition

challenging reflective sad tense medium-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? No

4.75

This author is exceptional. I read internment a while ago and this author just cuts right to the heart of all that’s wrong in America today, particularly when people who are not born in this country come here. I had no idea this was in any way based on a true story and it broke my heart. I wanted to believe high school students weren’t capable of this level of bigotry but clearly all white people are in the systematic racism. It’s so engrained. Read this book. It is so special and a voice we all need to hear. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Death, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, and Deportation

theoceanrose's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

the_wistful_word_witch's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective 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

5.0

Hollow Fires has me so conflicted!!! I've written this review over and over again, trying to find just the right words to do this book, this story, justice. I definitely recommend checking the trigger warnings, which I'm including here, so you don't have to risk seeing any potential spoilers further down in the review. 

Trigger Warnings:
Islamophobia
Institutionalized racism Patriarchy
Misogyny
Murder
Domestic terrorism 
White supremacy
Racist slurs
Police prejudice/disdain/incompetence

**POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD** 

On the one hand, I love this book because Samira Ahmed isn't pulling her punches at all in this SCATHING, much-deserved commentary of the incredibly racist systems and people in the US, and emboldened by recent history. It's so well written, giving the reader an intimate look at what it feels like to be a Muslim living in 2022 USA, balancing the joy of experiences that almost everyone can relate to - having your crush crush on you, sharing moments of love with family members and friends - with the unique feelings of fear, anger, sadness, frustration, etc. that only comes from being within the specific demographic in which the two main characters - Safiya and Jawad - live(d) their lives. Ms Ahmed also brilliantly balances all of this against the chilling background of a murderous mystery and ghost story. 

But on the other hand, the story within the story ripped through my heart and had me crying in places. As a parent, I was hit especially hard, trying to fathom how the parents in this amazingly written, haunting, achingly sad story would manage to survive, much less thrive, after events like those in the book. Plus, the reactions from a lot of the white people depicted were utterly disgusting - like literally made my lip curl and anger flush my chest at times. Because while this is technically a work of fiction, it's based on real events from the 1920s, and a lot of us know that scenarios like these play out in real life all the time, even now, especially when you're BIPOC...

Much like The Taking of Jake Livingston, Hollow Fires is a dark and complex ghost story about a young Iraqi boy who gets profiled, bullied - even by his own teachers - and eventually murdered for misconceptions based on the color of his skin and his heritage.

Safiya, an aspiring investigative journalist, is also dealing with racists at her school, as well as her horribly prejudiced principal. They're all out to take her down a notch because she's a Brown scholarship kid who points out the blatant aspects of white supremacy hiding in the open at her fancy prep school. She's also being haunted by Jawad's ghost, as they share a connection that even Safiya barely remembers. But she's not going to let threats from the racists or from her principal stop her because she's hot on their trail, and on the trail of something much, much darker that could very well be her own undoing... 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Death, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Gaslighting, and Classism

Minor: Antisemitism