Samira Ahmed (1)

Despite following the author for a long time on Twitter, I have actually never read her books before. Internment has been on my tbr for a long time but it intimidates the hell out of me and I’m just so scared to read it. But when I saw the blurb for this one, I just knew this was my type of book and I had to read it immediately. And it was amazing.

Even though I mostly read fantasy or romance novels, I am actually very fond of books which have a lot of archeological, historical or artsy show more elements. I usually find these favorite aspects in my adventure novels, so it was actually very refreshing to see a literary/art history related mystery in a YA novel. I’ve never been to Paris but it’s a dream destination of mine, and the setting here in the book was so vivid and lush that I felt transported, but also sad that i haven’t been there already. I also liked that the author takes us to those places in Paris which are not the main tourist attractions - we only get a single mention of the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower doesn’t even get that - but we see the charm in the places which only the locals would know. And the way the author interconnected the stories of Alexandre Dumas, Eugène Delacroix and Lord Byron with the plot of this book was genius and it’s a great feeling to be exploring the lives of such great artists who have left indelible impressions on us. The writing style is equal parts endearing and poetic and beautiful, and I just found myself lost within the words - it was a mesmerizing experience that I won’t be forgetting anytime soon.

The main theme of the book is about stories - how we all have a story to tell, how the past and present and future are all connected, and an examination into who finally gets their stories told and who are lost to history. We get a very critical look into how women and their accomplishments have been forgotten or deliberately suppressed for ages now, and how it’s important to not let that happen anymore. History is always being rewritten as we go along, because we uncover new facts or alternate POVs which change the context, and it’s our responsibility to ensure that the women and marginalized people whose stories were lost get a chance to voice their truth. And all these discussions happen very organically between the characters within the novel and I thought the author did a marvelous job highlighting the importance of giving women the agency to tell their own stories.

I will not say I was completely in love with our main character Khayyam. I definitely admired her love for art history, her desire to prove herself and the earnestness with which she proceeded to bring Leila’s story to light. She is also torn between her multiple identities - Muslim, American, French, Indian - and it was fascinating to see her grow more comfortable in her own skin as the book goes on. But she is also a teenage girl who is attracted to two boys and is conflicted about whom to choose, especially because none of them are perfect - I had to actually remind myself repeatedly not to judge her through my adult gaze. Her parents are professors and I absolutely adored them, and their relationship with her. Total parental goals and these are the kind of adult figures we don’t often see in YA, so that was a nice change.

In the past, Leila is a woman of the harem who is not allowed any freedom or privacy, but she is a formidable woman who takes matters into her own hands and decides to carve her own path. It’s a story mired in tragedy but also immense strength, and every step of getting to know her was a joy. Her story also plays such an integral part in Khayyam’s character development, and I commend the author for the beautiful way she wove their narratives together.

In conclusion, this was a powerful story of two young Muslim women across centuries trying to carve their own path in life despite all the obstacles, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. If like me, you are a fan of books that combine an engaging story with historical elements, or if you are an art/literary history nerd, I think this book is perfect for you. It has an interesting mystery, flawed but relatable characters and a love of art that permeates the pages. It gave me a lot of joy while reading and I hope it does the same for you too. show less

Layla was a regular American teenager until the new Islamophobic president enacted Exclusion Laws.

Muslims are being rounded up, their books burned, and their bodies encoded with identification numbers. Neighbors are divided, and the government is going after resisters. Layla and her family are interned in the California desert along with thousands of other Muslim Americans, but she refuses to accept the circumstances of her detention, plotting to take down the system. She quickly learns that show more resistance is no joke: Two hijabi girls are beaten and dragged away screaming after standing up to the camp director. There are rumors of people being sent to black-op sites. Some guards seem sympathetic, but can they be trusted? Taking on Islamophobia and racism in a Trump-like America, Ahmed’s (Love, Hate & Other Filters, 2018) magnetic, gripping narrative, written in a deeply humane and authentic tone, is attentive to the richness and complexity of the social ills at the heart of the book. Layla grows in consciousness as she begins to understand her struggle not as an individual accident of fate, but as part of an experience of oppression she shares with millions. This work asks the question many are too afraid to confront: What will happen if xenophobia and racism are allowed to fester and grow unabated?

