Reviews with content warning for Violence - Best of Friends

Best of Friends is a novel of two halves. In the first half best friends Zahra and Maryam are 14 year olds living in Karachi. They were well-depicted both as teenage girls and as individuals characters, and I felt myself transported to their world. They shared typical teenage interests and experiences - boys, changing bodies, school and music - but their different class backgrounds contributed to different experiences and expectations. I appreciated the way Pakistani history at this time featured in the plot - particularly the belief and hope the election of Benazir Bhutto provided to teenage girls. The pivotal scene in this section, where a spontaneous decision put the girls in danger, was especially memorable. As an adult reader I knew the decision was a bad one but I could easily understand why it was made. Their fear and sense of helplessness as they realised their mistake was palpable, and sadly relatable.

The second part of the book occurs in Britain thirty years later. Both Zahra and Maryam have influential careers which see them interacting with the government, although their goals are very different. To me the strength of this section was not the portrayal of the women or their friendship, which often seemed a matter of history and habit more than genuine current connection. I felt there was a little too much telling instead of showing. I found the depictions of the behind-the-scenes machinations of the British political system, the way money was used to attempt to buy influence, and the use and abuse of social media to be more compelling, especially when it was combined with issues like race, Islamophobia, and immigration, and the impacts on one individual’s life was highlighted.

Overall I don’t think this is Shamsie’s strongest novel but I still enjoyed it, even if the aspects I enjoyed and found strongest differed in each section.

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