A shocking, twisting courtroom thriller that keeps you guessing until the last page is turned.
The Victim: Jodie Wolfe, a physically flawed 16-year-old girl accuses four boys in her class of something unthinkable.
The Defendants: Four handsome teenagers from hard-working immigrant families, all with corroborating stories.
The Savior: Zara Kaleel, a former lawyer, one of London’s brightest legal minds, takes on this case. She believes her client, even though those closest to her do not.
Together, they enter the most explosive criminal trial of the year, where the only thing that matters is justice for Jodie. But this time justice comes at a devastating cost.
Goodreads
Disposition
A Mom’s Club book club choice, chosen from “Real Simple”. I love crime novels, my guilty pleasure (pretty sure I have said this a million times already); but this particular book also crosses the barriers of race, class, disability, like nothing I have read before. Can’t wait to get started!
Editorial
This is one of those great books that you start not expecting much, a fun read, but nothing really different from a million things already available on tv or print; but then suddenly it hooks you! Every single one of our book club members didn’t have high expectations, but all of us finished the book very quickly and liked it so much more than we thought we would. It leaves you guessing until the end, and based on nuances each reader picks up on, everyone will draw their individual conclusions and predictions on how it will end. This makes for a really interesting conversation!
The content brings to light very important discussions centering around rape, race, and class. The victim (Jodie Wolf) is an extremely disfigured teenager (with neurofibromatosis); the accusers are four teenage boys from hard working immigrant families. Being a mother of teenagers, my heart constantly broke for Jodie Wolf, the emotional torment that she had to encounter on a daily basis from all of those around her. She lived in a mental prison and Abdullah does an amazing job portraying Wolf’s inner thoughts and feelings.
“What they will lose are concrete things: a place in college, maybe a future job. What I have lost can’t be seen. I’ve lost my courage, my confidence, my belief that I can have a good life.”
As if the dynamic between victim and accusers wasn’t enough drama, then throw in the “heroine” Zara Kaleel a former attorney, now turned rape counselor. Yet Kaleel has her own skeletons in her closet, a strained relationship with her Muslim family and she struggles to fall in line with their strong expectations. Kaleel’s motivations and personal turmoil only further complicate the case. I must admit that at times I did not like Zara’s character, but it is refreshing and real to read a story with a heroine that is flawed and floundering.
“All her life she was told that if she worked hard and treated people well, she’d get there. No one told her that when she got there, there’d be no there there.”
The case explodes publicly crossing race and cultural lines pulling all parties to an emotionally charged fight of right vs wrong, and most importantly… What actually happened to Jodie Wolf? I thought that Abdullah did a brilliant job expressing the Muslim culture in a very candid way. And this dynamic added a lot to the story for me, and made it reach beyond a standard crime thriller.
“Oppression doesn’t spread through men with guns, or bombs on trains. Oppression spreads when women like you tell their daughters to marry a certain man, or wear a certain dress or work a certain job. It happens when women like you tell us—gently and with all the love in the world—not to peek above the parapet, instead to stay at home, to be quiet, to be kind, to be good.”
Four out of five stars for me!
Distant Bookends 