A reminder that even in a world filled with divisions and right-wing ideology, young people will rise up and demand equality for all. (Realistic fiction. 13-18)

-Kirkus Review show less

In a Nutshell: Excellent intent. Needed slightly better execution. Will work well for its target YA readers.

Story:

Safiya Mirza is a journalism student. As an Indian-origin scholarship student who is also a Muslim, she finds herself facing biases on a regular basis but she tries not to let them affect her. But soon, the attacks start becoming more personal. This is when she discovers the body of Jawad in an abandoned corner of a local park.
Fourteen year old Jawad, the son of Iraqi refugees,

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was a brilliant inventor However, his life changes for the worse when a teacher mistakes his homebuilt cosplay jetpack for a bomb and calls 911. This innocent invention gets Jawad arrested, labelled “Bomb Boy”, and eventually killed.
Jawad’s voice reaches out to Safiya even from the beyond. Safiya feels the need to discover the truth but whom can she trust? Is she herself safe when her school too isn’t immune to hate crimes? Will Jawad and his family get justice?

Where the book worked for me:
✔ The book begins with small one-liner definitions of ‘fact’, ‘alternative fact’, ‘truth’ and ‘lie’. Every chapter having Safiya’s narrative begins with some simple but deep statements based on the above. I loved this idea. Every single one of these entries was thought-provoking. They reminded me of the anonymous adage, “Stupidity is knowing the truth, seeing the truth but still believing the lies.”

✔ Ahmed’s writing is very poetic, though the topic is dire. Especially when she is writing about nature, she creates beautiful visuals.

✔ The book goes much beyond typical racial discrimination stories. It analyses Islamaphobia through various angles. Having characters from varied Islamic backgrounds (Arab, Indian, African) also helps build a multi-faceted analysis of this unfortunately common prejudice of recent years. The social commentary in the book, though a tad OTT especially towards the end, is excellent.

✔ The writing style reminded me a lot of “[b:A Good Girl's Guide to Murder|40916679|A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, #1)|Holly Jackson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1545494980l/40916679._SY75_.jpg|63791847]”. Safiya has a similar daredevil kind of approach as Pippa, the teen protagonist of the Holly Jackson novel. Both of them focus on research, both jump in alone where they shouldn’t be, both have a great group of supportive friends. The presentation of both the books is also similar, with them both containing an investigative journalism sort of vibe. This works for the story. (Though I must also say, Holly Jackson handles this aspect slightly better.)

✔ Jawad is a character who can’t be ignored. His heartfelt pleas to Safiya, his memories of his parents, his puzzlement at being singled out as a terrorist, his regret at a future that was never meant to be,… all show him to be a vulnerable boy whose life was cut off before it even began. His family is the best portrayed in the book, followed closely by Safiya’s parents.

✔ There are some great one-liners that will make you pause and ponder.

✔ Jawad’s murder is based on a real life murder case of 1924. I read the details of this case online and was surprised to see how well the author has transposed the historical details into this contemporary fictional plot and raised it to a whole new level by adding the elements of white supremacy, neo-Nazism, and racial discrimination.

Where the book could have worked better for me:
❌ I wasn’t a fan of the plot construction. The book has multiple narrative voices - the first person perspectives of Safiya and Jawad (speaking from beyond life), and also many third-party investigative reports such as newspaper articles, police investigations and podcasts. In addition, the story isn’t linear and goes back and forth through 2021 to 2023. The abrupt changes between these was confusing.

❌ The book is pretty slow-paced in the first half.

❌ The identity of the murderer will not leave most adult readers surprised, it is so predictable! I guess only those teens/YAs who don’t read many thrillers will be caught unawares at the big reveal.

