Zara Kaleel is a brilliant lawyer and a Muslim. Being a traditional Muslim woman didn’t work for her. She gave up her arranged marriage and her brilliant career as a barrister to work as an advisor at a center for victims of assault. She is estranged from her family and finds ways to cope with her inner tension with pills and unsuitable men.
Jodie Wolfe is sixteen. She lives with her alcoholic mother. Her father disappeared long ago and worse she has a facial deformity caused by neurofibromatosis. Jodie has few friends. When she accuses four popular Muslim boys of rape no one believes her except Zara.
This is a hard-hitting thriller. Because Jodie is white and the boys are Muslim the community splits along racial lines and it gets ugly. Zara also has to contend with prejudice. The community is enraged that a Muslim woman would defend a white girl against the boys of her own race.
The story is told from multiple points of view. As we hear the stories of Jodie and the boys each side seems plausible. Who do you believe? The ending is shocking and something you won’t guess.
The book is well written. It could have turned into a political polemic, but the author avoided that trap. The story is sensitively told and will make you questions your beliefs about how safe you are in society.
I received this book from Net Galley for this review.
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