Minor spoilers below:

⚠ Other than Safiya’s friend Rachel (who is a white Jew), there’s no good ‘white’ character in the story (as far as I could make out. The race of some characters wasn’t specified.) Seems like a kind of reverse discrimination.
⚠ Safiya discovers Jawad’s body as he (His ghost? His soul?) is communicating the location to her. So my query is, if Jawad could tell Safiya where to find his corpse, why could he also not tell her who killed him or how it happened? Especially when he knew that she was so close to danger? This was too big a loophole for me and the main reason I couldn’t go higher in my rating.

All in all, despite my issues with the writing style, the book still offered an insightful reading experience. This was my first book by this author but I feel like exploring more of her works. Recommended to Young Adults who want to read about a serious contemporary issue. Older readers can also give this a try but not as a crime thriller. More as a social drama.

4.25 stars.

My thanks to Little, Brown Book Group UK and NetGalley for the DRC of “Hollow Fires”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

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A note not directly related to the book:
One action that the culprit in the book uses to scare the students is drawing the Swastika on the school wall. The students immediately recognise it as a Nazi symbol and are horrified. I just want to use this chance to let you know, there are two variants of the swastika. (I am a bit disappointed that the author didn’t mention this in her author’s note.)

One of the swastikas, drawn in a square-like pattern with right-facing arms, is an ancient sacred symbol in Indic religions - Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism. There’s nothing Nazi or discriminative about it. The word “swastika” is Sanskrit for “conducive to well-being” and it is a symbol for prosperity and good luck.

The other symbol, drawn in a diamond sort of shape, is the Nazi swastika, called a “Hakenkreuz” - “hooked cross” in German. Ancient Indian artefacts once owned by Aryan nomads were found to feature the swastika, and hence Hitler adopted the symbol for his party to exert the dominance of the so-called Aryan heritage.

If you see a swastika, make sure you know which one has been drawn before shaming the person for Nazi ideologies. I am writing this because I have seen this happen multiple times on social media. Don’t jump to conclusions on half-baked information.

For your reference, here are the two swastikas.


Hope this helps!

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Hollow Fires is a YA mystery/thriller perfect for fans of Holly Jackson, Diana Urban, and Karen McManus. And unlike the previous authors I’ve mentioned, it also has a great deal of important social commentary, particularly about racism and Islamophobia. The story follows a senior in high school named Safiya who seems to feel like she is being haunted by the ghost of a missing 14 year old boy named Jawad. Jawad’s disappearance (and subsequent murder) is largely ignored or misunderstood by show more both the public and the police, leading Safiya to take things into her own hands. As hate crimes continue to plague both Jawad’s family and Safiya’s school, Safiya learns that she may be closer to solving the case that she would prefer.

I thought that this was a great book for the young adult audience that it was intended for as long as the readers haven’t many thrillers as the villain is very predictable. So predictable in fact that I kept hoping I was wrong and that the author had pulled one over on me, but alas. The style of writing was enjoyable and kept my attention throughout. The story is not told in a linear fashion, however, so make sure to pay attention to the dates at the top of each chapter. I made the mistake of not reading them at first (because I’m lazy) and had to go back early on to get my events straight.

I will say that I found this book very triggering, particularly as a woman of color. Basically every. single. page. has an instance of someone (youth and adults alike) being absolutely disgusting. It is chock-full of graphic racism, islamophobia, and white nationalism. These are important topics to be discussed, particularly with the impressionable youth who can easily be manipulated and groomed into white nationalism online, but can definitely be overwhelming for someone who has repeatedly seen this in their everyday lives. I would highly advise that anyone who wants to read this check out the trigger warnings listed above.

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Crossposted on my blog.

For a list of warnings, tropes, and representation for this book, check out its page on BookTriggerWarnings.com.

Thank you TBR Beyond Tours and NetGalley for providing me with a complimentary book in exchange for an honest review. show less